An XP Q: what is the BEST way to setup a new hard drive?

Mr.Fixit · TweakNOOB Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 21

I was reading the fine print for a new Seagate HD, and it said that you could use their DiskWizard utility to copy the old boot drive onto the new one as a boot drive, which sounds a lot like ghosting... but then it said something vague about not partitioning.

XP can set up a drive too. I got to thinking I knew less than I thought about this.

What are the pros & cons of letting XP do it; or are the Manufacturers utilities better in some way?

How do you de-partition an old drive (get Windows to see it as one unit to be zero write formatted)?

The guide also suggested that DDO (Dynamic Disk Overlay) could be written to any drive on the system. Would the Seagate tools work on a Western drive, and visaversa?

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HoseB · SirTweaksabit Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 260

fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Let me get a bit more specific, if y'all don't mind.

Some of what you're asking depends on what version of XP you have...........the original, virgin XP didn't natively support drives over 137gb. SP1 took care of that. So, if you have a 4 year old, original version of XP, use the drive manufacturer's utility to setup and partition.........then install XP, and immediately DL SP2.

If you have a new version of XP, or have a slipstreamed SP1 or SP2 version, you can use XP to format and partition without any issues.

As far as your question about uitilites working on other drives...........it's half-and-half. WD's LifeGuard tools will clone from a non-WD drive, but WILL NOT work if the recieving drive is not a WD. I can pretty much say the same for Maxtor and Seagate as well. They'll clone FROM another drive, but not TO.
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HoseB · SirTweaksabit Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 260

Mr.Fixit · TweakNOOB Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 21

Sorry if I was vague, but they say half of making discoveries is refining the question (cause the answer is 42?)...

I dug around and found an old Seagate 1.2G from my PackyBell days. Remember everything fitting into a Gig? seems impossible now! It had partitions too! Very Happy

seemed useful for this because being small- formatting would be quick.

[unlike apparently 95% of upgraders, I had no probs getting XP SP2 installed.]

So I tried Disk Management (RtClik MyComp>Manage>Disk Man.) on that drive. With some uncertainty, I was able to de-partition and re-partition and format OK; that old HD's final service I guess...

My bigger uncertainty was whether the SG and/or WD tools are actually a form of 'drive backup'. This is not directly stated in the (SG) manual. It says something in passing about not removing the old drive when creating a new boot drive, but doesn't make it clear if that is 'forever', or just during the process.

My biggest uncertainty is because this is a dual boot machine. Disk Management showed 3 empty partitions. (Its so Microsoft to not even see Linux

) S'pose I should just go ahead and experiment? I'm like the woodworker who still has all 10 fingers- getting more paranoid about frying something all the time.

There are other considerations too- advanced IDE operation (SG has some kind of accelerator dl) and on one forum folks are swapping drives in and out of standalone DVD recorders.
I guess HDs aren't just for computers any more!

Mr.Fixit · TweakNOOB Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 21

thanks guys- been pondering the info you posted; couple Qs...

if there was a fault from using an alternative mfg's drive software when cloning, would it always show up right away?

Seagate talks about DDO, is that Fast Indexing under another name?

My workhorse HD has bunches of webpages stored on it- zillions of ittybitty files.
Wondering if I should clone them in the all-in-one process, or if that would just create a bunch of new beacon gifs - maybe all that should be burned & then deleted first?

AND- I forgot to mention- this all started because Circuit City has the 80G Seagate for $30 (after rebates) this week. Also for you guys who like to build Black Hole machines- a 300 G for $99.

HoseB · SirTweaksabit Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 260

[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 11:46 am Post subject:

*MOVED* for a better fit.
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Like Hose said, backup and cloning are two different things, and should be used differently.

Good backup software can be set for a schedule, and only backs up files that were changed or added since the last backup. Compression of the backup is optional, since the idea is that your backup drive can be used as a primary drive, in case of hardware failure. In that respect, it's faster, and what most people should use.

Cloning software, such as Ghost, can be used one of two ways: either to install a new drive, and pull every bit of info off the old one, or to create a compressed, single-file backup for restore later. Cloning software is not designed to be used as a daily backup......it takes too long, since it's copying everything over again, including the OS, a cloned backup file cannot be used in case of hardware failure (say, your drive craps out and you can't get a new one for a few weeks), unless you have a dedicated, mirrored drive.......which backup software can manage much better.

Personally, I don't use either. I simply save everything to various HDD's, so if I have to reformat, all I lose is the OS, and maybe 2 hours of reinstalling programs.
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HoseB · SirTweaksabit Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 260

HoseB · SirTweaksabit Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 260

An exception to the "cloning is always better" concept....

If you have one or two folders with changed data and want to make a quick copy, you can do a drag and drop of the folder to a USB flash drive. I do it every day.