Fully copying everything on a hard drive, OS and all.

[justinsn95]

I need a little help copying everything from my laptop's hard drive on to a new hard drive for my PC. My PC's old one crapped out on me a long time ago, but it is a good computer and i was hoping i could use it again. I do have a fully functional laptop however. I know there is a way to transfer everything i just do not know how to do it, im afraid. I got another hard drive that i can use now for the PC, but it has Ubuntu linux on it. The reason i am doing this is because i recently purchased a 22" monitor and the graphics card in it (an ATi mobility Radeon 9600) does not support the resolutions needed to be able to use the monitor. Anyone know how i can transfer everything over and have it all work like it is supposed to? All my data is on the laptop anyway, so i need to get it off of there and onto a real desktop.


One other thing. I am not entirely sure if this is ok by whoever it is that does not like people doing this. :D Lol no seriously i really do not know. Feel free to fill me in.

[Neiladin]

typically that won't work like you think it will. good luck.

[Tx Redneck]

Image the drive.

[The Big Matt]

is the drive SATA or ATA?

if SATA, just sysprep the drive, and slap it in the new machine, and load drivers, etc, create a new profile, but everything should be there...

if ATA, to the same as the above, then get you a mini ATA to ATA adapter and plug it in.

Not a perfect solution, but it should work.

Option 2 - instead of sysprep, uninstall all drivers in device manager, and then shut down, install in new PC and cross fingers.

[justinsn95]

[QUOTE=The Big Matt]is the drive SATA or ATA?

if SATA, just sysprep the drive, and slap it in the new machine, and load drivers, etc, create a new profile, but everything should be there...

if ATA, to the same as the above, then get you a mini ATA to ATA adapter and plug it in.

Not a perfect solution, but it should work.

Option 2 - instead of sysprep, uninstall all drivers in device manager, and then shut down, install in new PC and cross fingers.[/QUOTE]

I dont think that will work going from a little laptop hard drive to a big Desktop hard drive. I think imaging the drive may work, i just dont know how to do that, and even if i did how do you get it onto the new Hard drive? TXredneck, are you talking about doing something like making an ISO file and burning it to a CD with a program like infrarecorder?

[Kenny_Stang]

Imaging is like cloning the drive, what you have on one hard drive is the exact duplicate on another. The problem happens is that you can't do this if you have different hardware, especially when going from a laptop to a desktop. You would need to use something like Sysprep (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sysprep) that would allow you to use the image from your laptop on your desktop. Personally, I would install a clean image of the OS on my desktop, then use a SATA/IDE to USB 2.o enclosure to move my data, etc. from the laptop to the desktop.

[black90gt]

[QUOTE=Kenny_Stang] Personally, I would install a clean image of the OS on my desktop, then use a SATA/IDE to USB 2.o enclosure to move my data, etc. from the laptop to the desktop.[/QUOTE]

x2

[The Big Matt]

[QUOTE=justinsn95]I dont think that will work going from a little laptop hard drive to a big Desktop hard drive. I think imaging the drive may work, i just dont know how to do that, and even if i did how do you get it onto the new Hard drive? TXredneck, are you talking about doing something like making an ISO file and burning it to a CD with a program like infrarecorder?[/QUOTE]

obviously you missed the part where i asked you what kind of drive it was. if it's sata, it doesn't matter what size the drive is, 2.5 inch vs 3.5 inch, the both use the same connector. And I also said if it was ATA, you should use an adapter.

So, you thought wrong

[AL P]

I always thought this wouldn't work because your registry info would be all fucked up.

I need to do something similar on my home PC. I got a tiny C: drive (so small that it is annoying, like 10 gig) and a 200 gig D: drive. I'd like to image the small C: onto the D:, install a new bigger drive in the C: slot, fire the thing up and copy everything that is imaged onto the D: back to the new C:.

What do I need to do?

[The Big Matt]

[QUOTE=AL P]I always thought this wouldn't work because your registry info would be all fucked up.

I need to do something similar on my home PC. I got a tiny C: drive (so small that it is annoying, like 10 gig) and a 200 gig D: drive. I'd like to image the small C: onto the D:, install a new bigger drive in the C: slot, fire the thing up and copy everything that is imaged onto the D: back to the new C:.

What do I need to do?[/QUOTE]

that's why you run Sysprep - it basically takes the OS, deletes the Security Identifiers, etc, and runs you through setup a mini setup again, where you name the computer, setup a user account, register with microsoft, etc... It also removes all of the drivers that were previously installed, and redetects new hardware, etc...

I sysprep machines all the time that came from different hardware, copy drives using a drive copier, then put them in new machines with all of the software preloaded, etc. The only major issue i've had is going from SATA to ATA when copying a drive, XP is a little funny with the SATA and ATA drivers, it works, but i've had performance issues every time.

[Kenny_Stang]

[QUOTE=AL P]I always thought this wouldn't work because your registry info would be all fucked up.

I need to do something similar on my home PC. I got a tiny C: drive (so small that it is annoying, like 10 gig) and a 200 gig D: drive. I'd like to image the small C: onto the D:, install a new bigger drive in the C: slot, fire the thing up and copy everything that is imaged onto the D: back to the new C:.

What do I need to do?[/QUOTE]

In your case something like Ghost would work perfectly... just buy the bigger hard drive and ghost your smaller C: to the larger drive, then plug the bigger drive where the old drive used to be and that's it.

[The Big Matt]

Al for what you want, buy a new hard drive, and using the hard drive copier, I can copy the 10 gig drive to the new drive, then extend the partition for you to take advantage of the new drive size, then you can copy the 200gb drives data over later

That's super simple

[Hunt4m3x]

[QUOTE=AL P]I always thought this wouldn't work because your registry info would be all fucked up.

I need to do something similar on my home PC. I got a tiny C: drive (so small that it is annoying, like 10 gig) and a 200 gig D: drive. I'd like to image the small C: onto the D:, install a new bigger drive in the C: slot, fire the thing up and copy everything that is imaged onto the D: back to the new C:.

What do I need to do?[/QUOTE]


If you are upgrading drives, then use norton ghost. You can copy the data and expand it to the 200 gig drives. I used one install i did on a 32 gig raptor, moved it to a 74gig raptor and then to 150gig raptor in 3 years. never had to clean install.

[justinsn95]

[QUOTE=The Big Matt]obviously you missed the part where i asked you what kind of drive it was. if it's sata, it doesn't matter what size the drive is, 2.5 inch vs 3.5 inch, the both use the same connector. And I also said if it was ATA, you should use an adapter.

So, you thought wrong[/QUOTE]

I have arconis home edition 11 (or whatever the hell it is called) and im probly just a noob but what i am trying to figure out is how to physically connect the laptop to the Desktop computer so that when im in arconis and i hit "Clone the Drive" it doesnt just say "this action requires more than 1 hard drive".

[Kenny_Stang]

[QUOTE=justinsn95]I have arconis home edition 11 (or whatever the hell it is called) and im probly just a noob but what i am trying to figure out is how to physically connect the laptop to the Desktop computer so that when im in arconis and i hit "Clone the Drive" it doesnt just say "this action requires more than 1 hard drive".[/QUOTE]

Do you know what type of hard drive you have in your laptop? If it's SATA and you have SATA in your desktop, just plug in the hard drive using the SATA cable and it will recognize it in the BIOS. If it's IDE you will need to buy a 2.5 IDE to 3.5 IDE converter that would allow you to use your laptop hard drive in your PC.

[justinsn95]

[QUOTE=Kenny_Stang]Do you know what type of hard drive you have in your laptop? If it's SATA and you have SATA in your desktop, just plug in the hard drive using the SATA cable and it will recognize it in the BIOS. If it's IDE you will need to buy a 2.5 IDE to 3.5 IDE converter that would allow you to use your laptop hard drive in your PC.[/QUOTE]

Ok i see now. Yeah it is IDE unfortunately. Off to radioshack i guess.


Damn dirty radioshack doesnt carry it. Yall happen to know anywhere that might have this thing on hand?

[Kenny_Stang]

[QUOTE=justinsn95]Ok i see now. Yeah it is IDE unfortunately. Off to radioshack i guess.


Damn dirty radioshack doesnt carry it. Yall happen to know anywhere that might have this thing on hand?[/QUOTE]

I know Fry's had them in stock a while back. I would call before I head out there though.

[justinsn95]

[QUOTE=Kenny_Stang]Do you know what type of hard drive you have in your laptop? If it's SATA and you have SATA in your desktop, just plug in the hard drive using the SATA cable and it will recognize it in the BIOS. If it's IDE you will need to buy a 2.5 IDE to 3.5 IDE converter that would allow you to use your laptop hard drive in your PC.[/QUOTE]

Well i got the adapter and i just unplugged the IDE cable from the system's normal hard drive and then i plugged that cable into the adapter with the little laptop hard drive in it. Needless to say, it wont boot lol. It just says disc boot failure, please insert system disc and press enter. I kinda figured thats what was going to happen. I guess thats why i need sysprep, but i really wasnt wanting to erase all the drivers for the laptop, in case i wanted to put the little lappie hard drive back into the laptop some day. And have it actually boot windows, i mean. Any way to image the drive this way?

Maybe if i Buy a 3.5" IDE enclosure, put the 3.5 IDE from the desktop in it and hook it up to the laptop via USB... clone the laptop image to the new drive... then sysprep that drive?

[Hunt4m3x]

You have to make sure you match Pin 1 to Pin1 on that converter.

[justinsn95]

Got it cloned, now it is saying i have 3 days to activate windohs lol :D . Anyone know what happens in 3 days? Prrobly locks up or something. Anyone know what i need to do to get around this?

[Hunt4m3x]

[QUOTE=justinsn95]Got it cloned, now it is saying i have 3 days to activate windohs lol :D . Anyone know what happens in 3 days? Prrobly locks up or something. Anyone know what i need to do to get around this?[/QUOTE]


cough

http://defcon5.biz/phpBB3/

[justinsn95]

Thanks a lot man, but for some odd reason, i guess i dont need that. I restarted the computer and it said something to the effect of "Your copy of windows xp has been validated, thank you." Not the exact words there but it spat out something like that. I only have one last question, directed at The Big Matt. I am getting that severe performance lag (if that is indeed what it would be called) that you mentioned. Any idea what causes this, or how to get rid of it? It takes like a minute to open firefox lol. And it takes like 6 min to uninstall a program. Hell, just to drag an icon to the trash takes like 8 seconds. Even starcraft lags, and the system has a !.8Ghz proc and 1 gig of RAM. I wonder if there is some way to speed things back up to normal.

Also it looks like my CPU usage is staying at 100%, even when at idle with no applications open or running. I guess thats probly whats causing it. Memory looks to be normal though.

[Kenny_Stang]

[QUOTE=justinsn95]Thanks a lot man, but for some odd reason, i guess i dont need that. I restarted the computer and it said something to the effect of "Your copy of windows xp has been validated, thank you." Not the exact words there but it spat out something like that. I only have one last question, directed at The Big Matt. I am getting that severe performance lag (if that is indeed what it would be called) that you mentioned. Any idea what causes this, or how to get rid of it? It takes like a minute to open firefox lol. And it takes like 6 min to uninstall a program. Hell, just to drag an icon to the trash takes like 8 seconds. Even starcraft lags, and the system has a !.8Ghz proc and 1 gig of RAM. I wonder if there is some way to speed things back up to normal.

Also it looks like my CPU usage is staying at 100%, even when at idle with no applications open or running. I guess thats probly whats causing it. Memory looks to be normal though.[/QUOTE]

What app is causing it to stay @ 100%? Open task manager, click Processes and sort by CPU

[justinsn95]

Sorry, still a noob lol. It seems the offending process was called syntpenh.exe. I looked it up on google and it says that it is needed for essential functions. I terminated the process, and now the CPU usage is down to normal. Anyone know if i really have to have this running for some reason? If not, is there a way to bar it from ever coming back?

[Kenny_Stang]

[QUOTE=justinsn95]Sorry, still a noob lol. It seems the offending process was called syntpenh.exe. I looked it up on google and it says that it is needed for essential functions. I terminated the process, and now the CPU usage is down to normal. Anyone know if i really have to have this running for some reason? If not, is there a way to bar it from ever coming back?[/QUOTE]

This is what I found:

syntpenh.exe is a process installed alongside the Synaptics touchpad for laptop computer touchpads. Provides additional configurations and support, and is essential on some machines for the functioning of this input device. This program is a non-essential system process, but should not be terminated unless suspected to be causing problems.

[justinsn95]

[QUOTE=Kenny_Stang]This is what I found:[/QUOTE]

thank you kind sir.

[The Big Matt]

[QUOTE=Kenny_Stang]This is what I found:[/QUOTE]

Very common problems with Touchpad Drivers. Uninstall the Synaptecs crap