Buying a new HDD, but dont want to re-install windows - whats my best option?

[autopilot]

I have an old 120gb IDE drive but I'm getting a new 250gb SATA Samsung Spinpoint in the nest couple of days (more toys, don't tell my girlfriend ;. Obviously i will want to take advantage of the new SATA drives better perfomance by having my Windows install on it. But i really DON'T want to have to reinstall everything. I know a fresh install would be nice, by I really REALLY can't be bothered as i have just spent so much time getting it just right.

So what do i do; Wait until my next format in a few months then switch drives, or clone my existing installation over onto the new drive now?

If i clone (or whatever it's called), whats the best way to do this? What software is best? Also, is there anything else i should consider that i have not thought of? Are there any drawbacks to this rather than a fresh install?

Cheers chappies.

BTW mods, not sure but if this should be in the software forum please move it.

[directhex]

could be tricky, windows might object to the ide->sata change. i've done a clone from one 160gb sata disk to another 160gb sata disk before without issue using dd, but not ide->sata

either way, you'll need to use ntfsresize or something, or make a second partition

[Tobeman]

Norton Ghost does the job for me, I know alot of people knock it but it does the job for me. Others like Acronis True Image, but I've never used that.

[peterb]

Caspar from future Systems www.fssdev.com

[Splash]

I always used to prefer Ghost, but having just tried TrueImage I'm now a convert - much quicker.

Also so long as you install the sATA drivers before cloning your disk all should be fine - I've done this a few times with no problems. Just remember to set your BIOS to boot from your sATA drive once your clone is complete.

[TheAnimus]

could be tricky, windows might object to the ide->sata change. i've done a clone from one 160gb sata disk to another 160gb sata disk before without issue using dd, but not ide->sata

either way, you'll need to use ntfsresize or something, or make a second partition

It will indeed because for a start boot.ini will be wrong.

But windows been a very modern OS can coupe with a lot been flung at it, as long as you make sure you have the SATA drivers installed before imaging, you can simply edit the boot.ini via the recovery console (it might even be able to do this for you). And have no problems at all.

[Cronus]

I'm planning on cloning from SATA to SATA soon. Is moving Windows from the old disk to the new disk really as simple as it sounds? Should everything work properly after the move?