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About Mike
Expertise
Areas of expertise: PC Hardware, Peripherals, Barcode Scanners, Printers, and Applications, Networking, Microsoft Applications. I am good at researching issues and have a lot of contacts in the IT industry. So, if I can't directly answer a question I can likely find the answer.
Areas I won't be much help in: Apple Computers, Linux, older Networking technologies like Token Ring, or Thick/Thinnet.
Experience
I'm currently a Network Administrator for a contract circuit board manufacturer in Oregon, USA.
I've been working on PCs from a hobby standpoint for better than 25 years. I've been doing it professionally for 4 years.
Education/Credentials
A+ Certification, Network + Certification, MCP, MCDST, MCSA (in process)
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You are here: Experts > Computing/Technology > Focus on PC Support > PC hardware--CPU & Motherboard & RAM > Hard Drive replacement,sort of
Expert: Mike - 11/2/2009
Question
Hello Mike and thanks for your help.
I have an HP Pavilion model XG843 w/20 GIG HD and maxed out memory at 512MB,HP says I can upgrade my HD to 40GIG Max w/this Motherboard so I want to replace my 20 GIG w/the 40 Gig Drive,I have dual cables for 2 drives and I know the physical part of changing the drives but my question is,will my mother board allow me to copy the 20 gig Drive directly to the 40 Gig Drive while both are connected at the same time? I know I will have to partition the 40 Gig Drive first to accept my OS(XP PRO)and the data from the 20 GIG drive,can you offer any help with this one?
Thank you
Bob J. Lathim
U.S.M.C. Ret.
Answer
First off, Semper Fi! Never served but I have the utmost respect for you that have.
That computer does have a maximum of 512MB memory but computers don't really have a maximum hard drive size, so those guys were jerking you around saying it's max if 40GB. However, I imagine that is plenty big enough.
Unfortunately you can't simply copy all of the files from the 20GB drive over to the 40GB drive and have it work. Windows has to be installed from scratch from the beginning on a drive for it to be bootable.
The only option for transferring from one drive to another is to either install everything from scratch, or to take the drives to a computer shop and see if they can image your information from the smaller drive to the larger one.
What that is, is using special software that makes an exact duplicate of one drive onto another. The specific software is called most places use is called Symantec Ghost. It's a bit complicated and the software is fairly expensive. So I'd recommend finding a shop that can do it.
Your other option is to install that 40GB drive into your computer as a Secondary drive. Then you can uninstall software from the 20GB and reinstall it on the 40GB, or move over photos, files, etc. That will free up quite a lot of space on the 20GB drive and you can use it for just Windows.
Here are a couple decent videos that go over how to install a second hard drive. Just in case you want some assistance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvvM2Ao4Jpk
http://www.ehow.com/video_4444769_install-second-hard-drive.html
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