13-07-2005 20:10									#1
	Computer upgrade; how to swap hard drives Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

I'm in the middle of a computer upgrade and want to swap hard drives to a bigger capacity while still keeping WinXP, my current programs and registry, and resized partititions (C for OS, D for data, and E for applications). How is this done? Do I need to use Norton Ghost or Partition Magic, or are there better, cheaper tools? Do these tools work with Linux partitions?

Last edited by DanS on 13-07-2005 at 20:30

	13-07-2005 21:05									#2
	Got spare money?

why not just add-on the second HD?

	13-07-2005 21:06									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

I seriously recommend a clean install on a new HD. Especially if you are getting a new MoBo.

	13-07-2005 21:11									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by SpencerH why not just add-on the second HD?

My partitions are proliferating and were mis-sized to begin with. Out of control. Also, my HD is rather old, so I want to refresh the hardware.

	13-07-2005 21:13									#5
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Spaced Cowboy I seriously recommend a clean install on a new HD. Especially if you are getting a new MoBo.

Your recommendation is a good one, which I will decline at this time. My registry took a good deal of time to put together and I would like to keep it intact. I have swapped mobos (and back) before on this registry, so I am comfortable with the process.

On the other hand, I'm going with a dual core CPU, so I will be upgrading the OS soon... Hmmm...

	13-07-2005 22:23									#6
	Inflate your Upload Space

Damn, that was expensive. Gonna give me an ulcer. All told, this upgrade set me back $1,600.

	13-07-2005 22:37									#7
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

quote: Originally posted by DanS Damn, that was expensive. Gonna give me an ulcer. All told, this upgrade set me back $1,600.

$1600! Is this beast a Crey or something?

	13-07-2005 22:49									#8
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Well, I got a dual-core CPU, 1 GB DDR2 800 memory, a $300 video card, a nice motherboard, a 300 GB hard drive, a nice black aluminum case and power supply, a DVD reader/writer...

Things just added up. I use the computer a lot, so the spending is justified, but damn...

Last edited by DanS on 13-07-2005 at 23:00

	14-07-2005 00:36									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Intel...

	14-07-2005 00:39									#10
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

It would have been nearly as expensive if I went AMD.

	14-07-2005 01:27									#11
	Remove this text

Your best bet given your parameters is probably ghost. Then combine with Partition magic to resize your partitions after they are copied. Both tools work with linux partitions.

	14-07-2005 01:33									#12
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

What video card, DanS?

And I wonder what sort of work do you do with that processing power, or is it just to feel nice?

	14-07-2005 01:35									#13
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Garth: Thanks!

Solver: The ATI 800 XL 256 MB. The processing power is to do HDTV decoding and deinterlacing. The dual core is to do that stuff without hiccups while other stuff is running.

	14-07-2005 02:01									#14
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Wow, 1,600$ sounds like a whole new computer (and a good one at that) Here's hoping your new comp will last you a great long time

	14-07-2005 02:04									#15
	Remove this text

Yes, it really is a whole new computer, but it will be done in steps as an upgrade.

My current computer is a Celeron 500, so as you can see, I used it a rather long time.

	14-07-2005 02:07									#16
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Any particular reason why you want the 800 XL instead of Nvidia's GeForce 7800?

	14-07-2005 02:09									#17
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Yes, scaling of video overlays is better on the ATIs. Or at least it was a year or two ago. This is not important for the vast majority of people, of course.

	14-07-2005 02:12									#18
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

NVidia drivers, though, have separate controls for video overlay options, do ATIs have them? I don't have that much experience with new ATI card drivers.

	14-07-2005 02:14									#19
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I use other tools to control the overlay in any event, so it doesn't matter to me. That said, I believe ATI has had those controls for quite a few years, even though the ATI drivers tend to suck.

Last edited by DanS on 14-07-2005 at 02:21

	14-07-2005 03:18									#20
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by DanS Yes, it really is a whole new computer, but it will be done in steps as an upgrade. My current computer is a Celeron 500, so as you can see, I used it a rather long time.

Wow, that's some upgrade!!!

Go for a clean install, I know it's pain - just did one myself - but it is better.

Hate it when it takes weeks to (re)set all the little tweaks you make on a system and that you've forgotten.

	14-07-2005 03:28									#21
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

I agree with alva, if you are going to spend that amount of money on an upgrade, then you owe it to yourself to do it properly.

	14-07-2005 10:27									#22
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Maxtor's hard drive formatting utility includes drive copying functionality for exactly this purpose. I just used it two weeks ago because my old C: started clicking morbidly.

	29-07-2005 06:41									#23
	Inflate your Upload Space

I went with Seagate's update utility, which was basic, but still functional. As suggested, I ended up doing a clean install. Thanks for your help.

It's amazing to see video that dropped frames on my old machine top out at 8% of CPU resources.

	29-07-2005 07:36									#24
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: Originally posted by DanS My registry took a good deal of time to put together and I would like to keep it intact.

That's why you want to get a clean install, you are getting a lot of gunk in there.

quote: Originally posted by DanS I have swapped mobos (and back) before on this registry, so I am comfortable with the process.

More reason to do so.

	29-07-2005 16:00									#25
	Support Apolyton

I feel your pain - I swapped the disk from my old machine to me new one ( totally new processor , motherboard , graphics card , etc - everything was new ) , and Windows XP crashed on me ( bluescreened at bootup ) . My installation of Fedora COre 3 , however , detected everything , asked my permission to configure it , and I was done . Had to reinstall XP .