How to transfer the OS from a HD to another?

[myelin]

Hello. I have 10gb IDE Hard disk, and i want to transfer the OS on it to another bigger capacity hard drive without going through the installation procedure. How may i achieve this?

The computer will remain the same

Thanks.

[Siginet]

I use Acronis True Image with Universal Restore.

Basically you make an image of the current drive.

Then you restore that image to the new drive with the Universal Restore option.

What this does is removes the hardware specific info from the drive so that you won't have any issues.

Another method would be to make an image of the drive using any HD imaging utility. Then use OfflineSysprep on a BARTPE disk to change the hal information.

For more in depth info about these methods do a search for "True Image Universal Restore" or "OfflineSysprep".

I hope this points you to the right dirrection.

[beats]

Indeed, Acronis True Image will do it, or else use similar HDD cloning tool like Ghost.

[IcemanND]

Take your pick of tools: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...&hl=imaging

[myelin]

@Siginet: Thanks for the explanation.

@ IcemanND: That list may keep me busy for some time. Thanks.

@ beats: Thanks.

[Siginet]

Actually you don't even need OfflineSysprep or Universal Restore since you are putting it in the same computer. My examples were gear toward if you were putting the drive in a new computer.

in your case you could actually use just about any imaging software.

[leon]

This is not so easy even if you are putting it in the same computer.I tried to make an image.It worked well, but the cloned harddrive was bigger then original and i was not able to use the lost space.So it was a issue with MBR or something like this.And also partition magic could not fix it.But then I found a software called partition logic and it was able to fix this problem.

[LordFett]

I went through this same thing not too long ago. The thread I got all my info is still around. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=117926