Need to migrate to a new hard drive on Windows 7

[ictponder]

Just got my hard drive back from warranty repair and need to move everything back to it ie: OS, all installed programs

What would be the best program to use to do this? Also, will I have to reactivate Windows if I manage to migrate to the new hard drive?

[CoopKill]

Are you migrating from an existing drive to another? Or have to start from fresh?

If you are migrating from a drive that is set up already to a different drive, Win7 can create a disk image and you can go that route. You would need to have a few DVD's or a network/external drive to accomplish this though.

You will not have to reactivate if the rest of your hardware is unchanged.

[nodoze]

if moving from an old hd you have in hand to a new one already installed i bought a couple hd enclosures one for ide and one for sata that basicly turns it into a usb flash drive. you may or may not have to go through and change ownership over to your new os and that can take some time

[ictponder]

I'm going from one physical disc to another. Both are installed and recognized in windows.

I'm going to try Acronis True Image and see if I get anywhere with that. If it works I need to figure out how to keep all my movies and mp3 albums on the extra (current system drive) hard drive but still have Windows 7 see them as they are now in the proper libraries.

[SupraMKIII]

You can change the location of the library directories after you get the files moved.

If you click start, then right click pictures, music, etc, and click properties, you can change what folders are monitored and included in the libraries.

[GTOJOE]

Use Acronis [boot off the disc]. Go to the tools section and there is a clone disc option. Clone your current disc to the new [repair drive]. Very simple. I use this program almost daily.

[YoshiBishi]

^ That is the way to go.

[ictponder]

Use Acronis [boot off the disc]. Go to the tools section and there is a clone disc option. Clone your current disc to the new [repair drive]. Very simple. I use this program almost daily.

That's what I ended up doing and it worked perfectly. Apparently some people have issues with doing the clone while the OS is active and end up with a login loop with the new hard drive. Overall this utility was very nice and easy to use.

I set windows on it's own 80gb partition and the other 670gb I will use for programs. My old hard drive will be for mp3's and movies. Acronis has a feature for a recovery boot option so I might make a restore partition which will work identical to the Dell Restore Utility.

[YoshiBishi]

Glad things worked out :)! If you end up with the boot loop, most of the time booting your machine to the Windows 7 disk and running a startup repair will fix it.

[sketch]

i'm late to the party but any disk-disk imaging utility FTMFW IMO


Glad things worked out :)! If you end up with the boot loop, most of the time booting your machine to the Windows 7 disk and running a startup repair will fix it.
so true. windows 7 startup repair is actually very robust. it's even told me about dead/dying hard drives on student laptops before i've gotten the chance to run any hardware diagnostics on it.

glad it worked out for you =]

[GTOJOE]

That's what I ended up doing and it worked perfectly. Apparently some people have issues with doing the clone while the OS is active and end up with a login loop with the new hard drive. Overall this utility was very nice and easy to use.

I set windows on it's own 80gb partition and the other 670gb I will use for programs. My old hard drive will be for mp3's and movies. Acronis has a feature for a recovery boot option so I might make a restore partition which will work identical to the Dell Restore Utility.

Glad to hear. If you boot off the disc instead of installing it in Windows there are never any issues with the cloning process. I avoid cloning an active/running system if possible. Use norton ghost or acronis boot discs where ever possible.

[a2j]

if your new hddrive is same or bigger capacity than old, here is what worked for me all the time.

load to the best operation system in the world (aka Linux) with both of your hdds attached. open CLI (aka terminal) and type: fdisk -l
to find out which one is old and which is new disk (like sda1 ->old and sdb1->new). then type: dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1 bs=4096K
hit enter and comeback in 1 hour or so (depends on the size and other factors). this will clone EVERYTHING from old to the new drive. after its done, shutdown and replace your old drive with a new one. you're ready to roll.
if you're new drive was bigger, simply resize it to its full size (using gparted).
PS: dd sometimes stands for "data destroyer" if used inappropriately, so use at your own risk.

I hope this was helpful for the future reference. Using this tool should cost you absolutely nothing!

[GTOJOE]

Sorry Linux boy but that the slow method. Both Norton Ghost and Accronis have the ability to automatically resize a disc either smaller or larger or you can manually select the size of each partition :p

[a2j]

Norton Ghost does not have the ability to copy "deleted" files and "empty" space. dd can do forensic duplication. aka exact copy/clone of the drive. yes 250GB or more will take time. but you won't loose any data going that way. unless you will mess up typing the right command.
PS: after taking Computer Forensics, I trust non of those tools, if I care about the data on the drive.

[sketch]

if your new hddrive is same or bigger capacity than old, here is what worked for me all the time.

load to the best operation system in the world (aka Linux) with both of your hdds attached. open CLI (aka terminal) and type: fdisk -l
to find out which one is old and which is new disk (like sda1 ->old and sdb1->new). then type: dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1 bs=4096K
hit enter and comeback in 1 hour or so (depends on the size and other factors). this will clone EVERYTHING from old to the new drive. after its done, shutdown and replace your old drive with a new one. you're ready to roll.
if you're new drive was bigger, simply resize it to its full size (using gparted).
PS: dd sometimes stands for "data destroyer" if used inappropriately, so use at your own risk.

I hope this was helpful for the future reference. Using this tool should cost you absolutely nothing!
is that a good way to do it? by all means, yes.
is it realistic for your average computer user to do/does your average computer user care about copying empty space or deleted files? not in my opinion or experience.


Norton Ghost does not have the ability to copy "deleted" files and "empty" space. dd can do forensic duplication. aka exact copy/clone of the drive. yes 250GB or more will take time. but you won't loose any data going that way. unless you will mess up typing the right command.
PS: after taking Computer Forensics, I trust non of those tools, if I care about the data on the drive.
incorrect. norton ghost most certainly DOES have the ability to copy "deleted" files and "empty" space. you just need to use the proper flags.
/ID tag for forensic imaging & /IA tag for sector by sector.
pages 152 & 153 (ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/ghost/manuals/symghost_8/Ghost_ref_guide.pdf)

[YoshiBishi]

My subordinates have to resort to linux to move files and sometimes they can't seem to figure out which drive is which when they fdisk, and these guys should know what they are doing... At least 5 times a day I have to help them force mount drives since they continuously try to mount the service partitions of drives instead of the actual OS partition.

I highly doubt a normal end user would have any clue how to 1) run linux commands or 2) figure out if sda1 or sda2 is their primary drive. They could clone a blank drive and end up with no data at all.. I'm pretty sure you forgot the all important "sudo" that most linux distros require in order to run Data Description.

Linux is a great OS, this is true. I run it on 3 machines at home. Especially on machine in which I browse certain not safe for work websites that could potentially damage my Windows machines... :lol7: However, I much prefer using Windows 7 for its simplicity, support, and wide range of applications. Wine support isn't even that great in linux. Sure, a bunch of stuff works, but a bunch of stuff also doesn't work.

Btw... you don't need to use GParted on a Windows 7 machine since Win7 has built in disk partitioning.

[ictponder]

Got another question.

Windows is running fine and I moved all my media libraries ie: music, movies, pictures However, I cannot get my xbox to recognize them anymore. I can get the xbox to connect to Media Center but it will not propagate the songs or videos. When I run media center or Media Player on the PC they all show up fine after clearing the database files and recreating the media libraries.

I did notice that when I try to share any of the media folders it has the lock icon next the "Nobody" option in the sharing menu. When I try to share it with anyone else it does nothing and stays on "Nobody" I went into computer management and allowed full access to Authenticated Users but still nothing. I usually listen to my music via my xbox so this is somewhat important to me.

P.S. Can't find any specific answers on Google.

[YoshiBishi]

You might want to check your network settings on your Windows 7. Go to your network and sharing options and check your advanced network settings. There are several options in there, make sure to check your Media Streaming settings. You might want to play with some of the other sharing settings. If you can't seem to get it to work, I'll test setting it up at home when I get off work.

[ictponder]

Fixed it...all my network setting were ok. I replaced all child object permissions w/inheritable ones then just removed all the non-inherent permissions from all the media library folders. Seems to be working fine now.

[sketch]

Fixed it...all my network setting were ok. I replaced all child object permissions w/inheritable ones then just removed all the non-inherent permissions from all the media library folders. Seems to be working fine now.
exactly what i was going to say :suspect:

[reallyxxxxxxloud]

I'm going from one physical disc to another. Both are installed and recognized in windows.

I'm going to try Acronis True Image and see if I get anywhere with that. If it works I need to figure out how to keep all my movies and mp3 albums on the extra (current system drive) hard drive but still have Windows 7 see them as they are now in the proper libraries.

Good program... It worked for me!!!