Hard Disk Containing Os Hast Be Replaced

[webfact]

For some reason I must change my C: drive. C: contains the OS, Win XP.

The motherboard supports 4 SATA drives. I use 3 SATA hdd internal, 1 drive is set as an external SATA for backup.

I need a new HDD and have to transfer the entire content, including OS from A to B.

What I am planning are these steps:

Use the external HD temporarily for the new HD. Then I will clone the entire C: drive (without the partition) and transfer it to its new location.

Later I will replace my old C: drive with the new one.

Will it boot without problems?

Technically it might work, but will the OS incl. all program settings be transferred and remain as well?

I have chosen "Acronis True Image" for this task, as I am not satisfied with the “slow motion” speed of Ghost.

The other choice I have (maybe the better one) is to take my drive to Pantip and have it done there.

What do the experts recommend?

Thanks in advance

Cheers

Edited August 1, 2008 by webfact

[nikster]

I have just used XXClone for this purpose. It's free and it worked well on the second attempt.

Here is what I did:

- Slow format of the new drive (I did a quick format the first time and suspect that's why it didn't work the first time around. This was a completely new drive with no formatting on it). Took over 1 hour.

- Use XXClone to clone c: to the new drive which was connected via USB. That took a while, if you can connect via SATA it will be soooo much faster.

- Swap the drives

- Boot the computer - all OK!

I also copied a second drive but I did that manually. One baffling result was that Windows kept the drive name. While the drive was connected via USB the new-to-be C drive was called G and the new-to-be D drive H. After swapping the new C drive was C but the H drive was still H. I just assigned D to it via the disk management though and all was well.

Advantage of XXClone vs Acronis is that it copies using the Windows API rather than sector by sector. That means the clone you end up with is perfectly defragged at the same time. I havent used Acronis so I don't know about speed. I have used Ghost in the past though and yes, that thing is a dog.

One warning on XXClone though, it doesn't preserve or support any multi boot systems.

Edited August 1, 2008 by nikster