going to get a new HDD for the laptop. current one is 50GB, and is full, but i've not really got anything on it. misco have a 500GB western digital hard disc for £45, seems a good idea to me

problem is how to get windows on it. the computer doesn't come with a windows disc, but instead there is a partition on the hard disc containing all the files. so i couldn't just put the new disc in and install it...

would it be possible to just copy EVERYTHING over from one disc to the new one, given that anything installed on the computer is installed on the disc, could i just copy and exact image of the disc over if i cgot one of the external hard disc carrier thingys? like just drag and drop it over?

also, Western digital have them labled as scorpio blue and scorpio black, different pricing and stuff, any ideas what the black and blue is all about? can't find anything on the internet about it. searching for it only comes up with places to buy from

[Edited on 21/12/10 by blakep82]

You can clone the disk over, by various means, such as a USB or IDE/SATA adapter for the disks.

However personally, assuming its not been done recently, i would do a fresh rebuild on the machine.

What OS system do you use?

50GB How old is your computer???

well, theres a lot of stuff on the computer i want to keep, call it work lol. DJ mixes, tunes we've made etc, photos of the car, plus programs i've put on but can't find the discs for... i'm a bit of a hoarder.
also once all the drivers and stuff specific to this computer are on, theres not much space left.

speedy, think it was originally designed so that it only had windows on it, and any other programs it ran and any files saved were stored on a server. i'd prefer a bigger hard disc coz i need to start doing more of the DJing and recording mixes etc its only about 2 years old i think?

its XP Pro thats on here anyhow, originally had vista on it, but that was taken off, because it was rubbish


[Edited on 21/12/10 by blakep82]

Get an external 2.5" USB caddy, and up your old HD in. Install a fresh copy of XP and then copy off what you need.

50GB sounds pretty old - so it could be IDE. New drive you're looking at will be SATA so wont fit if your old drive is IDE. Better check that out first if you haven't already.

quote:

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Originally posted by blakep82
going to get a new HDD for the laptop. current one is 50GB, and is full, but i've not really got anything on it. misco have a 500GB western digital hard disc for £45, seems a good idea to me

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Originally posted by speedyxjs
50GB How old is your computer???

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quote:

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Originally posted by mangogrooveworkshop

quote:

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Originally posted by speedyxjs
50GB How old is your computer???

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Give him a break. Its an AMIGA 500 .....its all he could afford after buying his rear axle


[Edited on 21-12-10 by mangogrooveworkshop]

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quote:

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Originally posted by scudderfish
Get an external 2.5" USB caddy, and up your old HD in. Install a fresh copy of XP and then copy off what you need.

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quote:

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Originally posted by mangogrooveworkshop

quote:

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Originally posted by speedyxjs
50GB How old is your computer???

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Give him a break. Its an AMIGA 500 .....its all he could afford after buying his rear axle


[Edited on 21-12-10 by mangogrooveworkshop]

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Is it not possible to use something like Norton Ghost to copy the disk from one to the other once you've got another disk connected? I think there is an option to do a 'bit-by-bit' copy from one to the other which should copy the boot sector as well?

Not sure but it may be the right way to go if you don't have an OS disc.

HTH

JB

the blue and black models denote the disc speed, something like 4800 and 6400 rpm - the higher the speed, the faster you can get data off it; it is worth while paying the little extra for the higher rpm disc since this is what limit data transfer to and from the disc.

re: copying - there is cloning software - you can get some free software from Seagate that can move all your stuff from the 50 G to the 500 G and it will work on the bigger disc like it was installed onto it - only snag is that as it is free, you need to have one Seagate drive either the one you are copying from or the one you are copying to.

check out digital fusion website - when I got bigger disc, they were the cheapest.

[Edited on 21/12/10 by 02GF74]

Or use GParted Live CD. Can clone and resize your 50GB partition onto the 500GB drive for free with no restrictions.

here's the proof!

Description

Description


happily the current disc is a seagate, so that seagate software should do the trick
unhappily, i just got to the end of my 1gb file downlaod, took nearly 5 hours, for it to say there's not enough space to copy it and had to cancel it

going to have a good read over this too
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=418&page=2

this is what you need, i could also post you a copy of Easeus to copy over the partition.

web link

[Edited on 21/12/10 by graememk]

with £6 post, makes it the same price as if i collect from misco they're only along the road
is it this easus? http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
seems to be a free download anyway?

I used gparted to clone a drive and repartition it and it worked and was pretty simple. There are lots of free utilities to do the job
here

As said, get a new hard drive, pop it in a caddy and use something like EASEUS to copy everything to the new disc. Then put the new disc in the laptop and boot from it. Once you know it works, you can reformat or selectively delete the old disc and then use it as an external disc in the caddy.

or

Get a new disc, put in it the laptop and install windows on it, using a borrowed or copied disc, but using your own licence code which should be on a sticker on the laptop.

or

Just get an external hard disk and use it as, well, an external hard disc to put all your data, songs, pictures etc on to.

Amazon external disc - 500Gb