Easiest way to migrate to a bigger hard drive?

[oghowie]

I just got a 160gb Lenovo Hard Drive for my wife and need to migrate all the info from her old 80gb.

What is the easiest way to do this since we never called in for the IBM restore discs? Would the restore discs be the easiest way to go?

Thanks.

[jdhurst]

It depends. (Doesn't it always?)

With one exception (the airbag disaster), when I get a new hard drive, it alwasy seems time for me to rebuild.

On one hand, my machines run reliably year in and year out.

On the other hand, things change, and it seem a good idea with a new hard drive to have only the newest applications (not the constant uninstall old/reinstall new multiple times over).

So if you are up to the challenge, get a set of restore disks, build a proper new system, and then restore your data.
... JDH

[snessiram]

In case you're (like I was recently) too lazy to reïnstall your programs and set your configs again, I'd buy an external (or ultrabay) harddrive case and put the new disk in it. Then boot a gparted livecd and copy your partitions to the new disk. Then switch the harddrives. It's possible that you would need to reset your mbr (for example using some windows xp live cd and doing fixboot and fixmbr) for the new drive to boot (I needed to re-initialise grub, which I'm using to dualboot with linux). When you can normally boot into your system, boot the gparted live-cd and resize your xp partition so it fills up all the space (windows will probably perform a chkdsk when you restart windows then).

[ran007]

Actually, I would use Ghost. Download it from Symantec or buy at Office Depo or Best Buy.

It lets you save an snapshot of your hard drive to a separate USB drive (could be another 80GB 5.25" external usb HD drive or even a network share -which I think is easiest, but a little slower). You then put the new 160GB 2.5" drive in, run Ghost and pull the image back onto the new drive.

Ghost does it all for you, works like a champ, and you don't have to mess with words like "MBR", "linux" "fixboot", "fixmbr", "gparted" or "chkdsk" that other people use with movie star-like arrogance.

[Brad]

Besides ran007's excellent Ghost suggestion I have great success with Acronis True Image. You can download a fully functional trial and take a test drive.

Brad

[jdhurst]

I use Ghost for client images and agree that it works very well. ... JDH

[lesmoss]

The Windows XP backup/restore utility worked fine for me. Just do a backup to an external drive, put in the new disk, use the IBM restore disks to get Windows running. Update Windows to the SP level you used to create your backup file. Finally, use the XP restore utility to get you back to your original state.

[ran007]

The Windows XP backup/restore utility worked fine for me. Just do a backup to an external drive, put in the new disk, use the IBM restore disks to get Windows running. Update Windows to the SP level you used to create your backup file. Finally, use the XP restore utility to get you back to your original state.

AGHHHH! Too many variables that can go wrong.

Ghost it baby.

[gator]

Downoading a trial version of acronis and cloning the drive is a very easy option... but beware tha tyou need either a ultrabay caddy or an external SATA enclosure for this.

[ryengineer]

If you've two computers in a network LAN/WAN etc. and all you would like to do is to copy the following item:

-Operating system preferences, such as desktop and network connectivity settings.

-Files and directories.

-Customized application settings, such as bookmarks in a Web browser or editing preferences in word processing software.

-User profiles.

Then, I suggest on using ThinkVantage System Migration Assistant, otherwise look for the posts from other gentlemen above in this thread who have provided you with great some advice.