xp operating system

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bazbuilder
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xp operating system

Post by bazbuilder »

Hi everyone, I hope all is well. can anyone let me know if there`s an easy way (if at all possible) to transfer a complete xp operating system from a small hard disc to a larger one?? :? :? :?
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

Moving to Mozillazine Tech.

You could ghost the original drive, but it might not work very well for this. It is better to just reinstall.
MeCasa
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Post by MeCasa »

If your going back into the same computer a gho. or image file should work fine. There's different software for creating the image file but most new hard drives come with the software to do just what you want.
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

I've seen problems when you do it with a new hard drive. Worth trying, but I have seen it fail.
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Post by MeCasa »

I guess someone needs to say it so it might as well be me.

BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP

The problems that can be encountered while manipulating hard drives are generally serious, you can get the blue screen of death at any time. You can move a hard drive 10 times with no problem and get burned on the 11th, even though you followed the exact same procedure. Backup before you even start plugging in secondary IDE cables. Backup to external storage devices.
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old Harry Waldron
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Post by old Harry Waldron »

MeCasa wrote:BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP


Yes, I agree 100% ... If you have a USB Flash Drive, they are excellent for copying your data, digital photos, music, etc. In the USA, we're seeing 2GB drives now for $24-$29, and that's an excellent way to go. I like this as alternative or in addition to burning CDs or DVDs with the data on them (as they are very reliable).

If you have your original operating system CDs can reload them onto a new hard drive, I always prefer that approach as it gives you a fresh start again. You would benefit in moving to SP2 and IE7 for better security as part of the process also.

Some of these links might be worth exploring.

Good luck :)
Last edited by old Harry Waldron on April 20th, 2007, 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

2MB? Harry? I think you must mean GB. ;-)
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Post by MeCasa »

harrywaldron wrote:If you have your original operating system CDs can reload them onto a new hard drive, I always prefer that approach as it gives you a fresh start again. You would benefit in moving to SP2 and IE7 for better security as part of the process also.)

There's a lot of truth to Harry's advice, as a matter of fact I never copy any OS 'as is' unless I’m sure it’s 100% clean or I’m desperate. I always replace with a clean gho. that was made RIGHT after a previous clean reinstall. The best tactic is to reinstall clean, immediately install and update both Firewall and AV software, add important software that you KNOW is 100% CLEAN, retweak everything the way you like it, AV scan, spyware scan, defrag and Ghost at this time, make a copy or two of the gho. these files do not need to be stored in anything much larger than their actual size and these are your future fallbacks, you now own a pretweaked clean OS. The only downside to this is that you must get in the habit of backing up current data and files, as these will not be saved to the clean ghost. Be aware that this gho. will probably only operate in the computer you ghosted from but I have had many instances where a gho. from one comp worked on another, who knows why, perhaps the mobo and configs were similar.

However, if you don't have the disks a ghost in your current condition is still a distinct possibility. but you should still clean and defrag before you make the move.


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old Harry Waldron
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Post by old Harry Waldron »

Thanks Daifne - fixed this to read 2GB :)
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Post by Eyes-Only »

Wow Harry! I never realised that the prices in those USB devices had come down so drastically! Granted though, it has been several years since I've been in a store. Seems like just yesterday I remember how "thrilled" I was when I'd gotten a 250meg USB device from the store for $50 and I thought of all the things I could do with that---only to get it home, plug it in, and find that it didn't work. I guess the size (and price) of it should tell you how long ago this was and be a clue as to why it didn't work? The technology was sorta "new". At least in my neck of the woods.

Sorry, I don't run XP and never have. Highest I ever went in Windows was 98se---I loved that system! Myself though? Even when they were capable of ghosting them I never would. I always started out fresh. Like Daifne says, you can have a lot of problems, true. But not only that you can also inherit little problems here and there which will grow to become bigger ones along the way. So I loved starting over with a clean slate. The very barest essential 98se install back then because I could build upon that the type of system I wanted. :) And when it was time for another computer? I had all the software I'd downloaded all backed up in their install files on CDs. I'd be back up and in business (literally as I ran a hosting service) in about an hour or less.

Now I'm on Linux and what with all these distros out there you can imagine the fun I'm having downloading and rebuilding from scratch! But like MeCasa and the rest have echoed, so do I: Back up, and often! (Plus make sure you keep a good labelling system of your disks!)

Amicalement,

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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

And I just got 3 1GB sticks for less than $30. Yes, the prices have really dropped.
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couldabeen
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Post by couldabeen »

My backup is a cloned drive on one of the drive clusters that has the OS on it. If needed, it is easy to make that drive the new boot drive with a boot disk or CD.
old Harry Waldron
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Post by old Harry Waldron »

Yes, just like digital camera cards have fallen in price, so have USB flash drives, (which are similar type of storage device).

In Sunday's paper, I saw a 2GB Sony USB flash drive offered for $19.99 at Staples.

While I have CD-R technology, I still prefer using these to transfer data around to multiple PCs, as it results in fewer "coasters" being burned ;)

I still backup to CD-R, but no longer use CD-Rs to simply transfer files among PCs. Probably in a year or so, we might look at wireless LAN to further reduce the "sneaker net" process.
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

And I also picked up an 80GB flash drive for around $45. Granted it's not a key drive, but it is really convenient.
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Post by RAF »

You buy way too much hardware, girl. Either you're very rich or you don't own any shoes.
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