I need to replace one of my hard drives, which currently has a C:, D:
and an E: partition. It's an IBM Deskstar and it's starting to make a
few click noise and high pitched wheezing noise that's making me
nervious, even though I've only had it for a couple of years. I also
have a 2nd HD in this computer, but I don't need to replace that at
all.
The HD & partition info is as follows:
HD 0 (IBM Deskstar 40GB):
C: partition is 7GB big and 4.5GB is used up. This is where Windows
XP Pro is installed and has all the downloaded and usually the smaller
programs installed.
D: partition is 32GB big and has all the programs installed off of
CDs, such as Office XP, Visual Studio .NET, Photoshop CS, Flash MX
2004, MOHAA and etc. So these are much bigger programs than the ones
installed on C:
E: partition is close to 1GB and _was_ used as dedicated swap
partition in XP Pro. But when I added a 2nd HD, I moved the swap
partition to that and now, the E: partition sits empty, never being
used at all.
HD 1 (Seagate Barracuda 120GB):
F: partition is about 110GB big and this is the partition to which I
download all my things. It's used purely for storage before I burn
them. I don't need to replace this HD at all.
I: partition is where I moved the swap partition to from E: For some
reason, XP Pro designated this swap partition as I: and named my
burner and my CD-ROM as G: and H: respectively.
I should also mention that both HDs are ATA100 are running off of a
Adaptec's PCI ATA100 controller card.
What I wish to do are the following and was wondering if someone would
be kind enough to point me in the right direction to learn how to go
about doing that:
1. Replace HD 0, but restore it exactly the same as the old drive,
including any XP Pro settings/registry tweaks I had, all the apps and
their settings/configurations
2. Get rid of partition E: somehow.
I guess basically, I'm trying to find a way to replace the HD, but be
able to make a complete and exact copy of the old drive so that I
don't have to reinstall every single program I had on it.
I've heard of Norton Ghost and Power Image or something or rather
programs that are supposed to be able to make a complete image of your
HD, then restore it somehow after a clean reinstall.
So, if someone knows a good online resource where it provides detailed
explanations or instructions on as to how I can achieve that, I'd
really appreciate it. Thanks for your time courtesy.
