Ghosting Old "C" drive to new HDD on a new build

[bjarnold]

I'm working on a new build. I want to ghost the main drive from my old PC to the new build. The new build has an 80 Gig HDD with XP Pro installed.

Here's what I'd like to do. I have Norton Ghost 2003 on my old PC. I want to ghost my "C" drive from the old PC to a portable USB HDD and then restore that drive to the new build. I saw a check box in the restore program that you would check if you want to overwrite the current OS during the restore process.

My questions are these: 1.) would I need to install Ghost 2003 on the new build first? 2.) would it be best to use the overwrite OS option or not since the new build has XP Pro installed?

If all goes well, this would mean that all of my iinstalled programs and such would work on the new build.....right?

Happy Holiday's

Specs: Old PC
Intel 2.0 P4 processor
1 Gig PC3200 sdram
HP & Sony DVD burners

Specs: New build
Intel P-D 2.8 Core Duo Processor
1 Gig Kingston DDR2
Liteon DVD burner
80 WD HDD

[ktkendall]

Best option is to backup your data you want to save and do a clean install on that new harddrive in the new PC, than reinstall your programs on the new PC, I know it sounds like more work but probably in the long run you will find it is not because you will have much less problems this way.

[moodyblues100]

I have to agree that a fresh install is going to be the best, especially since the hardware is not the same on the 2 boxes. I have had good results using the Seagate tool to replace a smaller drive with a larger in the same machine, but when I want to use old data on a new machine I use the Windows file and transfer wizard. Use the transfer wizard to back up to an external HD, do a fresh install on the new box including all your apps, then run the wizard. By following this path (or something comparable) you will have an OS install without all the baggage of an old install.

[bjarnold]

As mentioned, the new build has XP Pro installed. So you're saying at this point, I can run the "file transfer wizard" on the old PC and save it to an external HDD; take that HDD to the new build and run the wizard on that PC? You also say to install the apps after the fresh install. I guess you can tell that I'm trying to avoid having to do alot of manual program installations. Is there no way around it?

[TwoRails]

Originally Posted by bjarnold ... My questions are these: 1.) would I need to install Ghost 2003 on the new build first? 2.) would it be best to use the overwrite OS option or not since the new build has XP Pro installed? If all goes well, this would mean that all of my iinstalled programs and such would work on the new build.....right? ...

1) No you don't install Ghost to the "target" system.
2) There is no such option in Ghost: it's all or nothing.

If you Ghost the 'old' drive to the 'new' drive, the 'new' drive will be identical to the 'old' drive, same OS, etc. That's fine if you want the old OS, but bad if you don't.

[kev7555]

If you have a new OS installed on the new computer, why do you want to ghost the drive? Simply save all files you want to move to the new machine to an external hard drive and transfer them from the external drive to the new machine, or...

Install the old drive as a slave in the new machine and copy the files directly from it.


-Kev

[bjarnold]

I'm not that concerned about simple files or documents that could be copied over, I was more concerned about program files like MS office and other programs that I have on the old PC. I did'nt think that just copying programs files to the new PC would work. I suppose I would just have to reinstall them.

Does anyone have any experience using any migrating software like Alohabob PC Relocator, Intellimover or Desktop DNA?

These seem interesting because they migrate program file as well.

[moodyblues100]

Program files need to be reinstalled on the new machine. If you simply copy them over from the old machine to the new the registry will not recognize that the program was installed and probably will not function.

[ktkendall]

BJ;
I must apologize here also because I skimmed over your original post and missed the fact that it already has XP pro installed, so that is even more of a reason why you do not want to use ghost. You really want to keep that OS that is already installed on that new machine intact. You would really be asking for troubles if you overwrite that OS with your old one. Best thing is to just get out your disks and reinstall MS office cleanly on the new machine, and slave that old harddrive into the new machine so you can copy files that you may want over to the new machine.

[bjarnold]

Thanks guys. Sounds like installing my programs manually to the new drive is safer that using any of the migration programs I mentioned above.

I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

[ktkendall]

In the long run you will be glad cause you'll spend less time fixing things that don't work right.