asked on

Copy almost an entire hard drive to a new Sys...

I couldnt think of a better way to ask this question.

I have a client that I am building a new computer for. She is a secretary for a lawyer and she has thousands of files from dozens of different programs ranging from Lotus to Quickbooks to various other tax programs. She insists that ALL of these files must be protected and transferred to the new system. She also insists that everything be on her C:\ drive only. Thats the only way that she can find anything. If it is on a D:\ drive or anything else- she is lost. This eliminates adding the old hard drive to the new system.
In most cases, she has used the default file location for these programs to store all these files, ( Ex:c:\windows\programfiles\lotus\...), which means that if these files are not in the same diractory as before- she'll be lost.
My question is-- can I copy the entire old HDD to the new using xcopy or something like it? If so, will it run windows and all these programs after the xcopy? My needed goal here is to have the new system C:\ drive look exactly or very close to the old one.

Also, does xcopy have to have matching partition sizes? Shes going from a 20 Gig HDD to a 120 Gig hdd?

She is presently running W98 and is going to W2000 Professional.

Hope this is enough info. Any suggestions are much appreciated.
Rick

nobus

i would recommend norton ghost

http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

nobus

But, i would add, i would setup her new disk the same as the old one and copy them by hand; it takes a while, but then you know exactly what is where. (for the future)

rixxagain

ASKER

Ya know, ya might be right about that Nobus. Ghost 2003 will do a network clone- which I want to do, but will it allow the master run W98, and the target run W2000Pro? Also- with W2000 Pro already installed on the target, what happens? Does it restart with W98 and all the network, video, etc settings from the source computer? Or can I simply copy the directories for these programs? Like, if I copy the entire directory for quickbooks, will QB run? And will the previous files open? I dont know the answers to these Q's.
Thx Nobus
Rick

nobus

>> but will it allow the master run W98, and the target run W2000Pro << No. It is intended for cloning the OS; if you want to change the OS, you need to install everything from scratch.
What you can try, after making a reliable backup, is this :
install W2k on the new system, with an extra partition on it to receive the old system, and ghost it to it, But i would not even try it; since it would be on another partition, that is not what you want.

stockhes

How about cloning the drive at afterwards install another OS ?

This is for free.

http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy10.htm

stockhes

sorry for typo

How about cloning the drive and afterwards install another OS ?

This is for free.

http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy10.htm

SOLUTION

nobus

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

talkabout_wireless

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

sd61helpdesk

There is no possible way for you to Ghost and run Windows successfuly on the new machine. With that new machine it will require different drivers for your Mobo and CPU.
I would install 2000 and map the old hard drive over the network - create a new folder called "From Old PC" and copy all the pertinent info over to that. From there you/she can move the files to the appropriate locations once the software has been reinstalled.

rixxagain

ASKER

Sorry so long in response Nobus.
As it turns out, my assistant ended up moving all the data by hand. Alls well that ends well.
Ill split the points between you and wireless.

Thanks for the help
Rick