copy entire HD, possible?

[grasshopperbe]

I want to switch the old 10gb ibm hd in my dad's pc for a new one, since that ibm is a horrible bottleneck (pc is an abit kd7, athlon 1800+, win2kpro)
the problem is that some software cannot be installed by ourselves (like banking software) and my dad doesnt want to reinstall that if its not really necessary
(have to pay for new install, some worthless techie has to come and do it, while its simpler that installing a friggin game)

is it possible to hook up a new HD as secondary or on the second ide cable and use partition magic or a program like norton ghost or so to make a copy of the entire hd and then swap em ?
(i know ghost can make copies of 2 pc's, saw in school)
i dont know how since this would require a little time with both hd's having a primary partition or something.

any help would be greatly appreciated, that pc is as slow as 80286.

[reboot]

Ghost will easily do it.
Make the bootdisk, install the second drive anywhere you can, start Ghost, clone the drive, pull out the old, install the new drive in it's place.

[grasshopperbe]

thanks for the help Reboot, ive been searching on how to to this for quite a while. It would be really great to get that pc up to somewhat decent speed.
btw does anyone know the if Norton ghost is an expensive program. i mean in the price range of a game, a windows licence? an office pack?
or is it a really expensive program?

[DarkHorse]

I got a retailer deal on Ghost with a manufacturer rebate for $20. I imagine the average price would be in the $50 range, if they aren't trying to gouge you.

If you want you can also get the whole shebang Norton SystemWorks

[doctorgonzo]

I got Ghost for somewhere around $10 on the 'net. Definitely worth the money.

[Confused]

http://www.directdeals.com/productsl...yID=UtilSystem has full version of Ghost for $35.00. They also have a OEM Systemworks Pro for $16.00 which I think contains a copy of Ghost. Check with some of the members that are more knowledgeable about Symantec's products before ordering that.
Chas

[not important]

Systemworks Pro 2003 OEM $14
http://www.buysell101.com/category.a...gory=Utilities

[CaptTuna]

I just bought and installed a new 120gb Seagate in this computer. It came with cables and software to copy/clone old drive to new. It took 30 minutes total. Could not have been easier.

[grasshopperbe]

wow, thanks for all the replies. didn't think so many people had done this. ill look around in the links you gave me to find one that ships to belgium. if not ill just go and order it in the store. it wont be that expensive and it ll make me a lot happier when using this pc (i can go and drink a cup of coffee when i press the on button on this thing right now to wait for boot up to win2k) .

again thanks for all the help.now i can start looking for a good maxtor hd to fit in (guess a 40gig or so, should be more than enough.)

[reboot]

Before ordering it from anywhere, check the software that came with the drive. There is usually a disk copying program included, and it will probably do exactly what you want, without paying any more money.

[grasshopperbe]

thanks for the info, Reboot. I'm afraid my dad wont have anything from that old drive anymore, it came out of a previous pc, which i didnt build. i did purchace 2 maxtor hd's myself fairly recently, maybe look around the software from those drives. (i keep everything as long as the piece of hardware works, find it a very good habit myself. )

if not, it ll be worth the money anyway, like i said this pc is sooooo slow, but the only internet connection i have.

[reboot]

Sometimes you can get the utility from the drive manufacturer's website. If not, there are other ways to copy a drive to another drive. I have an article written on how to do it for Windows 9x. I hate to see you spend money on something you might only use once. Let me know if you want the instructions, or how to do it in XP/2k if needed.

[Danny G]

Wouldn't xcopy32 work?

Also I am not sure that the HDD you are talking about is slowing the system down that much. It might be easier if you want more space just adding the next HDD as a Secondary.

[grasshopperbe]

well file space isnt really the problem, we never use more than 3-4 gig, os and software and all included.
a friend has same mobo/cpu/ram/os. just a new maxtor hd and a different vidcard, but that's even older than the one in my dads, and its only used for desk work and surfing. his pc loads and works a lot better,
like installing a large program or game for instance is like hopeless on my dads pc.
at boot up only norton and zonealarm get loaded. i wouldn't know what other part would cause this bottleneck, since all the rest got replaced, only the old hd was used.

another thing is that the drive is quite old,
this is a handy way of puttting a new one in without all the softare troubles, before it breaks down.

[reboot]

XCopy32 won't work in 16 bit (or 8 bit) DOS.

at boot up only norton and zonealarm get loaded

There's a problem, two of the biggest resource hogs around, especially Norton.

[grasshopperbe]

i know they aren't the best around in 'system hogging', but is there a really better combination? i have had some very bad comments on mcafee around here too. i used it before norton. and zonealarm seems to be doing its works properly, the firewalls i tried before werent that good either.

anyone any idea on which combination firewall/antivirus is best(as good as what i use now, and lighter on system recourses) ?

btw, the hd is being ordered, should be on its way one of the following days and i found a version of ghost so i hope to get it done somewhere next week.

[doctorgonzo]

AVG antivirus is good.

I use Norton AV and Norton's firewall. I recently installed AVG to double-check Norton, but Norton hasn't missed anything.

[grasshopperbe]

i had a few things that norton quarantined someday, but couldnt seem to fix

on our previous pc we used avg antivirus free edition . it was pretty good. Do you use the free edition or the 'commercial' one, DoctorGonzo ?

[doctorgonzo]

Free edition.

[grasshopperbe]

Great, when i have the new hd, im going to switch the Antivirus to AVG and see how it runs. I sure hope a little better than what it does right now.

Thanks for the info.

[RayH]

I have a friend that works for the government. He brought home some AV program that's really expensive. He said the thing found stuff way in the bowels of his computer that neither Norton or McAfee ever thought of!

[jlowmt]

I switched from McAfee to AVG six month's ago and it works great, even fixed some files that Mcafee couldn't. Nice software and it's free.

[Danny G]

Personally I use AVG and Kerio firewall both free and good quality IMHO.

[yule1111]

I don't have the disks that installed a windows-program.
Can one use GHOST or other programs to copy/migrate
a windows-program from one PC to anther?

I realize there are many entries in the register to be copied.
Is there a program that monitors what entries are used
by a program? if so, then one can just copy the program
files over & copy the registry entries by hand or some
automated fashion.

thanks

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by yule1111 I don't have the disks that installed a windows-program. Can one use GHOST or other programs to copy/migrate a windows-program from one PC to anther?

You want to transfer an installed program from one PC to another? Can't be done. You need the program CD or installer .exe file.

Originally Posted by yule1111 I realize there are many entries in the register to be copied. Is there a program that monitors what entries are used by a program? if so, then one can just copy the program files over & copy the registry entries by hand or some automated fashion.

I've never heard of one.

I've never, ever heard of an installed program being transferred from one computer to another. You need the program CD or the installer .exe file.

And you really should start your own thread when asking new questions instead of hijacking someone else's thread.

Cricket