I am upgrading my Dell 40 gig. hard drive to a Dell 80 gig. I don't want to lose the information on the 40 gig. Is there anyway I can transfer the information from the 40 gig to the 80 gig? I appreciate any help! I have posted here several times and have always gotten the help that I needed. Thanks in advance!

The IDE interface is capable of running 4 devices: Primary master & slave Secondary master & slave You could mount the 80 GIG drive as primary slave or just put it on the secondary IDE. From there you can partition and format the big one. Although, you need to decide how you want to configure the system. Some considerations: - the newer drive should eventually become C: (Primary Master) unless the existing C drive is relatively new. - if you have drives that have different RPM you should separate them on different IDE interfaces (one each primary and secondary). the reasoning is that if they are both on the same cable both will operate at the SLOWER HD speed. - You need to decide if installing the OS on the 80 gig will destroy all files. (this will determine what order you'll take between OS install and backup of your current C drive.)

Hi again. Okay here's another question--Is it possible to transfer all WORD documents and downloaded songs on my original hard drive to the new hard drive? I have several word documents that I would like to keep and MANY songs downloaded that I would like to keep--I don't want to have to put all of it on disks right now---it would take days! Just wondering. Thanks again for any help!

hello the answer is yes. you can use drive image or norton ghost to clone the hard drive from old to new drive. after cloneing is done. do not restart computer with both hard drives still in the computer as they will have to exact same o/s on them and can damage the registeries. remove old one set new one as primary master and reboot try it and make sure its succesfully cloned. if so you can install the old drive alone and than from boot disk format it. and than set it as slave if you want to keep it as storeage and new drive as master .you might allso be able to get cloneing programs at hard drive maker. and if hard drive was a boxed one it will come with the hard drive cloneing programs. bulk ones dont come with these utillities.

Thanks wawadave! I bought it direct from Dell so it should come with directions. It's suppose to be here tomorrow! Thanks a lot!