So my step mom is a computer noob and is running out of space on her main drive. My idea would be to just get the extra drive, and do some form of short cutting so that files (pictures and such) that used to come off the old drive, are now coming off the newer bigger one. But my pops is skeptical that even this will trip her up. Is it possible to clone (via norton ghost, or other) the old drive onto a newer bigger drive, and then continue to use that one as the master, so that everything is completely transparent for her.

12/24/2006 6:05:13 PM

you cant just copy all her old shit onto the new drive?

12/24/2006 6:59:36 PM

Did you read the post? Yes, I could do that...I assume I could just make the old links point to the new directories. It's so bad, that any "disruption" in the way the machine used to be will cause world war three.

It's what happens when old folks and technology intersect.

12/24/2006 7:03:07 PM

I know you can use Ghost to totally clone a drive, but I believe when you try to put it on a new drive, it would format it just like the original. Of course even if it did that, you probably could use something like Partition Magic (pricey) or QTParted from a linux distro like Knoppix to extend that partition to fill up the free space. So short answer, yes, but it might not be that simple.

12/24/2006 10:23:18 PM

You should be able to use PartitionMagic (or this free one: http://www.ranish.com/part/ ) and copy the partition onto a new drive. Norton Ghost should also work if you want to make an image and then 'restore' it on the new hard drive.

12/25/2006 12:27:13 AM

any imaging software should work for this task. and it won't format the nes drive as a 12gb or whatever the old one was. it will do whatever you tell it to do (and the default is to take up all of the new drive). i dont know about free solutions, but arconis trueimage or ghost should do fine. i'm sure theres free solutions out there if you don't have a bittorrent client

12/25/2006 12:42:09 AM

Excellent. I think I have an old copy of partition magic someone let me have, I've just never had the need to use it and didn't know what it was capable of.

So it should be as easy as putting the new drive in, cloning to it, then swapping the master/slave switch and it will be the new drive?

12/25/2006 10:02:29 AM

take advantage of this and do a clean install, she probably needs it anyways
then just put her files back in the same spot

12/25/2006 1:00:49 PM

She does need that, however, I don't have all day/weekend or the desire to undertake such an endeavor.

12/25/2006 1:01:35 PM

it just takes an afternoon, its rainy anyways

12/25/2006 1:22:06 PM

Done yet?

12/25/2006 7:37:22 PM

You don't need any special tools. Just stick both drives into a second computer and literally copy all of the files from one drive to a new active primary partition on the other. (unless it's been converted to a windows 'dynamic' disk -- then you'd need an imaging tool)

12/26/2006 3:29:00 PM

x

[Edited on December 26, 2006 at 5:56 PM. Reason : a]

12/26/2006 5:55:57 PM

^^
That is incorrect. There are certain files Windows cannot copy while it is running (ntuser.dat in Documents and Settings is one of them). Further, even if you could copy every file (say, take a 2nd computer to do so), there's no guarantee Windows won't crap itself when it tries to boot with the new hard drive.

Anyways, if you haven't already, get Ghost or TrueImage and call it a day. Just make sure you extend your partition during the process or do so afterwards using GParted LiveCD.

12/26/2006 10:48:18 PM