I need to put a larger hard drive into our computer at work - what I need to do is put the new one in, and transfer all the data from the old drive onto the new one. We are not going to run them both. How would I go about doing this? Will the entire OS simply transfer over?

There is a free steak dinner in this for whomever can help me out. Compliments of the Mens Club!

Best thing to do IMHO is to pull the old hard drive out temporarily when you are installing the new one. Install the OS from scratch off of your CD-ROM (make sure to set your computer to boot from CD's if it is not already).

Once you install the OS, it should be simple to put the old drive back in (in place of your CD-Rom if necessary since it's just temporary). Then move the files over and then remove that old HD and call it a day.

Exactly, the IDE x-fer rate will make quicker work of all your data than probobly any other transfer medium plus it'll be easy to do the swap once you've installed your OS on the new drive.

Alternatively, you could get a USB IDE drive case and do it that way, that way you would only 1 time have to be in and out of the case; you could simply just plug the drive in w/ a USB cable and file x-fer over USB to the new drive

Definitely could do that, but as far as I'm concerned, no need to spend money on that IDE drive case when a little extra work (if any, considering you still have to install the drive in that case and make sure it works) would save you that $$. Plus if his MB doesn't support USB 2.0, he'll be there all day waiting on that file transfer!

Another way to do it is to put in the new drive as a master, convert the existing drive as a slave and install a new OS on the new drive.

Then, after the OS is installed, just drag and drop. No need to replace the CD rom, jump in and out of the computer several times or spend add'l cash. You have all the tools necessary to do what you want right in front of you.

I knew you, or someone, would mention that; I just think those USB cases are awesome. Talk about modular computing, you could have a stack of those bitches each w/ a beast of a HDD!

use a program called ghost. it will clone the hard drives

You usually get a copy of it when you buy a Maxtor drive, works great!

Yah I DLed the maxtor utilities - looks like it will work. All they left me was the drive.

Personally, I wouldn't use Ghost for something like this. A fresh installation of Windows is generally a good thing every so often, as you probably have tons of DLLs and other drivers, not to mention software that's been installed but you never use. I would look at it as an opportunity to start fresh.

But if that's not appealing to you or prudent, certainly Ghost will work and it's easy to use.

Chris's idea is a fine one too, I personally choose to remove the old drive for simplicity's sake. I would rather take the time to remove and add that drive than have any issues with the OS seeing stuff from another drive, or trying to boot to it if his boot order is setup that way. But it would work fine his way too!

The problem being I did'nt install anything on this system - its primary and virtually only function is to play MP3 music for the DJ's. Its network conections are well beyond my understanding. I need the larger drive in and a complete duplicate of all files on the new one.

Beyond that I have zero inclination to toy with it.

Unless you buy a bare drive it will come with a utility to move the data to the new drive. Shouldn't be a big deal whatsoever.

I've used ghost many times, I have 1 hard drive that I keep in my safety deposit box, anytime I get a new drive I go get it and ghost it to the new drive, haven't had any problems.

Do you work at The Mens Club? I will come up there and do it for ya! I have all the software needed to do the swap and reinstall of your OS, if you don't already have the software. I have been out of work and sitting on my a$$ for awhile now, could use the field work (even if it is just for a steak dinner w/ some scenery )

Shoot me an email and let me know and I will get you my Cell #

Matt