How do I install Windows on a new hard drive w/o losing all my "stuff"?

[General Lee]

OK, I am playing with the idea of getting a new SATA hard drive that spins at 10,000rpm. If I do this then I would obviously want to put Windows on it & use my other SATA drive (7200rpm) as backup/storage. I currently have an 80GB IDE hard drive as my "main" & a 160GB SATA hard drive as backup.

My Question:
What is the best/least painful way to uninstall Windows from my IDE drive without losing anything? Take my anti-virus/firewall program (I use ZoneAlarm) for example - will it "remember" me after I reinstall?
I know I can save all of my files (music movies, etc) but what about programs that I have paid for?

Sorry if this is a dumb question...

[Cricket]

Go to the hard drive manufacturer's web site and look for the setup/installation utility. There should be a cloning utility that will make a mirror image of your old hard drive onto your new hard drive.

:) Cricket

[General Lee]

OK - so would I:
1)clone my current IDE to my backup SATA
2)uninstall Windows from current IDE
3)Install Windows on new SATA
4)clone image of old IDE on to new SATA (from backup SATA)
??

Thanks for your patience!

[tempus]

OK - so would I:
1)clone my current IDE to my backup SATA
2)uninstall Windows from current IDE
3)Install Windows on new SATA
4)clone image of old IDE on to new SATA (from backup SATA)
??

Thanks for your patience!
I would do a fresh install on your new sata first. Then boot up with the new sata drive with the IDE as slave and copy over whatever documents you want/need. Don't worry about uninstalling windows from the old drive.

[General Lee]

So basically if I copy my entire "Program Files" folder (where all my programs are) to the new HDD everything will be kosher?

Will the Microsoft Police come & take me away for having a single copy of Windows on 2 HDD's?! ;)

[tempus]

So basically if I copy my entire "Program Files" folder (where all my programs are) to the new HDD everything will be kosher?

Will the Microsoft Police come & take me away for having a single copy of Windows on 2 HDD's?! ;)
well you will need to reinstall all your programs if you do a fresh install of windows.
otherwise you could clone your current drive to the new drive if you don't want to reinstall windows. use the manufacturers software to do the cloning or norton ghost. don't worry about the microsoft police they are not after you.

[whattakuntry]

The disc wizard setup utility will do everything for you.

[glc]

If you clone your IDE drive to your new drive, that will totally replace the IDE drive. There will be no further action required, you can remove the IDE drive or reformat it for additional storage. You are making things a lot more complicated than they are.

I assume the new drive is a Western Digital - their Data Lifeguard Tools will do the clone job for you, just make the boot floppy or boot CD and boot with it.

[General Lee]

Thanks. I took a look at Norton's Ghost & it seems good. Would you recommend the manufacturer's software instead?

[MaxRat]

yes.....

[glc]

Why buy Ghost when there's a free tool that does the job? If you already have Ghost, it will work too, it has a drive copy function.

[alfie2]

Has anyone Actually tried using MaxBlast 4 to clone a xp formated HD and make it bootable without the old drive? I would like to see it. Xp wont let you boot! if one does not swap the drive specs in /DOSDEVICE/xxx in the register, before cloning. (xxx being the drive letter.) { read the thread " making Cloned HD bootable, under xp"}

[tempus]

Has anyone Actually tried using MaxBlast 4 to clone a xp formated HD and make it bootable without the old drive? I would like to see it. Xp wont let you boot! if one does not swap the drive specs in /DOSDEVICE/xxx in the register, before cloning. (xxx being the drive letter.) { read the thread " making Cloned HD bootable, under xp"}
I have used Max Blast successfully before and Drive Image also. It depends in the drive brand etc in my experience. I once used a windows based clone program that worked, well sort of. But if the cloned XP drive won't boot then a repait of the MBR is needed.

[glc]

Don't use the Windows version of any setup/cloning software - always use the boot floppy/boot CD version.

I don't use Maxblast because I don't sell Maxtor drives, so I can't speak about your issue, alfie2. I generally use Apricorn Clone EZ, which is a rebranded Acronis product. I have used WD's DLG to clone successfully.

[alfie2]

glc, tried floppy , no go. has to do registry editing...arrrrrgh.
all in all, I think its best a fresh re-installation of WinXp and other softwares.
it took less time than cloning in my case( only 2 hours for fresh , >4hrs for cloning.eeeeeew).