Replacing the hard drive

[tseavoy]

Hi again,
The new hard drive comes tomorrow. Even though I have done this before, I would like some advice.
What I want to do is to mount the new hard drive in the spare slot in the computer, hook up the spare connector on the drive ribbon cable to it , clone the old drive to the new drive, then remove the old drive and put the new drive in the place the old drive was.
I've read a lot on this topic on the internet, but have not found a good description on how to do this. I have xxcopy on my computer and today I also downloaded xxclone.
Maybe I was more astute when I did this about 5 years ago.

Tom on Marrowstone

Some day I HAVE to clean out the shop.

[crokett]

I believe gedit will do what you want. Google it- it is a free partition editor. You can download a bootable CD image.

[radhak]

David, gedit is an editor; he needs a drive cloner.


Tom, forget xxcopy; xxclone is the way to go. And it's way too easy and simple to need any guidance. Once you attach your new drive just the way you said, you'd run xxclone and pick the options you want. It'll surprise you with it's ease of use.

[Tom Slick]

I new to the backup or cloning idea other than having key files in 2 places, usually on a cd/dvd. Can you guys explain the benefits of cloning except when installing a replacement drive?

[radhak]

I new to the backup or cloning idea other than having key files in 2 places, usually on a cd/dvd. Can you guys explain the benefits of cloning except when installing a replacement drive?

Cloning refers to a 'backup' for a special purpose - for the replacement drive. But it could be a drive replacing the old one in a planned fashion, or it could be a plan-for-a-contingency replacement drive. ie, you'd clone your drive today (and maybe overwrite it every month) just in case your main drive crashed; in which case you'd just remove that damaged drive, pop in the replacement drive, and boot as usual - with your machine looking exactly as it did when cloned.

So cloning is just backing up your drive fully, with some more power. Obviously it will take far more time, and has to be verified time-and-again as a workable/bootable copy.

[crokett]

radhak, I thought gedit did cloning also. I thought I used it once to do that. I could be wrong though.

[Bill Stock]

Hi again,
The new hard drive comes tomorrow. Even though I have done this before, I would like some advice.

Tom on Marrowstone

Assuming it's a SeaCrate, they offer free migration software (cloning) here:

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...00dd04090aRCRD

I don't know if WD offers something similar, I would not be surprised.

[rjwaldren]

Tom, it seems like you said this was a fairly old PC, running W98. Am I mistaken? If that's the case you may need to use the Manufacturers disc to install a compatibility driver to allow the BIOS to access the new drive correctly. It's not common anymore, but it was quite a hassle a few years back. You should also make sure the BIOS is as current as can be.

If you bought a retail boxed drive it should have a disc containing any drivers you'll need and most likely a cloning tool along with instructions to migrate from the old drive. If it's not retail boxed, check the manufacturers site, they should have it all available for download.

[tseavoy]

thanks!
One more question: When I put the new drive in to be copied, should I put the jumper to be the slave drive?

[sd]

radhak, I thought gedit did cloning also. I thought I used it once to do that. I could be wrong though.

You're probably thinking of GParted.

[rjwaldren]

On an older system, most likely yes until after the clone. Make sure that your original drive is Master and not Single Master. Or you can use the other channel unless your CDROM is using it up.