Hi All This feels like a stupid question, but I really don't know the answer: My PC is a lovely thing now, except that the hard drive is an old 30gb and is almost certainly the weakest link in the whole thing. I would like to upgrade to something zippy and funky. However - I want to not go through the entire "rebuild" process. Is there any way of managing this? Effectively, I'd like to copy everything onto the new drive and have the PC run from there. If its just stupid, then please don't hesitate to say! Many Thanks Tom

the best way is to perform a clean install on the new drive. The new drives have a lrger cache than the old one, and the OS will load in a different way. That is the way the files are layed out on the hard drive, and usualy the page file will fall in a different place also. If the board has raid capability get 2 identical drives and set up a raid 0 configuration for best possible perfomance. But a frsh install is almost a must with new drives Of today. and if funds permit and the board has SATA have a look at the WD raptor drives 10000 rpm. But make sure you have a darn good power supply. Hope that helps. Regards IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

Usually, when you buy a new HDD, it comes with either a bootable floppy or CD. On that floppy or CD is a diagnostics program, a program for partitioning & formatting, & also a program for transferring the entire contents of your old drive to your new drive. It's always best to use the software that's made for your drive. If done correctly, there should be no reason to go thru the hassle of doing a clean install, activating, updating, installing & updating other software, etc. If the disc doesn't come with the drive, you can download it for free from the manufacturer's website........ Asus A7N8X-X 2500+ Sempron @ 2100mhz 10.5 x 200mhz @ 1.80v 512mb PC3200 Ti4200/8X 128mb WDC 60GB

jam is right, but Janos has a good point. It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice...

Wow - thats fantastic! I never heard of that, but will look into it immediately. Would a transfer prog take into consideration the issues that Janos raised? The board is an MSI K8N Neo and the power supply is brand new and should be able to cope with draining most of the power in the village I live in - and funds aren't too restricted, so I'll get as top spec as I can. Many Thanks again Tom

Tom !! The answer to your question is NO. All image and file transfer programs only take a snapshot image the way things are laid out on your current drive, and transfer it across to the new drive in that specific order. They do not take into consideration your new drive, its speed or cache allocation. That is why I recommend a clean install. In addition if your new drive is 40 gig or more make sure you partition the drive. As to the actual size of the partition will be to your choosing, and what purpose you use the computer for. We all have different thoughts on how big the partitions should be, but my personal experience and thoughts are that the C drive should be no bigger than 20 gig for XP this will restrict the OS from spreading to the back portion of the hard rive during installation and while the system is writing and reading to and from the drive. I use a simple rule which has given me good results to date. Both for single drive set-ups and raid set-ups. I POINT OUT THAT THIS IS MY PERSONAL RULE ONLY AND IN NO WAY DOES IT SAY YOU NEED TO FOLLOW IT. Most drives will not give you 100 usage of their rated capacity. So if the hard drive is say for example 120gig you will have usable storage of approx 116 gig. In this case I will allocate 16 gig to the C = system partition/drive and the rest I usually split into 2 50 gig partitions. Or if the individual is using some very large programs like Auto cad or Photoshop I will create the second partition of approx 20 gig for where such programs can be installed without cramming the OS on the C drive the rest I would split into 2 40 partitions, or perhaps one large one of 80 gig if the systems is used for large games or video editing and digital movie files etc. Hope this is of some help to you. Regards Janos IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT