How do I copy partial hard drive to new hard

[bkb61063]

I am planning on replacing my hard drive and would like to copy all of the information out of it except for the operating system (Windows 98). Is there any way to install a brand new operating system (Windows 98-the same) on a new freshly formatted hard drive, then reinstall the old hard drive, perhaps at the secondary IDE port, and extract the files and info that I want?

[GROGSTER]

Hi!

If you just want more space, and don't wanna change anything, then I highly reccomend SEAGATE's upgrade package, as this package will copy all the old info from your old HDD(including boot-sectors and hidden files) to the new drive, afterwhich all you have to do is remove the old drive and re-boot...
Sweet...

BUT, if you wanna change OS, but copy the old info out of the old drive, then the following steps will help you do it:

You will need to do a few things before you copy all the old stuff, though:

FIRST AND FORMOST: Backup the contents of your old HDD.
Do this before attempting any HDD upgrade.
Beg or borrow a CD-writer if you need to.
For US$15 or so, you can buy a 10-pack of CD-R's that can hold up to 7GB spread over all ten disks.
Cheap insurance if something goes wrong.

That done:

1) Remove(temporarily) the now old HDD, and put it to one side - OBSERVE STATIC PRECAUTIONS AND USE A GROUNDED WRIST STRAP.
Static electricity can KILL a hard-drive, once the IDE cable and power cable are removed, and there is no circuit to earth for any static...

2) Install the new HDD, and load up any DDO(Dynamic Drive Overlay) that may be needed, if your computer's BIOS cannot "See" the large drive.

3) SYS the drive from a WIN95/98 RECOVERY DISK in the 3.5" floppy drive, so that you can boot up your computer to plain MS-DOS.

4) Install Win95/98/Me/2000.

** NOTE **
If installing an OS other then Windows, then you should follow the OS in question's instructions, not these steps...

Once all is up and running:
(might take a bit of farting around - you know MicroShaft...)

5) Replace the old HDD, jumpered as the SLAVE to the new HDD you set up.

Seeing as the new drive now has complete control of the computer, and the OS is running from that new drive, you should be able to access all the old files on the now Slave drive, in exactly the same layout of folders and files that the old drive had, albeit via a new drive letter, probably D.
(assuming that any, if all, CD-drives are on the secondary IDE interface.)

** NOTE **
Copying all the old info from the old HDD can POSSIBLY cause problems, as some programs will expect to find certain files in a certain place on a specific drive; IE: the old HDD you are copying files from. Copying the files from, say, the "D:" drive(which is now the old "C:" drive, as a slave to the new drive you installed) to the new C drive might upset some refernces to the HDD and any/all CD-drives.
You will only find this out when you try to run the programs, and the system can't find the reference anymore...
I suggest that you copy all folders that you want from the old drive to the new drive, KEEPING THE FOLDER LAYOUT EXACTLY THE SAME on the new drive as the old drive.

Keep us posted on how you get on!


G.