Replacing a Hard Drive

[Fireplace]

Apologies if this is a much mentioned topic, I did a search but couldn't find anything.

I am looking to replace the hard drive in my PC. I am gradually running out of space and will not have room if I wanted to upgrade to Vista at some point. I'm OK actually doing the job myself having replaced RAM, DVD Drives, Card etc before.

What I don't know is whether it is feasible to copy my current hard drive and put it onto the new drive exactly as it was. There is no room in the PC for 2 hard drives, so its a case of one out and one in.

Can I copy my current disc over keeping all my programs, data and XP?

Would having an external Firewire drive help the process any, as I have considered getting one of these as well.

Thanks.

[Tightscot]

your best bet is to use a piece of cloning software. Ghost is the one i would recommend - it will clone your disc onto the new one and is simple to use and quick...

[MovedGoalPosts]

You could clone all you stuff ove, but why bother. Add the new hard disk in as a second drive, keeping the original. Free up space on the first drive by moving stuff such as data tot he second, leaving the first free for your operating systems and suchlike. The only time you'd want to ditch that first drive is if it is really slow or creaky and about to fall over.

[Tightscot]

Originally Posted by Rob

You could clone all you stuff ove, but why bother. Add the new hard disk in as a second drive, keeping the original. Free up space on the first drive by moving stuff such as data tot he second, leaving the first free for your operating systems and suchlike. The only time you'd want to ditch that first drive is if it is really slow or creaky and about to fall over.

There is no room in the PC for both drives.....

best bet is to clone onto the bigger drive, then stick the original drive into an external firewire / USB caddy and use it for backups etc etc...

You best bet would be to buy a cheap 20 quid case and swap everything over unless its a non standard dell mobo. Also is there actually no room for another drive or just not a bay? do you have a spare optical bay as the drive can fit in there

[Fireplace]

Thanks for all the quick replies, I'll have a look it all of these options.