How do I move my windows installation to another hard drive?

[Guest Christian Knudsen]

Here is my situation. I have 2 physical drives, a 6 GB drive that is the

primary (C:) drive, and which has Win XP on it. The 2nd is a 80 GB that is

the slave, and is partitioned into 2 sections (D: [50GB] and E: [30GB]).

Several months ago, in order to save space, I changed my windows

documents/temp folders to the E: drive. This has worked well.

 

6 GB is not enough to house Win XP any longer, though. I recently replaced

the MB/Proc/memory, and ended up (for some reason) having to reinstall

Windows, again onto C:, and this is proving problematic to upgrade properly

for lack of space - I have basically trimmed all non-essential files, and

still am short.

 

So I want to move my OS onto the D: drive, but without really losing any

info on any drive, as restoring backups is painful. I do not really want to

change the partition scheme on the big drive unless I really have to, and/or

it makes a LOT of sense to do so. What is the best course of action? I am to

the point of considering buying a new (bigger) hard drive and just doing a

clean install on to it, then manually transferring other files to it from the

6 GB, which will then be a F: drive, or just go in the bin. The down side to

this is that my wife will kill me if I spend another penny on the computer...

 

Any ideas?

[Guest philo]

Re: How do I move my windows installation to another hard drive?

 

 

"Christian Knudsen" <Christian Knudsen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in

message news:A16D5193-24A1-4002-A16D-E536F9E829C2@microsoft.com...

> Here is my situation. I have 2 physical drives, a 6 GB drive that is the

> primary (C:) drive, and which has Win XP on it. The 2nd is a 80 GB that is

> the slave, and is partitioned into 2 sections (D: [50GB] and E: [30GB]).

> Several months ago, in order to save space, I changed my windows

> documents/temp folders to the E: drive. This has worked well.

>

> 6 GB is not enough to house Win XP any longer, though. I recently replaced

> the MB/Proc/memory, and ended up (for some reason) having to reinstall

> Windows, again onto C:, and this is proving problematic to upgrade

properly

> for lack of space - I have basically trimmed all non-essential files, and

> still am short.

>

> So I want to move my OS onto the D: drive, but without really losing any

> info on any drive, as restoring backups is painful. I do not really want

to

> change the partition scheme on the big drive unless I really have to,

and/or

> it makes a LOT of sense to do so. What is the best course of action? I am

to

> the point of considering buying a new (bigger) hard drive and just doing a

> clean install on to it, then manually transferring other files to it from

the

> 6 GB, which will then be a F: drive, or just go in the bin. The down side

to

> this is that my wife will kill me if I spend another penny on the

computer...

>

> Any ideas?

>

>

 

You cannot simply move windows over to another partition...

you need to install it again onto the partition you want.

You will of course need to reinstall your apps...

 

Be sure to opt NOT to format any partitions first...

your data will still be there...

but to be safe...backup all your data first!

[Guest Ron Badour]

Re: How do I move my windows installation to another hard drive?

 

Go without lunch for a couple of days and don't tell her when you buy the

new drive :-)

 

--

Regards

 

Ron Badour

MS MVP 1997 - 2007

 

 

"Christian Knudsen" <Christian Knudsen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in

message news:A16D5193-24A1-4002-A16D-E536F9E829C2@microsoft.com...

> Here is my situation. I have 2 physical drives, a 6 GB drive that is the

> primary (C:) drive, and which has Win XP on it. The 2nd is a 80 GB that is

> the slave, and is partitioned into 2 sections (D: [50GB] and E: [30GB]).

> Several months ago, in order to save space, I changed my windows

> documents/temp folders to the E: drive. This has worked well.

>

> 6 GB is not enough to house Win XP any longer, though. I recently replaced

> the MB/Proc/memory, and ended up (for some reason) having to reinstall

> Windows, again onto C:, and this is proving problematic to upgrade

> properly

> for lack of space - I have basically trimmed all non-essential files, and

> still am short.

>

> So I want to move my OS onto the D: drive, but without really losing any

> info on any drive, as restoring backups is painful. I do not really want

> to

> change the partition scheme on the big drive unless I really have to,

> and/or

> it makes a LOT of sense to do so. What is the best course of action? I am

> to

> the point of considering buying a new (bigger) hard drive and just doing a

> clean install on to it, then manually transferring other files to it from

> the

> 6 GB, which will then be a F: drive, or just go in the bin. The down side

> to

> this is that my wife will kill me if I spend another penny on the

> computer...

>

> Any ideas?

>

>

[Guest sgopus]

RE: How do I move my windows installation to another hard drive?

 

Do a new install on the larger drive partition 50 G, as long as you don't

format, your data should be ok, then copy the data from the smaller 6G to the

new larger partition. dump the smaller drive (after formatting and severly

beating it with a 6 lb sledge) Gets out all those computer frustrations, or

better yet, let the wife beat on it. just don't stand too close else she will

might take the opportunity to let one slip, OOPS, I'm sorry that mashed your

foot. While giggling manically!!!

 

"Christian Knudsen" wrote:

> Here is my situation. I have 2 physical drives, a 6 GB drive that is the

> primary (C:) drive, and which has Win XP on it. The 2nd is a 80 GB that is

> the slave, and is partitioned into 2 sections (D: [50GB] and E: [30GB]).

> Several months ago, in order to save space, I changed my windows

> documents/temp folders to the E: drive. This has worked well.

>

> 6 GB is not enough to house Win XP any longer, though. I recently replaced

> the MB/Proc/memory, and ended up (for some reason) having to reinstall

> Windows, again onto C:, and this is proving problematic to upgrade properly

> for lack of space - I have basically trimmed all non-essential files, and

> still am short.

>

> So I want to move my OS onto the D: drive, but without really losing any

> info on any drive, as restoring backups is painful. I do not really want to

> change the partition scheme on the big drive unless I really have to, and/or

> it makes a LOT of sense to do so. What is the best course of action? I am to

> the point of considering buying a new (bigger) hard drive and just doing a

> clean install on to it, then manually transferring other files to it from the

> 6 GB, which will then be a F: drive, or just go in the bin. The down side to

> this is that my wife will kill me if I spend another penny on the computer...

>

> Any ideas?

>

>

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: How do I move my windows installation to another hard drive?

 

"Christian Knudsen" <Christian Knudsen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in

message news:A16D5193-24A1-4002-A16D-E536F9E829C2@microsoft.com...

> Here is my situation. I have 2 physical drives, a 6 GB drive that is the

> primary (C:) drive, and which has Win XP on it. The 2nd is a 80 GB that is

> the slave, and is partitioned into 2 sections (D: [50GB] and E: [30GB]).

> Several months ago, in order to save space, I changed my windows

> documents/temp folders to the E: drive. This has worked well.

>

> 6 GB is not enough to house Win XP any longer, though. I recently replaced

> the MB/Proc/memory, and ended up (for some reason) having to reinstall

> Windows, again onto C:, and this is proving problematic to upgrade

> properly

> for lack of space - I have basically trimmed all non-essential files, and

> still am short.

>

> So I want to move my OS onto the D: drive, but without really losing any

> info on any drive, as restoring backups is painful. I do not really want

> to

> change the partition scheme on the big drive unless I really have to,

> and/or

> it makes a LOT of sense to do so. What is the best course of action? I am

> to

> the point of considering buying a new (bigger) hard drive and just doing a

> clean install on to it, then manually transferring other files to it from

> the

> 6 GB, which will then be a F: drive, or just go in the bin. The down side

> to

> this is that my wife will kill me if I spend another penny on the

> computer...

>

> Any ideas?

 

Unfortunately there's no practical way to do what you describe, because you

will have to change thousands of drive references in the registry and who

knows where else

 

The only real way to do this would be to get a larger drive and clone that

partition to the larger drive, using the (free trial version of) something

like Acronis TrueImage. In "manual" mode - but not "automatic" - this will

let you specify the target partition size. It's a 100 meg download,

though, so you might need to use another system to perform the task. This

cloning can usually be done in under an hour.

 

If you can find a way to clear the 80 gig drive and clone the C drive to it,

then swap them, this could work. If you've got a friend with an XP system

with lots of drive space, you can be done completely in an afternoon.

 

As to cost - where I am, 250 gig drives are around $70.

 

HTH

-pk

[Guest Uncle Grumpy]

Re: How do I move my windows installation to another hard drive?

 

"Patrick Keenan" <test@dev.null> wrote:

>The only real way to do this would be to get a larger drive and clone that

>partition to the larger drive,

 

exactly.

 

Clean, simple.

[Guest Paul Knudsen]

Re: How do I move my windows installation to another hard drive?

 

On Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:42:02 -0700, Christian Knudsen <Christian

Knudsen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Here is my situation. I have 2 physical drives, a 6 GB drive that is the

>primary (C:) drive, and which has Win XP on it.

 

Hi Namesake.

 

Buy a new drive; make it your primary.; install WinXP on it; bring

in backup settings.

 

Good luck.

--

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