Can't move all data from one partition to another

[cdplayer]

I am attempting to move all of the data contained in a non OS partition to another hard drive new partition. When I select all of the files on the old hard drive and attempt to move then to the new disk (new partition) the program tells me that the transfer was successfully completed.

BUT when I compare the sizes of the partitions a GB of data was not transfered. I even tried using Partition Magic to move the old partition to the unallocated space on the new hard drive (Partiton Magic automataclly creates a partition for you before moving the data). The software told me that a quailfer was missing (of course it didn't tell me which one) from the move(?) partition command. Still a GB between the two drives is not transfered.

In this file transfer setting there are two NexStart 3 external hard drive enclosures. In one enclosure there is a IDE drive the other enclosure holds a SATA drive.

What am I doing wrong?

OS: XP SP2 - all updates

[glc]

You have to enable display of all system and hidden files and folders in your folder options. If you don't, you aren't selecting everything. The other option is use xcopy from a command prompt.

xcopy x:\ y:\ /r/i/c/h/k/e/y

where x and y are the source and destination drives.

I *HIGHLY* recommend you copy, not move - then clear off the old drive AFTER you make sure everything went over.

[EzyStvy]

Is Sytem Restore turned on/off for both drives? SR reserves disk space.

How about the recycle bin. It also reserves space.

Are both drives formated the same NTFS with the same cluster size?

Did you manually look and compare for files and folders?

And then there's: are there any system folders on the original partition that might be in use and not get copied?

[cdplayer]

Originally Posted by EzyStvy Is Sytem Restore turned on/off for both drives? SR reserves disk space. How about the recycle bin. It also reserves space. Are both drives formated the same NTFS with the same cluster size? Did you manually look and compare for files and folders? And then there's: are there any system folders on the original partition that might be in use and not get copied?

Thanks EzyStvy for replying!
Is System Restore turned on/off for both drives? SR reserves disk space.
System Restore is turned on
How about the recycle bin. It also reserves space.
Nothing in the recycle bin.
Are both drives formatted the same NTFS with the same cluster size?
Yes
Did you manually look and compare for files and folders?
I looked to make sure that all of the folders were there. I didn't make sure that all of the files were transferred.

I performed an image backup of the original partition it appears that there was not any problems during the image backup procedure. I am hoping that the restore will produce all of the files.

Cheers!

[cdplayer]

Originally Posted by glc You have to enable display of all system and hidden files and folders in your folder options. If you don't, you aren't selecting everything. The other option is use xcopy from a command prompt. xcopy x:\ y:\ /r/i/c/h/k/e/y where x and y are the source and destination drives. I *HIGHLY* recommend you copy, not move - then clear off the old drive AFTER you make sure everything went over.

Thank you for replying again!
If this image transfer does not work I will give xcopy a go!

I will only do a copy not a move!

Cheers!

[glc]

Image transfer is better than xcopy.

[cdplayer]

Originally Posted by glc Image transfer is better than xcopy.

Thanks glc for your assistance!

The image transfered worked. I THINK that some hidden files stay that way even when the hard drive is placed on another system and the Folder Options are set to see hidden files...

Is there any weight to that? I could not find that old pagefile until I put the hard drive back in its original computer box....

Cheers!

[glc]

What do you want the pagefile to come over for anyway? That's a system function, it will recreate when and where appropriate.

[cdplayer]

Originally Posted by glc What do you want the pagefile to come over for anyway? That's a system function, it will recreate when and where appropriate.

Hey glc!

I really didn't want the pagefile. The file was hidden at the time while moving their data to another hard drive / partition. The strange thing is that the file was hidden of course while the hard drive was connected to their copy of the operating system. When I connected the hard drive to one of my computers I still could not see that page file even though my file options were set so that none of the files were hidden.

At any rate once I finish all of the OS and data transfers I was able to remove the unused page file and other junk that I was unable to see. I still can't believe that I was unable to see those files under my operating system (XP) since my the folder options are to see all hidden files...

The downside to all of this is that I have backups of their operating system and their data that I am holding for about a month that has stuff that I've deleted since their OS and data backup.

Thank you for the sanity check!