Complete HD to HD Copy - Help needed + Question

Ok, long story short, I have an internal hard-drive (Maxtor DiamondMax 250gb) in an external enclosure, but I misplaced the power cord for it a long time ago, and am not able to use it. I bought a new Rosewill SATA HD enclosure to switch with the other, but apparently my HD is a PATA (more like PITA) drive, so they are not compatible.

The only SATA HD I have is another Maxtor (DiamondMax 200GB) in my actual PC. Is there any program that will allow me to completely copy the contents of the one currently in my PC to the one I used to use as an external, so I don't have to sent the new Rosewill enclosure back to Newegg and eat the restocking fee?



Also I have a question that will require some backstory. Basically, my father had this computer built and worked on by someone he knows, so I don't know much about what went into making it.

Now, it has 3 hard-drives; C: (The main HD, Maxtor SATA) E: (Random WD, used for my fathers old files from our last PC), and F: (My HD, and also where the question comes in). I have no idea where/what the the F: drive actually is. There are only 2 physical drives in the PC itself, so I'm thinking the 200GB Maxtor must've had a petitioned drive or something, but I don't know much about that considering I've never done it before.


The curious part is how Windows displays my drives (see picture). There is the Maxtor, which is the main drive, the WD, and one called "Epson Stylus Storage USB device". I assume this must be mine, but I don't know if that's correct or Windows making a mistake in identifying it. The only Epson thing we own is a Epson Stylus Photo R300 printer, which I don't believe has an sort of built-in storage space. I basically want to know where my data is actually being stored (I assume on the Maxtor), and if this will be a problem in doing the transfer.

I can probably dump out most of the WD drive and copy all my stuff onto there until I get the external up and running, but I would need some assistance in doing so. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this and help me out.

Here's a screenshot of the hardware detected:

Ok, first the easy answers the "epson stylus storage usb device" is the media card reader on the front of the printer. The F: drive might be a partition that holds the system restore files, I can't be sure but since you say it's a 200GB HDD that's what i will assume. The picture shows two dvd drives one is D: and the other is G:.

The hard drive problem is more diificult since it involves swapping drives and pin settings, only do this if you are familiar with working on computers. If your motherboard supports PATA drives, connect the PATA drive as a secondary drive and partition it. Turn off the PC change the pin to primary and install windows then use windows backup or another program to copy everything over.

SATA drives don't have any pins to change it's automatically recognized as primary or secondary. Hopefully you have enough extra space on your hard drives to do this if you don't you're probably better off buying another SATA drive to use as the external drive. Check Newegg or Fry's for reasonably priced SATA drives.

It looks like your 200GB SATA hard drive inside your computer is partitioned into 127GB C: and 62GB F:, and your dad's hard drive is an 80GB on its own. So if you remove the 200GB hard drive that is inside your computer, you'll be removing both the C: and the F: drives. Also this applies to if you're going to clone the 200GB to another hard drive, all the data in C: and F: will be cloned if you choose to duplicate the hard drive completely.

Cloning hard drive from PATA to SATA is not a straight shot, and it does not have a high success rate. It depends on your motherboard's chipset, the software that you use to clone, the version of Windows you're using, the drivers used during the initial Windows setup process (files that were used on the Windows CD), and other factors. I've done this process twice before, one was a success (Abit IP35-E motherboard, Windows XP SP2, Norton Ghost 14, Maxtor 120GB PATA to Maxtor 320GB SATA), and one was a failure (Shuttle ST20G5, Windows XP SP2, Norton Ghost 10 I believe, Maxtor 80GB PATA to Seagate 160GB SATA). The latter one that failed would blue screen during Windows bootup, repairing Windows still displayed blue screen, and reinstalling Windows would freeze during the reinstallation process. I ended up reformatting and installing Windows from ground up.

So what does that mean? Don't clone your hard drive. The 200GB SATA hard drive inside your computer now is likely faster than the 250GB PATA drive you have. So you'll be downgrading yourself. I would just recommend to keep the Rosewill enclosure you have, and wait for a good deal on a SATA drive to throw into the enclosure. If you don't want your 250GB PATA drive to go waste, you may be able to install it into your computer as an internal drive IF you have available PATA connectors (remember to set the 250GB drive as slave or master, ask us again if you want to know more). If your DVD drive is SATA, then you may have at least an extra PATA you can use. Now this is where it gets complicated, if your motherboard only has one PATA connector, and that your DVD drive is also PATA (in addition to the 80GB hard drive), then you are out of luck without spending more money. But if your motherboard has two (2) PATA connectors, then you can easily place the 250GB into the computer with an extra IDE ribbon cable.