How to Copy Data From One Hard Drive to Another

You too can copy one hard drive to another without a degree in magic. This article includes the ins and outs of getting the job done including a small amount of information on alternate methods.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Hard drives (2)
• copy utility software(freeware)

1. THE SET UP
   
   Place the additional hard drive inside your tower or lay it circuit side up (green printed circuit board up) on the case to not allow stray voltage. Laying the green side down may cause damage including total loss of the hard drive. If your motherboard has two IDE interfaces, the other would be connected to the CD-ROM drive then you are in the money. Your transfer will go twice as fast if you disconnect the CD-ROM drive and connect the secondary hard drive. This is not recommended for long term usage as the CD-ROM would cause delay on the secondary drive.

2. CONNECTING THE NEW DRIVE/FORMAT
   
   The next step is to choose the order of the drives including which will be Master and which will be slave. You may place the new drive as the primary without the other connected and format it as the master. Then connect the old one as a slave drive. By only having one connected at a time you will avoid losing your data by formatting the wrong drive.

3. COPYING FILES
   
   For the next part you will need a copy utility which is available on the internet as freeware. Make a copy of the data using one of these programs selecting the partition to be copied. For most this will be the C drive. At this point you are making a copy of the image on the hard drive and all contents within. You should make a copy of all application data and user data within Windows. By installing Windows on the second drive and moving the data copied to the same folders all of your custom settings are saved. I would recommend running a virus scan on these items before copying them. Some of the most common are passwords ending in .pwl, favorites off your browser, cookies, your dial up network connection settings, and the mailboxes depending on which mail system you are using.

Tips & Warnings

• ADDITIONAL METHODS Although in some cases a back up program and system restore method would work, this is only the case when larger amounts of data are not being moved. Other issues arrive from the back up and restore method when registries are merged and data is corrupted on the original drive. There is a DOS method of transfer that is very reliable although not for the faint of heart. This method is not recommended for the average user as it is not user friendly and does not utilize the GUI interface.
• To sum it up these are the steps that you will need to take to transfer the data. 1. make a backup of the current system on a floppy or to some other media 2. connect and format the new drive 3. add the copied files from the back up disk
• As always back up your data before performing a major change to you system.

[mweise]

on 6/25/2009 Thanks for explaining how to do this!

[bfreethree]

on 6/21/2009 Great article grouch, I wish I had read it two months ago. Thanks.

[guesswhat]

on 4/17/2009 Great article ....keep up the good work...I gave you 5 Stars and RR on 5 of your articles,very informational...ty ...Please return the favor..Al

[Vasco]

on 4/6/2009 thank you for the info and I recommended you!

[stefyspeak]

on 4/2/2009 This is important. one of my friends is a computer whiz and he just had to do this for my mom. 5*