If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
You can copy each current partition over to the new drive. An image, in this
case, is a compressed copy of a partition, and can't be accessed without decompressing it. You don't care about imaging, you just want to copy the partitions. Of course, you'll have ~ 40 GB left over, and if you still want to have only two partitions, you'll have to enlarge those. You don't mention how large your current system partition is, but if anything I'd only enlarge the second one. IIRC, over ~33GB can be weird with Win9x system partition. However, if you want to try enlarging the first one, do it before you copy over the second one. BING will place partitions at the beginning of the free space unless you specify "Allocate High". Also, you can only enlarge a partition at the end, you can't enlarge it into free space that precedes it on the disk. That's BING. Other utilities are capable of bit for bit copying of entire drives, but you will *still* end up with the same deal--40GB of old partitions and 40GB of empty space. -- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP for Win9x "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... Gary, my own personal preference is logical drive simplicity, and two is enough for me to deal with (despite the wasted space, slack, efficiency, etc, which I am aware of). However, my questions still stand, as written below. Was I correct in what I wrote? Let me edit it a bit: "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... I've got a copy of BootItNG, but have never run it. That would be great. Or the utilities that come with the new drive, if they can do it (as Richard suggested). So let me be very specific he if I currently have a 40 GB HD, divided into two partitions, I can image it over to a new 80 GB drive, and be able to select the new partition sizes? No, that doesn't sound right - imaging should only make an exact copy of the original drive. So maybe what happens is it images over the 40 GB, and leaves the rest of the drive (the other 40 GB) unused) Then later I could resize the partitions to use the entire drive? That is where I'm a bit confused - as to what is really possible, with imaging and BootItNG. |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
I'm a BootIt NG user. Both my WD & Maxtor came with utilities, BUT,
pretty as they were... (a) They would not resize partitions, that I recall. (b) They would not copy to an Extended Partition, as I recall. (c) I wasn't quite sure whether they would automatically install their drive overlay stuff, which I did not need as my BIOS doesn't require it. So, I never ran those & still won't to this day! -- Thanks or Good Luck, There may be humor in this post, and, Naturally, you will not sue, should things get worse after this, PCR "Richard G. Harper" wrote in message ... | I've used the utilities that come with a Maxtor drive to clone an old hard | drive onto a new one without any problems but I can't speak for any other | drives/utility programs. Ghost will do the job but you may not need to | spend the money on it. Try the drive utility first - you have nothing to | lose since your old drive remains intact even if the copy utility fails. | | -- | Richard G. Harper [MVP Win9x] | * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups | * for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to. | * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm | | | "Bill in Co." wrote in message | ... | Am I correct here in assuming that one CAN (simply) replace their original | bootable HD, without reinstalling Windows and all the programs all over | again, by either using Ghost, or (maybe?) the HD manufacturer's utilities | that come with the new drive? (I'm thinking of Western Digital here) | | Do the drives have to be the same size for Ghost imaging? Hopefully | not!!! | | The more I think about this, I think it would have to be done with Ghost, | or | something like that, to prevent reinstalling everything all over again. | I | doubt if the HD manufacturer's utilities would be enough. | | | | |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
Thanks Gary. Let me see if I get this now..
This is what I now have: one 40 GB HD, partitioned into a 15 GB (C partition, and a 25 GB (D partition (for my video stuff). So I think the easiest thing to do would be to copy these two partitions over to the new 80 GB drive when I get it, using BING. This would then be identical to what I have now, and the new C: will be bootable, even though it was only "copied", and not imaged. Right? Another potential problem: what you said about the 33 GB partition size (is that a FAT32 limit)? I'm guessing it is (w/o tricks). If so, I guess I'd probably go to 4 total partitions. So I'd end up with C:, D:, E:, and F: And later, if I wanted to resize any of them anyway I want, I could probably do it with BING?, or for sure with Partition Magic, right? Gary S. Terhune wrote: You can copy each current partition over to the new drive. An image, in this case, is a compressed copy of a partition, and can't be accessed without decompressing it. You don't care about imaging, you just want to copy the partitions. Of course, you'll have ~ 40 GB left over, and if you still want to have only two partitions, you'll have to enlarge those. You don't mention how large your current system partition is, but if anything I'd only enlarge the second one. IIRC, over ~33GB can be weird with Win9x system partition. However, if you want to try enlarging the first one, do it before you copy over the second one. BING will place partitions at the beginning of the free space unless you specify "Allocate High". Also, you can only enlarge a partition at the end, you can't enlarge it into free space that precedes it on the disk. That's BING. Other utilities are capable of bit for bit copying of entire drives, but you will *still* end up with the same deal--40GB of old partitions and 40GB of empty space. -- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP for Win9x "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... Gary, my own personal preference is logical drive simplicity, and two is enough for me to deal with (despite the wasted space, slack, efficiency, etc, which I am aware of). However, my questions still stand, as written below. Was I correct in what I wrote? Let me edit it a bit: "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... I've got a copy of BootItNG, but have never run it. That would be great. Or the utilities that come with the new drive, if they can do it (as Richard suggested). So let me be very specific he if I currently have a 40 GB HD, divided into two partitions, I can image it over to a new 80 GB drive, and be able to select the new partition sizes? No, that doesn't sound right - imaging should only make an exact copy of the original drive. So maybe what happens is it images over the 40 GB, and leaves the rest of the drive (the other 40 GB) unused) Then later I could resize the partitions to use the entire drive? That is where I'm a bit confused - as to what is really possible, with imaging and BootItNG. |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
"Bill in Co." wrote in message
... Thanks Gary. Let me see if I get this now.. This is what I now have: one 40 GB HD, partitioned into a 15 GB (C partition, and a 25 GB (D partition (for my video stuff). So I think the easiest thing to do would be to copy these two partitions over to the new 80 GB drive when I get it, using BING. This would then be identical to what I have now, and the new C: will be bootable, even though it was only "copied", and not imaged. Right? Right. Another potential problem: what you said about the 33 GB partition size (is that a FAT32 limit)? I'm guessing it is (w/o tricks). If so, I guess I'd probably go to 4 total partitions. So I'd end up with C:, D:, E:, and F: Not really sure about these limits, I could be full of it. And later, if I wanted to resize any of them anyway I want, I could probably do it with BING?, or for sure with Partition Magic, right? Will be no problem with BING, and much less likely to bite you in the arse than PM, IMO. -- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP for Win9x |
#15
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
Thanks Bill - that part sounds important!
I haven't got the new HD disk yet. But after recently getting/discovering a few bad sectors/clusters (very few, though), I was getting a bit worried, and still think it might be a good idea. I have no idea what caused this. Maybe all the wear and tear from messin' with home videos (where the filesizes are huge). (In fact, so huge, I bought BurstCopy to help speed up some of the transfers). I wonder how many in here have a HD with bad sectors? Maybe it's not as uncommon as I think. Bill Blanton wrote: "Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message ... "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... This is what I now have: one 40 GB HD, partitioned into a 15 GB (C partition, and a 25 GB (D partition (for my video stuff). So I think the easiest thing to do would be to copy these two partitions over to the new 80 GB drive when I get it, using BING. This would then be identical to what I have now, and the new C: will be bootable, even though it was only "copied", and not imaged. Right? Right. You may have to set the copy of the boot partition active. Do a "View MBR" on the HD, select the partition and do a "Set active". (if they haven't moved it.. BING is updated frequently, and I don't have the latest version) |
#16
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
A few bad sectors, right out of the box are not unusual, or at least didn't used
to be. They get marked bad and ignored forever. Sectors that start going bad after long use--that's a sign of impending catastrophic failure. -- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP for Win9x "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... Thanks Bill - that part sounds important! I haven't got the new HD disk yet. But after recently getting/discovering a few bad sectors/clusters (very few, though), I was getting a bit worried, and still think it might be a good idea. I have no idea what caused this. Maybe all the wear and tear from messin' with home videos (where the filesizes are huge). (In fact, so huge, I bought BurstCopy to help speed up some of the transfers). I wonder how many in here have a HD with bad sectors? Maybe it's not as uncommon as I think. Bill Blanton wrote: "Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message ... "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... This is what I now have: one 40 GB HD, partitioned into a 15 GB (C partition, and a 25 GB (D partition (for my video stuff). So I think the easiest thing to do would be to copy these two partitions over to the new 80 GB drive when I get it, using BING. This would then be identical to what I have now, and the new C: will be bootable, even though it was only "copied", and not imaged. Right? Right. You may have to set the copy of the boot partition active. Do a "View MBR" on the HD, select the partition and do a "Set active". (if they haven't moved it.. BING is updated frequently, and I don't have the latest version) |
#17
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
But just how reliable is that sign? Maybe these clusters or sectors were
never "tested" until now, for all I know? (I think you HAVE to run scandisk in the thorough mode to find out - which I have just recently done - and it takes forever). I've got a grand total of 5 bad ones. But I do believe they developed somewhat recently. But so far the number hasn't changed. Maybe I need to monitor it, and see if it goes up? IOW, maybe it's like a harmless freckle. I dunno? Gary S. Terhune wrote: A few bad sectors, right out of the box are not unusual, or at least didn't used to be. They get marked bad and ignored forever. Sectors that start going bad after long use--that's a sign of impending catastrophic failure. -- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP for Win9x "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... Thanks Bill - that part sounds important! I haven't got the new HD disk yet. But after recently getting/discovering a few bad sectors/clusters (very few, though), I was getting a bit worried, and still think it might be a good idea. I have no idea what caused this. Maybe all the wear and tear from messin' with home videos (where the filesizes are huge). (In fact, so huge, I bought BurstCopy to help speed up some of the transfers). I wonder how many in here have a HD with bad sectors? Maybe it's not as uncommon as I think. Bill Blanton wrote: "Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message ... "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... This is what I now have: one 40 GB HD, partitioned into a 15 GB (C partition, and a 25 GB (D partition (for my video stuff). So I think the easiest thing to do would be to copy these two partitions over to the new 80 GB drive when I get it, using BING. This would then be identical to what I have now, and the new C: will be bootable, even though it was only "copied", and not imaged. Right? Right. You may have to set the copy of the boot partition active. Do a "View MBR" on the HD, select the partition and do a "Set active". (if they haven't moved it.. BING is updated frequently, and I don't have the latest version) |
#18
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
Bill in Co. wrote in message ... But just how reliable is that sign? You could take it to the bank and get a loan on it, if the bank would accept it as collateral, which they won't. The sign is VERY reliable. Maybe these clusters or sectors were never "tested" until now, for all I know? Impossible. You have to FDISK and FORMAT before you can use the drive. If they were bad then, they would have been marked as bad then. (I think you HAVE to run scandisk in the thorough mode to find out - which I have just recently done - and it takes forever). It takes forever because the SCANDISK motto is "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again and again and again and again and again................................" I've got a grand total of 5 bad ones. But I do believe they developed somewhat recently. But so far the number hasn't changed. Maybe I need to monitor it, and see if it goes up? If you do not have a spare hard drive, FDISKed and FORMATted, with a backup of your current drives on it, then it doesn't really matter whether they will increase in future or not. Someday, sooner or later, your drive will die, regardless of whether it is 3 days old or 3 months old or 3 years old. It is inevitable. IOW, maybe it's like a harmless freckle. Or a malignant one. I dunno? What Gary said was spot on. You should listen and take precautions. Gary S. Terhune wrote: A few bad sectors, right out of the box are not unusual, or at least didn't used to be. They get marked bad and ignored forever. Sectors that start going bad after long use--that's a sign of impending catastrophic failure. -- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP for Win9x "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... Thanks Bill - that part sounds important! I haven't got the new HD disk yet. But after recently getting/discovering a few bad sectors/clusters (very few, though), I was getting a bit worried, and still think it might be a good idea. I have no idea what caused this. Maybe all the wear and tear from messin' with home videos (where the filesizes are huge). (In fact, so huge, I bought BurstCopy to help speed up some of the transfers). I wonder how many in here have a HD with bad sectors? Maybe it's not as uncommon as I think. Bill Blanton wrote: "Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message ... "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... This is what I now have: one 40 GB HD, partitioned into a 15 GB (C partition, and a 25 GB (D partition (for my video stuff). So I think the easiest thing to do would be to copy these two partitions over to the new 80 GB drive when I get it, using BING. This would then be identical to what I have now, and the new C: will be bootable, even though it was only "copied", and not imaged. Right? Right. You may have to set the copy of the boot partition active. Do a "View MBR" on the HD, select the partition and do a "Set active". (if they haven't moved it.. BING is updated frequently, and I don't have the latest version) |
#19
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
What he said, g.
-- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP for Win9x "Hugh Candlin" wrote in message ... Bill in Co. wrote in message ... But just how reliable is that sign? You could take it to the bank and get a loan on it, if the bank would accept it as collateral, which they won't. The sign is VERY reliable. Maybe these clusters or sectors were never "tested" until now, for all I know? Impossible. You have to FDISK and FORMAT before you can use the drive. If they were bad then, they would have been marked as bad then. (I think you HAVE to run scandisk in the thorough mode to find out - which I have just recently done - and it takes forever). It takes forever because the SCANDISK motto is "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again and again and again and again and again................................" I've got a grand total of 5 bad ones. But I do believe they developed somewhat recently. But so far the number hasn't changed. Maybe I need to monitor it, and see if it goes up? If you do not have a spare hard drive, FDISKed and FORMATted, with a backup of your current drives on it, then it doesn't really matter whether they will increase in future or not. Someday, sooner or later, your drive will die, regardless of whether it is 3 days old or 3 months old or 3 years old. It is inevitable. IOW, maybe it's like a harmless freckle. Or a malignant one. I dunno? What Gary said was spot on. You should listen and take precautions. Gary S. Terhune wrote: A few bad sectors, right out of the box are not unusual, or at least didn't used to be. They get marked bad and ignored forever. Sectors that start going bad after long use--that's a sign of impending catastrophic failure. -- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP for Win9x "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... Thanks Bill - that part sounds important! I haven't got the new HD disk yet. But after recently getting/discovering a few bad sectors/clusters (very few, though), I was getting a bit worried, and still think it might be a good idea. I have no idea what caused this. Maybe all the wear and tear from messin' with home videos (where the filesizes are huge). (In fact, so huge, I bought BurstCopy to help speed up some of the transfers). I wonder how many in here have a HD with bad sectors? Maybe it's not as uncommon as I think. Bill Blanton wrote: "Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message ... "Bill in Co." wrote in message ... This is what I now have: one 40 GB HD, partitioned into a 15 GB (C partition, and a 25 GB (D partition (for my video stuff). So I think the easiest thing to do would be to copy these two partitions over to the new 80 GB drive when I get it, using BING. This would then be identical to what I have now, and the new C: will be bootable, even though it was only "copied", and not imaged. Right? Right. You may have to set the copy of the boot partition active. Do a "View MBR" on the HD, select the partition and do a "Set active". (if they haven't moved it.. BING is updated frequently, and I don't have the latest version) |
#20
|
|||
|
|||
Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?
Hugh Candlin wrote:
Bill in Co. wrote in message ... But just how reliable is that sign? You could take it to the bank and get a loan on it, if the bank would accept it as collateral, which they won't. The sign is VERY reliable. Maybe these clusters or sectors were never "tested" until now, for all I know? Impossible. You have to FDISK and FORMAT before you can use the drive. If they were bad then, they would have been marked as bad then. (I think you HAVE to run scandisk in the thorough mode to find out - which I have just recently done - and it takes forever). It takes forever because the SCANDISK motto is "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again and again and again and again and again................................" I've got a grand total of 5 bad ones. But I do believe they developed somewhat recently. But so far the number hasn't changed. Maybe I need to monitor it, and see if it goes up? If you do not have a spare hard drive, FDISKed and FORMATted, with a backup of your current drives on it, then it doesn't really matter whether they will increase in future or not. Someday, sooner or later, your drive will die, regardless of whether it is 3 days old or 3 months old or 3 years old. It is inevitable. OK, I think you've convinced me to get a new HD. After I buy it (it will be a 80 GB Western Digital), can I directly use BING on it, or do I need to first run FDISK and FORMAT before I can use BING? (haven't used BING yet) But I will need to use BING to set up the partitions, not FDISK, because I just want to copy the existing partitions from my old drive over to the new drive. I'll worry about the extra 40GB free space afterwards. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|