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Hello All,

I just bought a new WD Caviar Black 1TB drive and would like to set it up as my new primary hard drive. Ideally, I would like to transfer everything that is currently on my primary drive to my new one and make that one a slave drive. Please tell me the easiest way to do this!

Edited by jh6004
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Hello All,

I just bought a new WD Caviar Black 1TB drive and would like to set it up as my new primary hard drive. Ideally, I would like to transfer everything that is currently on my primary drive to my new one and make that one a slave drive. Please tell me the easiest way to do this!

You should have received a WD CD with the drive. It has all the programs required to move everything from old to new. If not - go to the WD site and download the programs.

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You should have received a WD CD with the drive. It has all the programs required to move everything from old to new. If not - go to the WD site and download the programs.

Thanks! This was much easier than trying to find my windows disks to do a clean installation and then manually transfer the files that I want like the guy at microcenter told me to do. I went to the WD page and downloaded Acronis True Image. I now have my new hard drive hooked up and everything seems to be working fine! My only question is if it is bad to wipe the old hard drive? I don't even have it hooked up right now so I figure I will run my computer on just my new drive for the next couple of days to make sure everything works. After that though, would it be bad to wipe the old one?

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I don't even have it hooked up right now so I figure I will run my computer on just my new drive for the next couple of days to make sure everything works. After that though, would it be bad to wipe the old one?

There is nothing "good" or "bad" in wiping a hard disk drive.

Points to ponder are:

  1. do you have a backup strategy for your DATA?
  2. are you going to re-sell the old drive on e-bay or similar?

IF #1 is OK, then you CAN wipe the disk allright. (otherwise you should start with a sound backup strategy and the old drive may be of use)

IF #2 is what you want to do then you SHOULD wipe the disk.

To wipe the disk you can use (strongly advised) any simple program doing a single pass of 00's. (anything else is b***sh**)

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=125900

Recommended:

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

it is also part of the UBCD:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

(just download and burn, seveal more utilities included)

jaclaz

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Well here is the thing, I have a 500GB external drive that I have been backing my whole system up on daily and I have not synced it with my new drive yet. So, I think that all of the information (as it was before I cloned it with Acronis) should be backed up on that external. This makes me think that wiping the old dive is safe and since I will be loading my picture/music library onto that drive, I will need all of the space I can get (hence needing to wipe it).

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I will need all of the space I can get (hence needing to wipe it).

hence? :w00t:

Well, there has been a misunderstanding. :)

To make space you delete files and folders.

To make space quickly you (re-)format the partition (with the /q option)-

To make space in such a way that NO previous info can be retrieved, you wipe a drive, using one of the suggested program or, if only the partition needs to be wiped by formatting the partition under Vista/7 (it won't work under XP and previous) without specifying the /q option.

jaclaz

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I will need all of the space I can get (hence needing to wipe it).

hence? :w00t:

Well, there has been a misunderstanding. :)

To make space you delete files and folders.

To make space quickly you (re-)format the partition (with the /q option)-

To make space in such a way that NO previous info can be retrieved, you wipe a drive, using one of the suggested program or, if only the partition needs to be wiped by formatting the partition under Vista/7 (it won't work under XP and previous) without specifying the /q option.

jaclaz

Oh, sorry I guess I should have been more conscious of my wording. I guess I would like to reformat my old drive. I will not be selling it or worrying about being able to recover information, I just want to delete all of the information so that I can have the space back. So, I'm assuming you would be less reluctant to recommend this option? What is the best way to do this? (I'm not familiar with /q)

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OS up to XP/2003 you could only format.

  1. Format with the /q switch just formatted the partition. (quick)
  2. Format without the /q switch formatted the partition AND checked sectors. (long)

Starting from Vista :ph34r: and consequently Server 2008 and presumably 7:

  1. Format with the /q switch just formats the partition. (quick)
  2. Format without the /q switch formats the partition AND wipes each sector AND checks sectors. (long)

Reference:

XP etc:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302686/en-us

Vista :ph34r: etc.:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941961/en-us

Since you are still keeping the drive there is no sense in wiping out the data, so:

Open a commmand prompt window, and type in it:

Format <driveletter> /q

[ENTER]

change <driveletter> with the actual drive letter your old drive has, check carefully.

More options:

http://ss64.com/nt/format.html

jaclaz

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Thanks Jaclaz! I did this and after some trouble with it telling me to be in "elevated mode" then asking for the volume label, I was able to delete everything on the drive effectively!

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