Restoring old harddrive to new computer

[jperazzo]

Hello,
I have an old 1Ghz P3 computer that's running Win XP. I want to buy a new computer, reinstall the same Win XP to it, and restore the old harddrive data onto a new one. Is there some way of doing this without having to reinstall all the programs again? Is there a procedure checklist or something I can follow that will allow this to happen? I don't want to have to reinstall the gazillion programs I have on the current harddrive.

Thanks for the help.

JP

[Hagar]

Use Repair Install. Fred Langa has an article that explains most about this: http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897
You probably want to have Windows on a new disk. There are many different tools that can copy a Windows installation from one HDD to another. I use Ghost 2003.

[Paul Komski]

Hagar's advice is sound in principle but the best advice on what to do and how depends a bit on whether the new PC comes with an installation CD or a restoration CD/image partition. If so you may want to save any preinstalled restoration image files or operating system to CDs/DVDs before overwriting the new hard drive with your old system.

Personally I haven't used Ghost since Norton took over PowerQuest and find BiNG a tremendously versatile and cheap alternative to Ghost plus Partition Magic. There are other cloning/imaging software utililities that are completely free but have a bigger learning curve - with the exception of CopyWipe (http://www.bootitng.com/copywipe.php), which is now free and very straightforward to use.

I would also highly recommend that if you don't have the drivers for any of the hardware on the new computer that you boot to its operating system and back them up onto removable media before starting. Sylvander has a recommendation for such backup software that is very effective - but I dont have a link to it at my fingertips.

NB that you will need a full Windows installation CD in your possession before beginning and be in a position to reactivate the OS after you have repaired the transferred system.

To recap and in simplistic terms:
Swap in your old PC's HDD or clone the old one's contents to the new (bearing in mind the above).
Boot to the Windows installation CD and choose new installation.
Follow the prompts and you should eventually be presented with an option to repair an existing installation. Go with that one and don't be confused by an earlier prompt to repair using the recovery console, which you should avoid.

NB Very strongly suggest that you backup your current system using imaging software onto removeable media prior to going down this road.

[Sylvander]

I tried out a 15-day free trial of My Drivers 3.22 (http://www.zhangduo.com/driverbackup.html) some time back.
It backs up ALL the drivers to a higherarchical folder system, each descriptively named folder holding the driver for each harware item.

I can't remember whether the free trial version would restore those drivers or whether you had to pay to have them restored.

[jperazzo]

Thanks for the advice. The old HDD is in perfectly good working order, so when you say "boot to the HDD operating system" I assume that just means you get to a Windows desktop. Can I just plug it in as a 2nd HDD and restore by copying files to the new HDD this way? If we bought a computer with a restoration CD, how does that change what you advise? Say we buy a Dell, which comes with restoration CD's. Can I still do a restore using Sylvander? Otherwise, I am willing to buy a full version of Windows XP and reformat the drive and start fresh. My goal is to have a new HDD that looks, feels and has the same software as my old HDD without installing everything all over. Thanks for your time.

[Paul Komski]

Can I just plug it in as a 2nd HDD and restore by copying files to the new HDD this way?Yes, well sort of, but you would do the copying from outside windows, which is why you need a utility such as copywipe. This clones the partition sector by sector rather than by file to file.

If we bought a computer with a restoration CD, how does that change what you advise?A restoration CD would restore your new PC to its factory state and what you want is a functioning version of your old hard drive and programs etc.

Say we buy a Dell, which comes with restoration CD's.Most Dells nowadays come with a hidden partiton on the hard drive from which you can run a factory restore of that computer. Cloning one drive to the other is likely to lead to the removal of that partition if you are not careful.

If the Dell doesnt have an installation CD as opposed to a restoration CD you will indeed need to buy a WinXP CD (but make sure it is the same version as that already running on your old system).

[jperazzo]

What is your opinion of Copy Commander 9. Does it do what it claims?
http://www.v-com.com/product/Copy_Commander_Home.html?gclid=CKeO9eHrxYoCFU9FGAo dKHA5gw

[Paul Komski]

What is your opinion of Copy Commander 9.
Expensive when you can get CopyWipe (http://www.bootitng.com/copywipe.php) for free.

[jperazzo]

So, I read and re-read the instructions and I proceeded to copy using COPYWIPE to copy the good HDD that was in the old computer onto a new HDD inside a new HP computer that was running Vista (which at this point has been wiped out). What happens is now when it tries to bootup it keeps coming back to the screen where XP apologizes and cannot start windows and I can't get it to boot even in Safe mode.

What are my alternatives now?

[Paul Komski]

It was intimated at the start that you cannot just move a system over from one computer to another one and all will be well. That is as true when you transfer a physical drive as when you copy across a clone.

To migrate a WinXP system from one PC to another one you will first need to run a repair installation on the transferred system and be prepared, with WinXP, to have to reactivate the operating system.

You have now mentioned a new PC running Vista and not all new PCs will make available the drivers to run WinXP - so that is a potential new problem.

[jperazzo]

Ok. So I didn't pay attention to the intimation that I can't move a drive to another. So... VISTA on the new HP is wiped out so there's not issue with that. I have an XP CD and start-up disks to get me through the setup. Is there an autorepair off the floppies? Or the CD? Can I even recover it at this point?

[Paul Komski]

Repair Installation (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm)

Hope you have the drivers.