I have three physical hard drives. A 500gb drive that came with the computer. This has partions C and D
I have a 1tb hard drive that is an internal hard drive
It has three partitions: M (music) P(programs) and S(storage)
Now all the software is on the “P” drive and the program files are all on that drive as well.
So I bought a new 2tb hard drive to use as more storage and backup. (I record TV)
I bought a hard drive enclosure to use this drive as an external hard drive.
I would like to take out the 1tb and put the 2tb hard drive in the computer case and use the 1tb as the backup in the external enclosure.
Now here’s where it gets complex
Instead of uninstalling all the programs from the P drive (on the 1tb hard drive) and reinstalling them on the new 2tb hard drive, would it be possible make a new partion on the 2tb hard drive called say, Q and copy all the files over from the “P” drive to the Q Drive. Then rename the “Q” as “P”
Would this work? Any reason it shouldn’t?
Or am I going to be stuck just uninstalling and reinstalling all the software
In Windows I don’t think it will work because when you install a program it does not simply write files into the Program Files folder. It also creates many entries (sometimes hundreds) in the system registry which would also need to be migrated. This is probably more of a hassle than just reinstalling the software.
Currently the program files are on “P Drive” which is a different hard drive all together
So when I installed the software, it wrote to the “P drive” and put the other files on the “C” drive.
I would be leaving the “C” drive in the computer. So I would still have this original hard drive in there. PLUS this new 2tb drive. The current second drive I would move to an external enclosure
And I was thinking it should work because the files would call to the registry and they would look and find the “C” drive
Reinstalling them on the new drive would be more reliable. Without knowing where they’ve put bits of themselves when they installed, you can’t know how successful migrating them will be. If you’ve got the original install disks available, that’s going to be the least messy, most reliable way to shift your programs. I mean, I guess it’s worth a shot if you want to try it regardless - what have you got to lose? - but I personally probably wouldn’t bother mucking about like that since a reinstall is a likely outcome anyway.
I suppose you’re correct, but I hate uninstalling Corel. It leave’s files everywhere. Most of my software is freeware anyway that I downloaded at Snapfiles, so that’s not hard to get, but you know I like to see if I can get away with it.
I’m not sure these other guys quite understand what you are trying to do: I know I didn’t at first. Just copying the files would likely work (I just did it not too long ago), if you can do it from Safe Mode. (You may have to temporarily uninstall your antivirus or any other programs that still load in safe mode.)
The more typical method is to clone all the partitions on your internal drive to your external one. You’d need to already have the three partitions set up on the new drive. They don’t have to be the same size, just at least big enough. And, of course, you’d be deleting all the files off of your new drive, if you’ve used it already, so back them up first.
A free little program called XXCLONE will do the job with minimal fuss, if you don’t have something better. I assume that someone knowledgeable enough to have set up their own partitions can probably figure out how to use it. The main thing you’ve got to worry about is making sure that, once you switch out the hard drives, the partitions get assigned the right letters. I’d boot in safe-mode, and Run diskmgmt.msc to make sure the letters are correct. Reboot after that, and everything should work correctly. If not, you can always just switch 'em back and try another method.
There still may be some software that refuses to run and will force you to reinstall: I hear Microsoft Office is one. But it’s better than having to reinstall all of them. Oh, and do realize that cloning a 1TB hard drive will take a little bit of time.
Ooh. I forgot something, and I lost my connection, so I couldn’t edit.
I forgot to specify that the whole running diskmgmt.msc from Safe Mode after the switch is something you’d need to do, even if you try just copying the files. The registry entries have to completely match the new drive.
And the problem with programs like MS Office is that they have anti-pirating checks that make sure you aren’t running on a different drive. There’s really no way around that. And if you have a lot of software like that, then I’d agree with Cazzle’s advice, though, as a avid computer hobbyist, I’d definitely try, since it won’t hurt.
Given that you intend to eventually change the new copied drive letters to be what they were before, The various registry entries ought to end up in a usable state.
The danger will be applications which run all the time, such as background updaters. Until you can kill all of them, you can’t be sure that 100% of every file on old-P is sucessfully copied to new-P in an uncorrupted state.
And, as **BigT **says, there may be anti-piracy features in some of those programs which will notice that they’re hosted on a different drive.
If you have any symbolic links or network shares or mount points, those are all things which may be issues. If you don’t know what those things are, you almost certainly don’t have any. Ordinary shortcuts will be fine, once the drive rename is complete.
A last item is that a properly installed set of programs will have set certain specific ACEs on some files. It would be best to perform the copy operation as a box administrator and to use a copy tool which migrates the ACEs when it copies the files. You’ll also need to ensure the root of new-P has exactly the same ACEs as the root of old-P before you do any copying.
I’ve done somewhat similar things in the past. Here’s my advice: Don’t. Seriously. It might work fine. It almost certainly can be made to work. But unless you have something that’s an unbelievable hassle to install, it simply isn’t worth the effort it will take. Not to mention that you risk a non-functioning system or, even worse, a system that half-functions.
Now, the biggest problem will be switching the partition letters because they are a convention in Windows and don’t have much to do with the actual partition table. So you have to boot Windows to preform the partition switch and this may be impossible/very difficult/annoying because half your app-files are MIA as far as Windows is concerned. Safe mode might help and then again it mightn’t.
And, of course, commercial applications will almost certainly have some manner of copy protection that you’ll run afoul of. I didn’t try this with commercial apps so I can’t speak from personal experience.
End analysis: I’d recommend against it but if you must, BigT’s solution sounds about right.
Use xxclone. This is the easiest to use freeware out there that I know of. You will have to use some other software to add partitions or change their size.
I actually tried this on a few programs and it worked fine. But then just to make sure I uninstalled it and reinstalled the programs. Except Corel
I think people aren’t understanding, I had two internal hard drives already.
On internal hard drive was the C drive where the registry sits. The other drive was the P drive where I installed the program.
For instance when I installed Corel WordPerfect, it put the registry entries on the C drive and the program files on the P drive. So when I copied the Corel files on the “p” drive to a new internal drive and renamed that drive P. All the pointers still matched.
As I said, it worked fine, but I decided that you never know what didn’t get copied right so after a few programs I spend a couple of hours installing and uninstalling. Except for Corel, 'cause they put files all over the place and I’ll have to dig out my disc for that. So I’ll just leave that unless something goes awry
It should work, but you’re making a lot of work for yourself and you may hit some snags:
The volume label will be different.
The registry identifier for the drive may be different.
The drive will be on a different hardware port.
The partition identifier may be different.
There’s a very simple solution: using your favourite tool, clone the 1 TB drive to the 2 TB one and then replace the 1 TB drive with the 2 TB one. Adjust partition sizes as desired.
