Computer hard drive swap question/ problem

[wfooshee]

(BTW, older Windows versions are limited in the way they can "see" & use space, hence your "loss" of 18 gigs)

No, no, no, no, no. :angry2:

The problem is that the manufacturer equates gig with billion, and sells a 250 billion byte drive as 250 gigabytes, when a gigabyte is actually almost 74 MILLION bytes more than a billion.

The 1K=1024 is where the problem lies. The manufacturer should state the capacitiy as 250 billion bytes, not 250 gigabytes, because 232GB IS more than 250 billion bytes. It's not a limitation of how Windows sees space, and it's not a limitation of old Windows, or even Windows of any age. UNIX does it, Linux does it, Macs do it, supercomputers do it. The 1000 vs 1024 has been around since core memory was invented. If you look at the drive's properties, you'll see two numbers for capacity: the actual number of bytes, and the calculated number of gigabytes. His actual number is above or at least very close to 250 billion. There's no "lost" space, it's just terminoligy being misused by the mfr.

Enough about capacity difference. Good ideas about Ghost for migration. I've also used a program called Partition Magic, which can not only copy whole partitions, it can resize existing partitions, or resize during the copy.

The cloning program that came with it should have been OK, though.

 

[uctofeej]

(BTW, older Windows versions are limited in the way they can "see" & use space, hence your "loss" of 18 gigs)

No, no, no, no, no. :angry2:

The problem is that the manufacturer equates gig with billion, and sells a 250 billion byte drive as 250 gigabytes, when a gigabyte is actually almost 74 MILLION bytes more than a billion....

It doesn't make me any difference how Fencer does it, in fact, if he's comfortable with doing it your way, great! It is, afterall, his computer. I was merely making a suggestion that is proven to work. I use it for travel and often transfer files among 4 computers with various operating systems.

Yes, manufacturers do overstate the size, but not by 18 gigs! (That would be class-actionable, as someone already pointed out.) However, the fact remains that when I tried a very similar set up with Windows 2K, it saw a much smaller version of my 120 gig drive (109, if memory serves). The same computer was dual booted into Suse 10.2 and it saw much more of the same drive (118). Windows XP recognized 119 on the same drive. Is that a manufacturer overstatement or an OS issue?

As for the ghost image of the old drive -- and this is an honest question because I really don't know the answer -- why would one want to copy the whole drive to the new one and clutter it with Windows remnants? Wouldn't it make more sense to use it to keep what is truly important to you, i.e. your files? Windows unnecessarily takes up space. Is it Microsoft you really want to keep? If your old hard-drive dies, chances are most people will upgrade to a newer version of Windows anyway, right? I probably just answered my own question: we have different back-up philosophies because of the systems we use. Windows necessitates everything be stored within Windows, hence the need to ghost image everything. Linux forces separation of personal and OS files. Incremental and file-to-file backup works easier in the latter case.

Okay, I'll stop rambling now.

 

[wfooshee]

As for making an image of the whole thing rather than backing up your files, the idea is simpler disaster recovery.

If all you have is your files, you have to find, reinstall, reconfigure all your applications, your email is probably gone (if it's locally stored) yada yada yada. With an image for backup, you load your OS, install the image app, and zap it back. Yeah, any problems you had before come back, like an occasional web hijacker, but it puts you back where you were, faster than anything else.

Downside of image backup is that it can make it very hard, depending on the image software, to get a single file you screwed up or accidently deleted. That's better in newer applications, but once it was not even possible.

My dad backs up files onto a USB stick. I image to an external drive with Acronis. A matter of taste and preference, and available media.

 

[LDRydr]

You want to copy the old drive to the new because that's the easiest way to do it for a non-computer person. wfooshee, you're correct, Windows is not Linux, and they are very different. Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, in Windows is dependent on the REGISTRY. That's why copying a program from one computer to another usually won't work...it has to be installed, so the registry knows about it.

Personally, I wipe and reinstall my main desktop PC (my current working collection includes 1 server, 3 laptops, and 3 desktops) twice a year. But I know how to do it, I know where every important file is located, I have all the software that needs to go back on it, and I know how to resolve any issues that may come up. But most folks wouldn't have a clue how to even reinstall just Windows, at least to the point where things like video and networking work properly. And if for some sad reason they are on a dialup connection it may take a week just to get Windows current with patches and security updates.

On the issue of image backups, the restore programs don't even require reinstalling the operating system then the image backup program to do a restore. You simply boot from the image backup CD, tell it where your image file is, and it does the rest. Better image programs, like Acronis, allow a complete image to be done on a schedule (like once a week) and incrementals to be done more often (mine runs every 4 hours). This means the most I'd ever lose is 4 hours of data work. My image files are stored on my server, which gets backed up to tape, but not everybody has this luxury. A large external drive would fit the bill for most folks.

Backing up your important files to something like an external drive, or thumb drive, is good, but you'd better be sure you're getting all the files you want. Spend some time learning how your programs store files. Like for instance Quicken, or Outlook (or Outlook Express). Find the files and make sure you're backing them up. How about your Favorites, wouldn't want to lose those. Find where they're stored and back them up as you see fit. Pictures and documents are easy, it's the other files you may not think about. Gone are the days of backing up your whole computer to a stack of 3.5" diskettes (good riddance I say!).

Dennis

 

[Fencer]

You want to copy the old drive to the new because that's the easiest way

BINGO

Personally, I wipe and reinstall my main desktop PC (my current working collection includes 1 server, 3 laptops, and 3 desktops) twice a year. But I know how to do it, I know where every important file is located, I have all the software that needs to go back on it, and I know how to resolve any issues that may come up. But most folks wouldn't have a clue how to even reinstall just Windows, at least to the point where things like video and networking work properly. And if for some sad reason they are on a dialup connection it may take a week just to get Windows current with patches and security updates.

I can do everything, I have built 5 (at least) computers and currently have 5 desktops and one currently broken laptop (screen cracked)

I am just trying to sidestep re-loading 53 gig of info and drivers - if it can be done. This drive is going back into the same computer - not another one as I think was suggested. This is not being done puter to puter either. All on one machine. And yes,a week of patches and restarts aint that fun as you know.

I guess after I try Ghost, I will have to re-load if it does not work. I have already pulled and re-formated the new larger drive waiting patiently on Ghost to arrive. And yes, formated in DOS /s /u to be recognized as a bootable drive. But I am guessing Ghost will re-format it anyway.

 

[03HiYoSilver]

Fencer,

You may want to look at Acronis TrueImage, it uses Linux, can do Hot Images, and can restore to Different Size Partitions(Automatically). You can then swap drives seamlessly.

Otherwise, you may have to do a Windows/Repair Install. This will re-appoint all your Hardware in your registry and things should work and you wont lose your Data.

Good Luck!

 

[Calimus]

Ghost can be difficult for a non-techy to use. I've never used Truimage, so I can't speak to it. However, for the situation that Fence is in, I reccomend Partition Magick. I certainly can't knock ghost, I used it every day, but I can see where it might confuse the hell out of those that arn't used to it.

Fence, if ghost doesn't work for you, msg me and we'll talk about Partition Magick.