Computer wiz, help with reformat hard drive

So the plan is to revive my old computer for a bit, since I no longer play games a new comp is kinda pointless.

Right now I have a 120GB hard drive in mine. The plan is to install a new 500GB HD to use for data and program, while format the 120GB HD for exclusive use by win XP. I have the reformating disk from Dell but if I recall it was even before SP1. I also have many programs installed that I no longer have installation disk for.

How should I go about it, is there anyway to keep the programs I have currently?

I'm not sure there is a way to copy your programs to the 500GB drive. There are many registry keys referencing to wherever the programs were located before, and moving them would only cause problems.

Since you no longer have some install programs, my suggestion is to keep the 120gb as is and add the 500gb. Move any data you need to the 500gb and install new programs to the 500gb.

Sounds like a task for Acronis True Image...clone your old drive to your new drive. Then you can format the old drive & I believe clone windows system back to the old drive...

Acronis is a very useful tool for me!

Hey sigman, thanks for the information!

..what do you mean by clone windows system back to the old drive? does it only do the core operating system, then refer to the old program files on the new drive?

csshih said:

...
..what do you mean by clone windows system back to the old drive? does it only do the core operating system, then refer to the old program files on the new drive?

Click to expand...

...I can't remember the exact options presented in the menu, however I'm getting ready to clone some drives & I'll have a chance to check it out - unless an "Acronis expert" chimes in here?

I have used Norton Ghost for years, but Acronis True Image is also a quality product.

Cloning a drive either makes a complete sector by sector image to a backup source (i.e. to spanned CD/DVD, or external USB drive), or can copy it to a new (larger) drive making the new drive bootable. It makes an exact mirror copy of your original drive, including everything.

Starting back up after the image/copy is made to the new drive--will look and behave exactly as if you are using the original drive, including windows, all programs, all data, everything.

These two Image programs include boot CD/disks so you can do a restore/copy to a new HD even if you somehow hosed your current system and cannot boot into Windows. That assumes you have had the wisdom to make regular Image backups while system is still working.

You can make complete one time image backups, or start with complete, and have it make regular incremental backups thereafter only of changed/added files since last backup.

The reason I want to format the 120GB HD is because I feel win xp has been bogged down with time, it's nowhere as fast as when the computer is new (i.e. Opera takes forever to start and shut down compare to when I first installed it, sometimes when just open a folder cause hard drive to go nuts and stop respond for a couple of seconds). I was hoping a fresh install would make it lean and fast again (at least compare to right now), does it sounds right?

Well a fresh install is totally different from making a clone image which would have all the same stuff you have now.

For a fresh install, you need to back up your data files to a separate disc/CD/DVD/USB flash drive, etc., then boot off of the Windows CD (or a DOS floppy disk, or a bootable CD that has format command), format your hard drive, then install windows from scratch.

Don't do this until you are sure you have a valid Windows install disc and serial number. Another couple of ways short of starting from scratch to speed up your installation is to uninstall all unnecessary programs, use "Crap Cleaner" to remove all the crap it can remove, run a defrag and see how much improvement you have.

When I do a new Windows installation, I do several ghost image backups along the way so I can always use those in the future if I want to get rid of all the crap you accumulate over time.

I first install Windows, motherboard updates, then graphics/sound card drivers, let Windows do its updates, then install and make a Ghost image.

Then I'll add bare basic programs I'm 100% sure I need, like Office, Firefox, Nero, Zone Alarm, Anti-Virus, DVD programs....update all those, and do another Ghost image. At this point I should have a pretty efficient and fast running setup, and which can be restored easily.

Then I start adding back my data, and installing more optional programs that I used previously & do another Ghost image.

Using this technique will save you an enormous amount of time with all the updates, reboots, etc. I usually save those first few sets of Ghost images on DVD's so I have an external source of backup. It lets you see which programs might be slowing you down, and backing up to the last Ghost image is a lot easier than starting over again from scratch.

ubcd is a cool free app

Yeah, I knew what imaging a disk meant.. but in seems that the OP didn't want an exact copy again.. hence my confusion.

all cleared up now

jzmtl

you have to first decide whether to
1. get a leaner/faster system by fresh installation of windows but losing some programs that you have lost the installation cd for it. Fresh installation of windows means, formatting clean your C:/ drive with all windows system and programs with it, then install a clean windows operating system on it, followed by other programs.

or..

2. try to optimize the existing windows system without reformatting and reinstalling windows, and in turn keeping your existing programs that you have lost the installation cd for it.

Both are do-able but option no 2 may be more technical, IMO.
Oh i know some people which is totally hopeless with computer to do both options, so dont be afraid to ask if you feel you're up to the task and willing to challenge yourself .

another step that we may help, list down the programs that you think you have no installation disk, since most programs nowadays can be downloaded free or otherwise.

Eric

My advice would be this: clone 120GB HD to 500GB HD, your new HD is faster and that speeds up everything.

My own computer i have a year old 160GB HD, and a new 500GB HD.
I cloned my 160GB HD to 200GB partition of the new 500GB HD, the difference in overall performance was so big that i noticed that.
After that i formatted the old 160GB HD and made that as my backup drive, every monday at 3am driveimagexml makes a new image of my C: drive and saves it in the old HD.

And its freeware.

Yesterday was the first time i needed that, previously this week i installed some programs and my system got messed badly.
So i just booted with ultimate boot cd for windows, restored C: and thats it.
Restoring 135GB of data from 115GB image took only 1.5 hours.
Because i store my photos in my pictures folder in C: i have backup of those too.
Of course i save the backup image to external usb HD few every 3 months, just to make sure.
DriveImageXML also lets me browse the images, and of course i can restore single files or folders from the image.

I'm afraid optimize current installation is already not useful. I've kept it optimized as much as possible since I bought it but now it's too bogged down, which is why I had to fall to drastic measures.

I have the restoration disk from Dell that came with it, so reformating shouldn't be a problem. I'm going to try to find as many installlation disk as possible right now and hope it'll go easy.

Old 120G drive usally is significantly slower than newer 500G. Thus, I would use 500G as main drive, and 120G would be a backup/data.

But, I prefer doing it old fashioned way. Doing it step by step rather than letting software do that for me at least for the fresh drive. Patition 500GB as the way I want, usually small patition for OS, and larger one for data. Install windows and applications, then copy files from old drive. Double check all the data I want is transfered, no missing data etc. Then format old drive, use it as a backup drive. When everything is done and confirmed, I will make an image copy using norton ghost, keep it at physically different backup drive. it only takes about 10 minutes to restore settings when something messed up.

Before you do anything you need to make sure where the XP installation files are. I doubt they're on your CD. Dell and most other computer companies usually put the installation files on your hard drive in a partition - usually D - and the restore CD uses those files to reinstall windows. If you format your hard drive you'll need to find another way to install XP.

If you have a friend who has a real XP installation CD, and it's THE SAME version of XP that you have - Home, Professional, etc. - you can use his install CD with your serial number and you should be fine to install XP on a cleanly formatted drive. If you have to do this make sure you copy the install files to a partition of your hard drive before you return the CD. It's actually a good idea to copy the files to the freshly formatted hard drive before installing XP, and then install from those files. I did this often with 95, 98, and 2000 on my systems.

Alternatively, If you know someone who's into warez, there was an XP 8-in-1 install CD floating around news groups years ago that'll allow you to install XP in 8 different ways - but you must have a serial number for that type of installation. Choosing your XP type and using your serial number would work fine this way too.

BTW - your system should have a sticker on it somewhere that contains the license informaton and XP serial number.

Thank. I will probably use 500gb one as primary then, and partition 100GB for XP only, rest for program. Or should I not bother and keep it as one volume?

My computer came with no separate partition and no backup file I can see. The new laptop I have is like this and I had to make my own restore DVD, but my computer is 6 years old and came with a bunch of CD's that contains restoration, drivers etc (cost me $2k when I bought it, was a gamer back then). so it looks like it's made before manufacturers cheaped out.

2k for a computer is steep even 6 years ago! The one I'm typing on now I assembled about the same time and spent less than $400 - but it's far from a gaming system. Funny you mentioned burning recovery DVDs for your laptop - I'm doing that right now for my new laptop!

If you want best performance, I'd install XP on the new disk and use the old one for data storage. Also, I'd make several partitions on the new disk before installing XP. I go a little far with partitioning, but I like to keep things separate to keep fragmentation to a minimum. I make separate partitions for the OS, swap file (1.5 x installed memory), downloaded programs, installed programs, and general data storage. Depending on the use of the system, I'll add partitions for cd and dvd isos, and also for rar and hjsplit joining. It's extreme I know, but why not?

About transferring programs - there are programs made that do that from one system to another, but I don't know if there are any that'll move programs from one boot drive to another, which is how I'd assume it would work on a single PC. Check out MoveMe or PCmover - there are probably others too.

Good luck with it!

Radiophile said:

2k for a computer is steep even 6 years ago! The one I'm typing on now I assembled about the same time and spent less than $400 - but it's far from a gaming system. Funny you mentioned burning recovery DVDs for your laptop - I'm doing that right now for my new laptop!

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Yeah I was young back then, too much money (at least I thought) and not enough brain lol. The nvidia 6800 card alone cost me some serious coins.

I'm not looking for really high performance, just back to what it was when new.

Thanks everybody for your help, I'm going to gather a few more installation disks and try it. If I screw something up I'll be back with more questions.

Radiophile said:

2k for a computer is steep even 6 years ago! The one I'm typing on now I assembled about the same time and spent less than $400 - but it's far from a gaming system. Funny you mentioned burning recovery DVDs for your laptop - I'm doing that right now for my new laptop!

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Not at all accurate. A quality, gaming video card that would play the latest games-HL2/FarCry/Doom3/Stalker alone cost $500+ 6 years ago. I'm still using my overclocked ATI X800 XT PE in this very computer, so I got my money's worth.