Changing hdd's and managing partitions

I am planing to add a 1000Gig hdd that has been used before as my main C: drive, it has data I still want to keep.

at the moment I am running an 80Gig hdd that is really in a bad way as far as partitions.

I dont like the setup of the partitions, I need the data, the drive is almost full.( I want to format this 80Gig)

PS: The 1000Gig doesn't support my keyboard or mouse due to my mistake, I moved the drivers out of the folderto the desktop to analyze a problem that I was having,(these where the drivers for the keyboard and mouse) then we had a blackout of all things…
(The drive is sitting waiting to go in, I just am not sure how to go about it)
How do I do it?

I have a slipstreamed XPSP3 disk if this helps, just made recently.

Thanks,

Jkc73


Edit : More accurate details, sorry.

Not totally sure I follow, but I suspect you want to save the data on the 80gig drive then format\reinstall it ?
And you can't use you're large drive as a slave to move the data you want to save too currently as the system wont see it ?

Assuming I have got that right there is an easy solution, rather than mess about, get Puppy Linux, burn it to disk, boot to that disk, then that will create a working system that does not touch the drives, it runs purely in the systems ram, so when on the desktop mount the 2 drives, and COPY the data too be saved to the larger drive, I say copy because worst case and something goes wrong part way through the moving of the files, you still have the original files on the 80gig to try again, if you cut and paste them I can only imagine how it could be messed up if there is an interruption during the process.

Once you're happy the files are on the larger drive you can then reboot and begin a fresh format\install to the 80gig drive, and once you have the relative files it should then pick up the larger drive and you will be good to go again, hope I understood correctly, and that this helps.

I am planing to add a 1000Gig hdd that has been used before as my main C: drive, it has data I still want to keep.

at the moment I am running an 80Gig hdd that is really in a bad way as far as partitions.

I dont like the setup of the partitions, I need the data, the drive is almost full.( I want to format this 80Gig)

PS: The 1000Gig doesn't support my keyboard or mouse due to my mistake, I moved the drivers out of the folderto the desktop to analyze a problem that I was having,(these where the drivers for the keyboard and mouse) then we had a blackout of all things…
(The drive is sitting waiting to go in, I just am not sure how to go about it)
How do I do it?

I have a slipstreamed XPSP3 disk if this helps, just made recently.

Thanks,

Jkc73


Edit : More accurate details, sorry.

8210GUY

I will begin by making the bootable disk with Puppy Linux.

The big question that I have been meaning to ask is, if I plug in the old C: drive(1000G), won't it have a clash with some .ini and .inf files.

I do wish to keep the data on both drives, the 1000G is only 5-10% full and I wish to use it as my D: drive after I reformat the 80G and reinstall XP .

The other question I have is, can't they both run together, or is that what Puppy Linux does on a temporary basis? If you have a solution for a permanent basis, I'm listening….

Thanks in advance
Jkc73

The beauty of Puppy Linux is that it is a complete OS that runs in the systems ram, it does not touch the attached drives at all, so there is no conflicts or anything, as it just sees the drives as slaves in it's way, so it doesn't matter whats on them, so when you boot to Puppy Linux it will load to "it's" desktop, then once there you can see the attached devices listed over where the Start button would be (bottom left), click on each drive in turn and it will open (mount) them for you to see what is in them, simply copy over what you want kept, then you're good to go once you're happy you have all you need saved, hope this helps.

8210GUY

Posting from within Puppy Linux's Shell, quite a different experience when all you have been used to is Microsoft Windows.

I completely understand the reasoning for using Puppy Linux.

The versatility and tools available that I have found in Puppy Linux may change my whole outlook towards how I set-up my system.

Thanks again,
Jkc73

Yeah great tool, I just wish I had the time to get into Linux deeper, but you can see why some love it, but it's a major learning curve, glad it helped.

Jkc73, Maybe it is easier than that…. If you connect your big drive to your computer… you can continue to boot off of your existing C: drive and move the files directly to your new larger drive. Then just format your C: drive and reinstall your OS. The fact that the large drive used to be a boot drive will not confuse your computer. The operating system information on the larger drive will waste space… but it won't hurt anything. As long as your existing C: drive is working… there is no reason to use linux to transfer the files (unless you just want to for the experience).

Jkc73,

Maybe it is easier than that….


If you connect your big drive to your computer… you can continue to boot off of your existing C: drive and move the files directly to your new larger drive.

Then just format your C: drive and reinstall your OS. The fact that the large drive used to be a boot drive will not confuse your computer. The operating system information on the larger drive will waste space… but it won't hurt anything.

As long as your existing C: drive is working… there is no reason to use linux to transfer the files (unless you just want to for the experience).

My existing C: drive, you are referring to the 80G drive…correct?(My current boot drive)

So after I have moved all the "wanted data" over to the 1T drive, I will be able to format the 80G drive, then install the DELL OEM OS whilst still running from the 1T drive shell…or something to the likes..?

On another note, I used linux to copy the whole Windows directory from my 80G to my 1T, over writing the existing Windows directory and all subs.

The reason for this is that the 1T drive had missing drivers(Keyboard and mouse, so I am guessing it was a USB driver), not sure if what I have done will be a success, as I have not booted from the 1T drive as yet, though that is how I had it planned.

Any advise at this point will be welcomed, as I am just going through the tedious process of sorting, searching copying an 80G drive.
I was just going to use linux to copy the whole drive straight over the top of the other, then I could just sort the 1T drive as there is a lot of duplicate files between the both, and thats not including the OS.

Many thanks
Jkc73

I misunderstood your intent. I thought you were going to continue to boot from your 80G drive once you had reformatted it and reinstalled the OS. If you are going to boot from the 1T, then I would: Back up any data on the 1T that I wanted to keep. Reformat and install the OS to the 1T… from the disk, not the 80g Put the data back on the "clean" 1T.

I misunderstood your intent. I thought you were going to continue to boot from your 80G drive once you had reformatted it and reinstalled the OS. If you are going to boot from the 1T, then I would:

Back up any data on the 1T that I wanted to keep.
Reformat and install the OS to the 1T… from the disk, not the 80g
Put the data back on the "clean" 1T.

yes that is my intent, to use the 80G as my C: drive, it is currently partitioned c,d,f,g

I wish to format and reinstall the OEM OS without the partitions, and then use the 1T as a daily back-up and to store all video files in a 2nd partition.
I only wish to keep the bare essentials and day to day most frequently accessed files on the 80G drive.

here are some details~

Property Value
Manufacturer Dell Inc.
Product Name Dell DV051
Serial Number xxxxxxxxxxxx
Machine Type AT/AT COMPATIBLE
Infrared (IR) Supported No

Disk Space Disk C: 10805 MB Available, 53976 MB Total, 10805 MB Free NTFS
Disk D: 9512 MB Available, 19054 MB Total, 9512 MB Free NTFS
Disk F: 24 MB Available, 31 MB Total, 24 MB Free FAT
Disk G: 953 MB Available, 3218 MB Total, 953 MB Free FAT32
Disk H: 764 GB Available, 931 GB Total, 764 GB Free NTFS

Physical Memory 2039 MB Total, 1212 MB Free
Memory Load 40%

Virtual Memory 3933 MB Total, 3134 MB Free

PageFile Name C:\pagefile.sys
PageFile Size 2048 MB
In use 174 MB
Max used 198 MB
Registry Size 3 MB (current), 120 MB (maximum)


The system clock interval 15 ms

I know what I wish to accomplish, just not really sure how to go about it, or if it is worth doing…

Many Thanks,
Jkc73

Sorry, for some reason I was reading it as you couldn't access the large drive on that system currently, but if you can then just as Tomk says, add it as slave then copy the wanted files over, good spot Tomk. As both drives can be accessed the simplest way forward is to save the required data from the 80gig drive to the larger drive, then format and install to the 80gig drive so it is freed up, then to make life easier I'd suggest save the files you want from the larger drive to the 80gig (hopefully there is the space), then format the large drive, and put the files back, you then have 2 clean and tidy drives.What you could do then is to use some back up software once you're fully installed etc, and create a back up image saved to the large drive, then if you have to reinstall in the future it should be quick and easy, just a thought.