New HDD?

djmonstadjmonsta London, UK Member
edited December 2009 in Hardware
I finally got myself a long awaited 500gb SATA drive. I've been making do with a 160gb and 80gb, both IDE. Problem I have is that my Windows 7 OS is on the 160gb HDD, and I want to move the partition to my new 500gb SATA and boot from that. I tried using EASEUS partition manager to copy the partition, then I unplugged my 160gb to see what would happen (obviously after shutdown!). Wouldn't boot from my new HDD.

I think you get the idea.

Is there any way to do this without reinstalling the OS? I have seen some talk about booting from the Windows DVD and doing a 'repair'. Not sure what this would achieve tho...

Comments

  • yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
    edited November 2009
    I think Acronis True Image would clone the drives data for you, AND allow you to boot off it. Here is a link to the legal version.. Newegg sale
  • djmonstadjmonsta London, UK Member
    edited November 2009
    is there anyone willing to help me without trying to sell me something?
  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    DJ, you need a program like Ghost, Acronis, Paragon, etc. You need to clone/image your old drive onto the new drive.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    Yagga has 2310 posts. He's been here for over six years. He's trying to help, not "sell you something". What we're saying is that what you want to do can't be done reliably for free.

    You ask for help, you get a solid recommendation, and then you shrug it off.
  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    If you're familiar with linux, or patient enough to do some searching, there is a command built into linux that will do what you're looking for. The command is called 'dd', and it is in just about every linux distro available. It should be available on the "LiveDVD" versions as well, though you may need to start it by using "sudo dd [options go here]".
  • djmonstadjmonsta London, UK Member
    edited November 2009
    Apologies, just seemed like an advert, didn't look at his stats.

    No I have never used Linux.

    So to sum up I need to clone the drive with something like Paragon. Will that then make the drive bootable? I i need to reinstall my stuff because it wont be on drive C...
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    I would suggest using Clonezilla. It is FOSS (Free Open Source Software) that I've used a few times in the past to make images of hard drives. It has never failed me. It also has a mode to copy a partition from one disk to another. After it moves the partition, it will still be only 160GB. You can use the gParted boot disk to then extend the partition to fill the entire drive if you like. It is also FOSS.
  • djmonstadjmonsta London, UK Member
    edited November 2009
    thank you ardichoke. Ill give clonezilla a try. Windows 7 is able to shrink or extend a partition in the disk management console, so there's no issues there.
  • yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
    edited November 2009
    Well the $15 off sale from Acronis is delisted from newegg...

    I had suggested Acronis simply because that is about all I've used for these scenarios, and have had zero issues with its use. I think I tried ghost once, but that was too long ago to remember. Let us know how clonezilla works.
  • djmonstadjmonsta London, UK Member
    edited November 2009
    Thank you YAGGA and i'm sorry for the misunderstanding!!!

    From what i could figure cloezilla was a Linux application..

    Anyway, thank you all for your suggestions, I managed to do the job with EASEUS partition manager, completely free, and instead of copying the partition i copied the disk. All up and running and there is a huge speed difference! Amazed i lasted so long with IDE...
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    http://www.xxclone.com/ does this not work well enough?
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited December 2009
    djmonsta wrote:
    From what i could figure cloezilla was a Linux application..
    Clonezilla is a system, based on Linux, with a nice GUI that is there simply for cloning disks, dumping disk images and other similar tasks. It all works off a bootable CD (or USB drive). I see you found another way to do it though, whatever works!
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