# New Hard Drive **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2005, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-hard-drive/299890 "2005-04-18T14:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-hard-drive/299890/1 "2005-04-18T14:22:00Z")
I have 2 hard drives. Drive 0 is 9.5Gb and has 2 partitions, C:, 789Mb and E:, 8833Mb. Drive 1 is 60Gb and has 4 partitions, D:, 24356Mb, F:, 24348Mb, G:, 9963Mb and H:, 1354Mb. I have had some hardware problems with my D: drive which contains Windws XP Prof SP2. I have a new WD 40Gb drive to replace Drive 0. I want to transfer all of my Drive D: contents to Drive C: and all of my Drive E: contents to the new drive which will be partitioned as C: and E:. I have the new WD Data Lifeguard Tools diskette that can do the new drive setup and copying of the OS to the new drive. My question is this. When I transfer all the OS and program files to my C: drive, can I still access the program files without reinstalling them? Main concern is MS Office. ---
**Author:** ![Ponster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponster/32/17081_2.png) [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-hard-drive/299890/2 "2005-04-18T14:41:15Z")
Normally WD Data Lifeguard Tools will recreate a copy of your D: including all of the boot sectors and windows registery. You should not have to reinstall anything afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-hard-drive/299890/3 "2005-04-18T14:56:55Z")
Thanks Ponster. That is what I was hoping for. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-hard-drive/299890/4 "2005-04-20T01:34:21Z")
I installed my new hard drive and all went well for a while until I rebooted. I had to do a restore with my Win XP Prof install disk because I couldn’t boot. That seemed to do OK. I could boot after that. So, what I didn’t know is that my OS was still on my D drive even though it appeared to be on the new C drive. So, I erased my D drive and then I could not reboot again. So, I had to reinstall Win XP Prof on the C drive. Now, all is well again. I guess Data Lifeguard didn’t do a good job with the copy. It didn’t make drive C the bootable drive. It still booted to my D drive. ---
**Author:** ![Ponster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponster/32/17081_2.png) [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-hard-drive/299890/5 "2005-04-20T08:11:09Z")
All it’s supposed to do is copy the info to your C:, it copies the OS, not displaces it. You have to manually tell your computer that you want to boot from the C: and not the D: in the bios and maybe changing the jumper settings on the drives themselves. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-hard-drive/299890/6 "2005-04-22T22:04:06Z")
Thanks Ponster. I have all in good order now. A little extra work, but I think everything works better.