Internal Drive Question!

[Alexandra242628]

So my dad was running out of disc space on his computer and purchased a new internal hard drive. We installed it w/out issue. Question is, now what are we supposed to do?

Are we supposed to move programs to the new drive? It is all very confusing...any help would be appreciated.

[Sportymonk]

Originally posted by Alexandra242628
So my dad was running out of disc space on his computer and purchased a new internal hard drive. We installed it w/out issue. Question is, now what are we supposed to do?

Are we supposed to move programs to the new drive? It is all very confusing...any help would be appreciated.

If you replaced the drive yourselves, you have the required skills. And you have analyzed the problem basically, the programs need to be on the computer. Some programs won't just transfer the way files can be.

I assume you are working with Windows . Hopefully XP. If you have Windows Me, now is an excellent time to upgrade to XP.

The problem with transferring files is that Windows keeps track of all its programs with a registry file. If the new hard drive will have to have Windows installed on it and the new installation won't know where the programs are even if you transfer them over.

2 Solutions

1. Easiest) Check to see if there is room for two hard drives. Most desktops will take two hard drives. The solution is to put the original drive back where it was (the computer is probably set for that position to be the master or boot up drive.) Install the second drive as a slave or secondary drive. Setting a drive to be the master or slave is done by the jumper pins on the controller card. You may need help identifying the jumper settings. When I installed a hard drive in my old PC the new hard drive maker (Maxtor) provided the info needed)

This will allow you to run all your programs and use the new hard drive for data.

2. Leave the new hard drive installed and proceed to install all the program onto the new hard drive. Now you will need to transfer or copy all your data to the new hard drive. To do this you will need to have a power supply for the old hard drive (you could buy a external hard drive case with the power supply and cables built in and use it for back up and data). Then simply use Windows Manager to transfer the files to the new hard drive.

Hope his helps some.

[BCinTX]

Basically the stuff under My Documents can be transfered directly over. As Sportymonk says, programs don't transfer well because of the registry. If you need to move them to the new drive because you want to take out the old, you really need to install them fresh on the new drive.

If you're leaving both drives in the computer, you might leave all of the programs on the old drive, and everything in My Documents to the new one. That also gives you the benefit on knowing that you only need to back up the new drive now and then. There is no sense backing up programs since you can't restore them from backup because of the registry issue.

I think you can probably also move the Application Data under his userid under Documents and Settings, as well as Favorites for browser bookmarks.

Not sure where email is stored for whatever you're using. If you're losing the old drive, you'll want to look around for that and any other application data stored elsewhere.

[humanoid]

It's basically drag and drop with the files. Your new HD should have came with software to help you copy files from your old HD to your new HD. The software basically transfers your operating system and all the files from your old HD to your new HD.

[A6Pilot]

All new hard drives come with software that will transfer all files from the old drive to the new drive, exactly. If you manually try to transfer the files from the old drive to the new drive, you may not get all files to transfer. Some files will remain hidden. This process is called mirroring. Of course, you will transfer everything (including old programs, outdated files, dll's, worms, viruses, etc.).

Another option you have is to install the new drive, format it, then do a clean install of the operating system, and only the programs you will be using. After that, transfer the working files of whatever programs you clean installed.

The last option is to install the operating system, then use a transfer program (like Alohabob's PC Relocator, or Microsoft's Files and Settings Transfer Wizard) to transfer programs, settings, and files from the old drive to the new drive.

[john802]

Originally posted by A6Pilot
All new hard drives come with software that will transfer all files from the old drive to the new drive, exactly...

Not 100% true. Retail package comes w/ software & connectors but not oem. You can download the software to do this from the manufacturer site if you install an oem H/D.

[A6Pilot]

My reply post assumed the hard drive was purchased from retail dealer. Sorry, - could have been a bad assumption. Thanks for clarification!