Moving OS to a different Hard Drive..?

steveinspain · 6 Apr 2009 at 21:28

OK, like a fool, I put my OS (XP) onto my 1TB hard drive, and am now wondering about moving it to a small hard drive.
Is it easy for someone who knows very little about computers ?
Also, if I were to upgrade my OS and then install it on the smaller hard drive, would it be easy to remove the old OS from my 1TB drive ?
Cheers
Steve

RJC · 6 Apr 2009 at 21:43

steveinspain said:
OK, like a fool, I put my OS (XP) onto my 1TB hard drive, and am now wondering about moving it to a small hard drive.
Is it easy for someone who knows very little about computers ?
Also, if I were to upgrade my OS and then install it on the smaller hard drive, would it be easy to remove the old OS from my 1TB drive ?
Cheers
Steve

Download Acronis True Image (they did do a 10/30 day trial) and copy your current installation to the smaller disc.

Just delete the windows file's or format your 1tb drive if you don't have any files you want to keep.

steveinspain · 7 Apr 2009 at 06:29

Thanks RJC !
I am waiting till my new CPU cooler and case fan arrives then will rebuild and give it a try..!

funkeh · 7 Apr 2009 at 06:52

Xxclone is free and very easy/reliable to use.

CaptainCrash · 7 Apr 2009 at 10:19

Not sure what you mean by a "small" hard drive, but don't go sticking your OS on an old 40/60/80GB clunker.

The latest generation of high-density 1TB 7200rpm drives will outperform anything short of a WD Velociraptor, so unless your dedicated OS drive is also reasonably fast, you might instead want to consider creating a small C partition for XP in the fast outer tracks of the 1TB drive, and leave the rest for your data.

steveinspain · 8 Apr 2009 at 07:19

CaptainCrash said:
Not sure what you mean by a "small" hard drive, but don't go sticking your OS on an old 40/60/80GB clunker.

I have a WD 160gb hard drive sitting still in its wrapper that i was going to use in my old pc, so thought of using that, however, it may be a bit slow (I have no idea) so maybe I'll forget it for now, and just fit another biggie - I also have a 750gb Samsung spinpoint waiting to be used..