Cloning a hard drive to a smaller drive - Page 2

Stan_Lite · 23-02-2010, 01:36

Well. That worked an absolute treat.

Copied and pasted the Windows partitions to the portable HDD, switched over to the new rig and copied from the portable HDD to the new rig. When I booted up, I got the "DISK BOOT FAILURE...." message. Booted from the Windows 7 disk and did the repair boot thing and managed to boot into Windows.

Because it was all new hardware, Windows had to find and install new drivers etc but it did all that on it's own (the only thing I had to do was uninstall the Nvidia drivers from the old rig and install ATI drivers for the new rig).The whole process took about 2 hours altogether but a lot of that will have been down to copying the Windows partition image to and from a USB drive. Now I have the new rig set up the way I want it, I can attach the laptop HDD internally and one of the currently raided drives and the transfer should be a lot quicker. Everything was there - Winamp with all my preferences, Firefox with all my favourites etc. Avast still working away etc etc. Everything I had working on the old PC now works on the new PC with virtually no interference

I ****ing love GParted. I've always thought it was a very useful tool but I see now how good it really is. For a straight transfer, internally, of a Windows install, I reckon it would do it in less than an hour. If I was doing it manually with Windows, by the time I uninstalled Windows and re-installed it and installed all of my programs, I reckon I'd be looking at 5-6 hours.

I raise my glass to the creator of GParted

Mark · 23-02-2010, 01:42

Add to that the nice bonus that it works with the new WD 4K drives - unlike Windows XP.

Jonny69 · 23-02-2010, 19:47

*Noted to self for future use*

23-02-2010, 01:36	#11
Stan_Lite Stan, Stan the FLASHER MAN! Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: In bed with your sister Posts: 5,483	Well. That worked an absolute treat. Copied and pasted the Windows partitions to the portable HDD, switched over to the new rig and copied from the portable HDD to the new rig. When I booted up, I got the "DISK BOOT FAILURE...." message. Booted from the Windows 7 disk and did the repair boot thing and managed to boot into Windows. Because it was all new hardware, Windows had to find and install new drivers etc but it did all that on it's own (the only thing I had to do was uninstall the Nvidia drivers from the old rig and install ATI drivers for the new rig).The whole process took about 2 hours altogether but a lot of that will have been down to copying the Windows partition image to and from a USB drive. Now I have the new rig set up the way I want it, I can attach the laptop HDD internally and one of the currently raided drives and the transfer should be a lot quicker. Everything was there - Winamp with all my preferences, Firefox with all my favourites etc. Avast still working away etc etc. Everything I had working on the old PC now works on the new PC with virtually no interference I ****ing love GParted. I've always thought it was a very useful tool but I see now how good it really is. For a straight transfer, internally, of a Windows install, I reckon it would do it in less than an hour. If I was doing it manually with Windows, by the time I uninstalled Windows and re-installed it and installed all of my programs, I reckon I'd be looking at 5-6 hours. I raise my glass to the creator of GParted __________________ Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean I...

23-02-2010, 19:47	#13
Jonny69 Noob Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Socialist Republik of Kent Posts: 5,032	Noted to self for future use __________________

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23-02-2010, 01:42	#12
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	Add to that the nice bonus that it works with the new WD 4K drives - unlike Windows XP.