Upgrading hard drive

hec204

hec204

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I'm upgrading my old hard drive from 80gb and 2 mb cache to 500gb and 16mb cache, I was wondering if there was any way to "clone" my current hard drive and copy it over to my new one without having to reinstall everything from scratch(OS, software, music, files, etc.), if so how would I do so? I only have 1 space for a HD inside my computer, but if I disconnect a CD drive and connect my old drive on there would I be able to do it that way?
Thanks.
 
What you're looking for is cloning software. What it does is it copies everything from one hard drive to another (such as from an old small drive to a large new drive). Here are some free ones you can use:

DriveImage XML Private Edition
HDClone

If anyone know more of the free cloning programs feel free to post them, I'll be interested to know.

On to your other questions: Yes you can disconnect the cables from your DVD drive and connect your new hard drive to it for cloning purpose. Make sure the new hard drive is set to "slave" setting via jumper next to the power connect of the drive (read the manual that came with your drive for more details, or refer to this site). Once that is done correctly your computer will recognize both drives, your old and your new, and will be able to carry out your cloning using the above software.

PS: Just make sure your new drive is PATA too, since your own drive is PATA as far as I can guess. Look here for reference.
 
[quote name='SOSTrooper']What you're looking for is cloning software. What it does is it copies everything from one hard drive to another (such as from an old small drive to a large new drive). Here are some free ones you can use:

DriveImage XML Private Edition
HDClone

If anyone know more of the free cloning programs feel free to post them, I'll be interested to know.

On to your other questions: Yes you can disconnect the cables from your DVD drive and connect your new hard drive to it for cloning purpose. Make sure the new hard drive is set to "slave" setting via jumper next to the power connect of the drive (read the manual that came with your drive for more details, or refer to this site). Once that is done correctly your computer will recognize both drives, your old and your new, and will be able to carry out your cloning using the above software.

PS: Just make sure your new drive is PATA too, since your own drive is PATA as far as I can guess. Look here for reference.[/quote]
thanks I'll look into it, they are both PATA, also my new drive will be set to "slave" the whole time? I want to get rid of my old drive
 
[quote name='hec204']thanks I'll look into it, they are both PATA, also my new drive will be set to "slave" the whole time? I want to get rid of my old drive[/QUOTE]

You set it as slave during the process of cloning. Once you're done cloning your old drive to the new old, you can take out your old drive, set the new drive to "master", and place it back into the case.
 
[quote name='SOSTrooper']You set it as slave during the process of cloning. Once you're done cloning your old drive to the new old, you can take out your old drive, set the new drive to "master", and place it back into the case.[/quote]
I have norton ghost I think version 13, would that work for this?
 
[quote name='SOSTrooper']Here are a couple that I know of that are popular:

Anandtech
Toms Hardware[/quote]

I second both of those, but Anandtech is the one that really helped me out in this case. They have good articles / reviews where they test the performance of components compared to other models. I looked through the forums to see what people said about the ATI Radeon 4870 HD, along with the articles and test results. They were really helpful in helping me decide to go with that as my video card.

I couldn't be happier with the help and suggestions people made there. I run Crysis at 1920x1080 at with most settings at Very High and get really close 30 fps. If I lower a few things just a bit, I can run it pretty damn close to max settings at a very good framerate.
 
[quote name='typeRJ']
I couldn't be happier with the help and suggestions people made there. I run Crysis at 1920x1080 at with most settings at Very High and get really close 30 fps. If I lower a few things just a bit, I can run it pretty damn close to max settings at a very good framerate.[/quote]
You must have a big budget for your computer, mine won't even start crysis if I tried, I have an old Dell, it has a 2.8GHz P4 processor, 1gb memory, and get this, an FX 5500 PCI(not even AGP) video card, I'm in the stone age.:cry:
 
[quote name='hec204']You must have a big budget for your computer, mine won't even start crysis if I tried, I have an old Dell, it has a 2.8GHz P4 processor, 1gb memory, and get this, an FX 5500 PCI(not even AGP) video card, I'm in the stone age.:cry:[/quote]

my budget was $750, but my friend already had the heatsink, processor and motherboard. that saved me $300+.
 
Check your settings in whatever software you use to make certain the resulting clone is as you intend in terms of partition usage. Some default to making an EXACT clone meaning that you'll end up with a partition that is the same size as the original drive leaving you with leftover space that you can partition as a separate drive. Now, if that's what you want, cool but usually people just want a new bigger C: drive. If that's the case, watch yourself and define accordingly to tell the software to make the resulting partition the full size of the new drive. Most software will guide you through these concepts but they're easily overlooked if you just fly through a wizard and blindly accept the defaults.
 
[quote name='hec204']You must have a big budget for your computer, mine won't even start crysis if I tried, I have an old Dell, it has a 2.8GHz P4 processor, 1gb memory, and get this, an FX 5500 PCI(not even AGP) video card, I'm in the stone age.:cry:[/quote]

Getting a C2D based Celeron will blow your P4 away. If you actually want to game, I'd put some hard earned cash in these places, in the following order.

1) GPU threshold. Any C2D-based proc, 2.4Ghz+.
2) GPU itself - I'd just get a new 4850 for $150 at Best Buy.

Then just toss in a cheap P45 mobo, cheap DDR2, and high-quality PSU (never cheap out on power) and you're set.

Lol, yeah that's 5 items.
 
[quote name='mav451']Getting a C2D based Celeron will blow your P4 away. If you actually want to game, I'd put some hard earned cash in these places, in the following order.

1) GPU threshold. Any C2D-based proc, 2.4Ghz+.
2) GPU itself - I'd just get a new 4850 for $150 at Best Buy.

Then just toss in a cheap P45 mobo, cheap DDR2, and high-quality PSU (never cheap out on power) and you're set.

Lol, yeah that's 5 items.[/quote]

I saw that 4850 today at Best Buy. That's a pretty sweet price.

hec204: My build is about $1000. I spent $650 out of my pocket and my friend gave me a motherboard, heatsink and process worth $250+. My build is meant for gaming and some hardcore Photoshop. mav451's suggestion could run about $450 - $650 and you'd be more than able to tackle most games at higher settings than usual.
 
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