Copying Files to New Hard Drive

[AlucarD]

I currently have an maxtor hard drive in desperate need of a format but it has everything on it from games to music that i want to keep.

Im gonna get a new hard drive anyway and format the maxtor and i can easily transfer over media files and .exe files , but i was wondering, if i copied a game folder for example Half Life 2 which takes far to long to install would it run fine or would it just refuse to load ??

Cheers
AlucarD

[[M]uuhh]

try nortan ghost.

[Fireblade]

It won't work just doing that m8, because when you install a new game... or any other software for that matter... entries are added to the registry. If those don't remain intact, it's unlikely the game/software will work :(

Your best bet by far would be to 'Ghost' - or 'Image' the old drive to the new one, using (e.g.) Norton Ghost 9.0 (the best IMO) or (e.g.) Acronis True Image. Those programs basically make a copy of your complete drive, such that all your settings etc remain unaffected ;)

Failing that... your only other option is to backup your various save game files and configs, and restore them once you've reinstalled the game(s) :rolleyes:

[AlucarD]

Yeh i was trying to stay away from ghosting the drive as it will take over the files that are useless aswell. I must have about 4 installs of windows on the hard drive due to windows fecking up.

Ah well, lucky for me i backed up all my program exe's to disk so i wont have to download everything again :)

Ill just have to set aside a day to install all the prog's and games again.

Cheers
AlucarD

[Fireblade]

I see what you mean in regard to also having all yer current 'junk' files, but in that case... it would worth your while buying another new drive to 'Ghost' the new drive to :D

A backup drive of suitable size isn't that expensive to buy... and 'Ghost'ing a new drive saves absolutely hours of [frustrating] reinstallation! And you don't have to worry about trying t' find various drivers disks etc! And making regular backups thereafter, could save you a lot of grief as well one day :eek:

Yep. A new backup drive, and a copy of Norton Ghost, could be two of the most important purchases you'll ever make :cool:

[daniel_owen_uk]

Powerquest drive copy (or driveimage) is the bad boy for this, just stick both hdd in boot from it and press copy.

Job done.

Not sure if it works with sata mind.

Hiren's boot cd is great for this sort of job, although not sure on legalities so won't link to it.

[Fireblade]

Powerquest Drive Image was bought out by Symantec Daniel - such that Norton Ghost is now the only application they offer :rolleyes:

You can still buy copies of Powerquest Drive Image 7.0 from various sources of course. But you won't be getting it direct from Symantec, that's fer sure :D

[stdPikachu]

?

I thought Ghost and DriveImage were disc imaging programs, not backup utilities...? They take a bit-for-bit copy of the raw disc (meaning they copy the MBR, partition table, formatting, any errors on the discs, the works) which means they'll only work properly if the two drives geometry's are the same.

Doesn't the Steam edition of HL2 allow you to burn a backup copy onto CD/DVD so you don't have to download it all again?

[jayos]

?

I thought Ghost and DriveImage were disc imaging programs, not backup utilities...? They take a bit-for-bit copy of the raw disc (meaning they copy the MBR, partition table, formatting, any errors on the discs, the works) which means they'll only work properly if the two drives geometry's are the same.

Doesn't the Steam edition of HL2 allow you to burn a backup copy onto CD/DVD so you don't have to download it all again?

Extract from Norton Ghost 9 manual

"You can copy the contents of one hard drive to another.

You can copy your operating system, applications, and

data to a new hard drive. If the hard drive you are

copying contains more than one partition, you must copy

the partitions one at a time to the new hard drive.

You can use the Copy Drives feature when you upgrade

to a larger hard drive or when you add a second hard

drive and keep the original. You should not use the Copy

Drives feature to set up a hard drive that will be used in

another computer."