Cloning Hard drives

[JunkBarMan]

I have a fairly good knowledge when it comes to computers I would like to think. I don't know how to program but I have built about 5 computers and overclocked some of them. My newest thing when building new comps is to partition the large hd into smaller partitions. I.e., I took a 120gb WD and partiton it off to install W!ndows on a small part of it so if I ever needed to reinstall W!ndows it wouldn't be a problem with erasing a bunch of stuff I needed. The only problem is, I didn't make the partition large enough. W!ndows is on there just fine, but after puting office on there and sp1, there isn't enough room left for sp2, temporary files and copying the real files just takes up too much room, I am cutting it close here. I have been using it this way for awhile, but with the release of sp2 I feel the need to take care of this problem.

Now I have a 30g drive that i could throw in there and just clone everything to it, but what software would I need to do this with? and would everything be the same? I heard of Partition magic would that work?
And if that works, is there anyway of repartition that 120gb without losing the data on it?
Any other ideas on how to do this would be great.

[tesco]

You can use Partition Magic 8 to resize the partitions without reinstalling windows.

Or if you want to do it your way with cloning the drive then Norton Ghost works great. :)

[JunkBarMan]

You can use Partition Magic 8 to resize the partitions without reinstalling windows.

Or if you want to do it your way with cloning the drive then Norton Ghost works great. :)


How reliable is Partition Magic 8? what is the posibility of corrupting my harddrive?

[tesco]

How reliable is Partition Magic 8? what is the posibility of corrupting my harddrive?
It's reliable. I've never had a problem before.

But of course it is possible.

[callum]

I've never had a problem with Partition Magic either, but seeing as you have a spare 30gb hd, you might as well use it to store anything you wouldn't like to lose, just incase.

[JunkBarMan]

@rossco_2004 thanks for the advice, got partition magic today, repartitioned the harddrive and everything is great. Thanks alot

Thanks for the advice guys

[zapjb]

I recommend Acronis MigrateEasy. Like in my sig. Reliable, fast & easy.:)

[BILLY-THE-FISH]

I recommend Acronis MigrateEasy. Like in my sig. Reliable, fast & easy.:)
Sorry to sound like a newbie.....but
When you clone do you mean absolutely everything thats on your system i.e. the installed operating system too?
So if you had a major problem you could just copy the clone and voila back to how you were?

If so maybe we should all do this.... ;-)

[motherflux]

Sorry to sound like a newbie.....but
When you clone do you mean absolutely everything thats on your system i.e. the installed operating system too?
So if you had a major problem you could just copy the clone and voila back to how you were?

If so maybe we should all do this.... ;-)

precisely.
and yes, it's a good way to backup. I've you got the full version you can even copy the image to a file and store it on a network drive.
I keep a backup of my C:\ drive in a safe under my bed.

also, if your hard drive wasn't large enough for service pack 2, how were you planning on installing new programs? :\
Not that I'd endorse installing sp2 anyway.

[BILLY-THE-FISH]

precisely.
and yes, it's a good way to backup. I've you got the full version you can even copy the image to a file and store it on a network drive.
I keep a backup of my C:\ drive in a safe under my bed.

also, if your hard drive wasn't large enough for service pack 2, how were you planning on installing new programs? :\
Not that I'd endorse installing sp2 anyway.
cheers

[lynx]

You possibly didn't need to create a larger partition to install SP2.

All service packs (and many other pieces of software) are unpacked into your TEMP folder before being installed. By default this is in the "Documents and Settings" area of the current user, which is usually on the system drive.

You can change the TEMP folder by looking in Control Panel/System, selecting the Advanced tab and clicking the Environment variables. At the top of the new window you will see where the TEMP folder is currently located and you can move this to a more useful place if you wish.