copying an entire HD including windows

[Crispy's Critter]

Just wondering if this is possible without having to install windows on the second drive first.

Basically my system is getting pretty old, and I am building a new system, and rather than plopping my old HD's in there I just want to copy everything from the old HD's onto one new one, and putting these drives in storage as backups.

My main concern is that after I format the new drive and begin to copy the drive with windows running on it that I will be getting a lot of "file in use:cannot copy" type of errors. I am thinking it may be best to install windows on my new drive, along with all the new drivers and such, then install my old drive as the D: drive, and copy that way, copying everything but windows.

However I am concerned if I do it that way I will lose a lot of registry entries/activations for a lot of my programs (which I no longer have codes for) but I will also be putting stuff into windows that I will no longer need, as the system will be all different hardware. What about copying everything but the Driver Cache folder in windows?

Will any of this work? Or is there a better/possibly easier way to do this?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[jammies]

If you are just wanting the data, not the programs, use the "File and Settings Transfer Wizard" that comes with XP. I could type it out, but I'm lazy, so go here for an explanation on using it. When you're done, your desktop will look the same as it did on your old computer - all you do is install the applications afterwards.

It'll copy all your information from your old computer onto storage, then you copy it back to your new computer. Depending on how much data you have, just use a USB key, or external USB hard drive to copy to (if you don't have one, get one, they are cheap now and you can use it for backup after, or just to store more files on).

I always use the wizard from the XP install cd, that way you don't have different versions of the wizard that don't work together.

Putting your old drive into your new machine will work, but you need all the drivers for your new hardware, and then you keep all the cruft you've accumulated over time. Plus newer hard drives are faster and much bigger, so it usually makes more sense just to take the data, and start the rest over.

[Traditional_Ale]

Seconded. Way better to just re-install windows fresh. That way you don't have two sets of drivers for everything.

[Crispy's Critter]

Thanks for the replies. I guess should clarify: I want almost everything from my old hd's, (there will of course be some unnecessary clutter I won't need, but probably about 90% of the stuff I use on a regular basis) and I need the programs to work as well, however some of these programs I have had for years, and no longer have the reg keys for them, or in some cases the cd's have gone missing/worn out. Kind of looks like I might have to just get the new comp working with all the drivers and such, then try to figure out what I will need as far as the program registrations are concerned. I still would much rather just be able to copy my entire HD onto the new one. All the hard drives are seagate barracuda 7200 rpm drives, just the new one is 500 Gb, and the older ones are 80 and 20 Gb's.

What about if I was to do the new windows install, second HD way, but when it asks about overwriting files just tell it "no to all"? I would still end up with drivers that I wouldn't need, which I could probably uninstall with the add/remove program, and I would end up with some other old junk that I wouldn't need either, but could remove manually later.(or before, I guess)

Would this way work to keep all my programs running, or would the reg. files be all screwed up because of the new hardware?

Also I know there are some websites out there that will allow you to back up entire HD's on them, but not sure if a) the windows files can be backed up, since you are using widows to run your comp, and
b) your important data would be safe on those sites even for the short time it would take to move the data from the site to the new HD.

Anyone know anything about these sites at all?

*edit* been doing some more research into this, and I've kind of been thinking of doing it this way: clean install of windows with new drivers etc. (mandatory), install old drive as secondary drive, find the reg files in the old, unused copy of windows, copy that to another part of same hd, delete unused copy of windows, then port everything from second hd onto first, moving the old reg files into the proper place in the new copy of windows. Would this way work?

[photon]

What you are describing won't really work, when Windows installs it does a bunch of configuration that is based on your hardware and all that goes into the registry. Some hardware you can switch out from underneath it no problem, and in THEORY you can put a whole new computer under Windows and it'll go through and detect all the changes and work, but in practice I've only ever had this work once. So dumping in the old registry into a new install of Windows will likely result in an unbootable machine.

There's also supposedly software out there that will transfer a program from one computer to another so that it works without having to go through the program's install process (i.e. it transfers over all the necessary files and registry settings), though I've never tried one and don't know how well they work.

Your best bet is to start fresh with a new computer, and then either get legal copies for the software you're using but don't own that you want to move over or look for free substitutes (there's lots of great free software out there).

[llama64]

Photon speaks the truth. Any software that needs to use the registry is basically un-transfferable. You might be able to get it running, but it won't function the same as it does on the older computer. System utilities like virus/ad-ware scanners are very good examples of applications that cannot be moved easily.

Start fresh. New install of the OS and new installs of the programs. Just transfer your data files over.

Or buy a Mac since what you are describing is incredibly easy to do on it's operating system

[Crispy's Critter]

Thanks guys. I suppose since most of my software is older (and ftr was all purchased legally, just damaged when rain got under the tarp on my truck while moving) I might be able to either pick up fairly cheap copies of them on ebay. I also wonder too though if since after losing the cd's I found nocd cracks for them all if that would allow me to just port them over and have them work. Also thinking about it, all my games I play I still have cd's for, and really all I need to find that are necessities for me are PSP 8, Photoshop (think that's like version 5 or 6.something, older anyway) and 3ds max 6, all of which I'm sure could be found for fairly cheap I'm thinking, then all I would need to do is copy all the plug-ins for them, and after installing my games again just copy the files over. I was really hoping to do it much more simply, but it looks like this is the route I would have to go.

Thanks everyone for all the replies and help, much appreciated

[photon]

Well heck if you bought them but have good reasons for not having the key and/or CD's, just download cracked versions. Or contact the company to get replacements if you registered (though I guess they'd probably want some sort of proof of purchase).

Depending on the program, there might also be ways to get the key out of the software. It might either be listed right in the program (usually under Help-About), or with some programs you can find software that will extract the key for you (did this once for MS Office).

Then if you get the key then you can find the software to download from a torrent somewhere, install it, and use they key.

[Crispy's Critter]

Yea Photon, that's probably what I'm going to try to do, see if I can find the keys in the software somewhere. I had also asked a buddy of mine about this, since I figured he might have done this a few times before, and he said that most of the times the programs will work just by copying them over because he said that even though a prog adds lines in the registry they might not actually need them there to run, and if I have a cracked exe already there's a good chance the prog will still work. I guess all I can do is try it, see wht works and what doesn't, and figure out my options from there. I'll probably use that file transfer wizard thing (thanks jammies ) though for my settings, because that is probably the most irritating thing to do when building a new comp is get everything just right again.