How to Back Up The System please?

[pcknowledge]

Dear Member,

I just wanna upgrade my hard drive from 10 G to 30 G. However, it takes ages if I reinstall my Win XP Pro and other software. Has anyone knows how to "back up the system" please without installing new windows on my hard drive?

Thanks very much for your help.

Best Regards,

pcknowledge

[hobey19]

you could try making an image of your drive. go to the manufacturers website and they should have an imaging program.

craig

[kingoftowns]

not worth it, it will take just as long to back up your entire system and programs like pc anywhere that will let you migrate programs require the os to already be installed so no its not worth it you might as well just install windows from scratch, sorry

[Hi Ho]

not worth it, it will take just as long to back up your entire system and programs like pc anywhere that will let you migrate programs require the os to already be installed so no its not worth it you might as well just install windows from scratch, sorry

I disagree. I ghosted the 20GB drive in my other PC to a 60GB drive and it worked fine. It took a few hours but it was much less hassle than reinstalling Windows. I have had that same installation of XP on that PC for almost two years and it still works like new. The easiest way to to it is to install the new drive as a slave and use the imaging software for your hard drive to basicly clone it.

[kingoftowns]

exactly, it took a couple of hours, his question was can he do it and it be faster than installing windows, it takes a couple of hours to reinstall windows and all the programs. my point was that it was gonna take just as long to back up all the data and then restore it as it would to do a clean install not that it wouldn't work, its also not really worth buying norton ghost if your only gonna use it once. but i agree if you already have it then ghost is a very good option

[hobey19]

but you don't need to use ghost to do it. i believe that maxtor and WD both have free drive imaging utilities, so you are not spending any money

craig

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

Originally Posted by kingoftowns it takes a couple of hours to reinstall windows and all the programs.

It took me two weeks to get all my programs and settings back how I liked them after a complete reinstall and format, if the reason for reformatting was changing HDD's I would have cloned. Although I don't know how many programs pcknowledge has, I am sure that it would be easier to clone than look up serial numbers/cd keys etc.

[RayCom]

imho, it is much easier and faster to clone the drive using hard drive manufacturer's free software. when you are done that's it, perfect copy of drive with all settings and software intact. Ray