I've just bought a new 1TB Sata3 hard drive to replace my 500Gb Sata2 which will then become my back-up. I would like to first lay out partitions on the new one before transferring the existing data, so should I first install Windows, partition the drive and then copy from the old drive moving stuff into different partitions as I go. If this is possible I would then like to re-format the old drive and then back-up the data onto the now 'clean' hard drive. If i'm talking drivel please excuse me and suggest, if you will, the best way to create my new drive configuration. (in simple terms please, I'm old and not completely computer literate. A fiddler if you like.)
Partedmagic, everything you need. Simply make a bootable USB from the iso, and boot it with both drives. You can either use Gparted to create partitions and copy a partition from your old drive, or just use ghost for linux to copy the drive directly then modify it with Gparted.
Are you both saying that I am in fact talking drivel, or that there are simply easier ways to get the same result? Sorry to sound useless, but how do I do this?
If you are installing a fresh copy of Windows you don't even need to worry about booting anything. Just install Windows on your new drive, with the old one disconnected, then reconnect it and copy the files you want to keep from the old one, format it, and set up backup. If you want to clone your existing Windows install, the you can use the recommendations above (copy to a CD if you're not comfortable creating a bootable USB stick). Alternatively there are many disk cloning solutions available. I used EASUS Disk Copy to sucessfully clone a boot drive the other day for example.
+1 for a fresh install then copy any files across. i have doen this a few times for friends. A new install on a new hard drive also has the benefit of getting rid of any gremilns on the existing drive. Little bugs that can rear their heads or may do in the future! Cloning the drive will bring any errors to the new drive.
