Hello, i have Windows Vista 64x, 4gb of ram, AMD 3800+ on a 939 socket. Now i have two(2) hard drives hooked up, a 80 gig, which has all the windows software, and a 160, which i just have a documents folder of music and movies. Now i am upgrading the 160 to a 320, easy already formatted the 320 and coped files from 160, now is it possible that when i get rid of the 160 to change the drive name (now G) back to F so i dont have to worry about itunes and such? also i want to put the 80 gig on the 160, but i dont know how to copy the 80 to the 160?
cliffs:
possible to swap drive names G to F?
possible to take the original 80gb hard drive that vista runs on and copy it to the 160 so it runs off that??
you need to use the free "macrium reflect" to make an image of your 80gb hard drive.
Next restore this image onto your 160gb hard drive. Hopefully it should bootup the first time, if it doesn't you might need your vista installation dvd to do a quick repair (less than 5 minutes).
Imaging software will copy all the files/programs etc and make them bootable when restored.
These are the directions for macrium reflect (recommended because it is vista 64 capable). Install the software.
1. start macrium reflect
2. make a bootable recovery cd.
3. Test the bootcd by letting it bootup your computer and make sure it can find your USB drive. If the bootcd won't bootup/find usb you might need to make a bootcd with the bartpe plugin (available from within the macrium reflect software).
4. next choose to backup your c: drive, this will create a compressed file about the size of your "use data" on your hard drive. Save this file on an external drive. Macrium will backup your c: drive, straight from the windows interface, no need to shutdown windows or use the bootcd to backup.
5. Remove the source drive and install your new drive. Plug in your external drive that has the backup file and turn it on. turn your computer on, make sure the bios is setup to boot from the bootcd first. Make sure that the "bootcd" that you created in step is in the cdrom drive.
6. When macrium comes up on the screen, choose restore. Browse to the usb drive where your file is located. Choose that file to restore to your new drive.
7. depending on the size of your backup, it can take about 1 minute per GB to restore.
