How to Clone (Copy) a Hard Drive in Windows XP: 7 Steps

2024 Author: Jason Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 10:50

If you're upgrading to a newer hard drive, or your old hard drive is about to retire, you might consider cloning it. Cloning a hard drive means keeping all your old data perfectly intact and ready to use on the new hard drive. Follow this guide to learn how.

Step

Step 1. Backup important data

While the cloning process won't cause any data loss, it's a wise move to ensure that important files are backed up just in case. Backup your files to a removable drive, DVD, or to a cloud storage service on the internet.

Step 2. Mount the drive you want to clone

When you clone a drive, you copy the existing drive to the new drive. The new drive must be installed before you can clone the old drive.

The new drive does not need to be formatted in order to clone the old drive

Step 3. Install your cloning software

To clone a hard drive, you will need to install special software to do so. You can also purchase professional software such as Norton Ghost, or download a freeware program such as HDClone. This guide will explain how to use both.

• Norton Ghost will convert the remaining free space on the new drive into the same partition as the cloned disk. This means that any remaining space after copying the disk can be used for the operating system without having to create a new partition.

  

Step 4. Clone the drive using Norton Ghost

From the main menu, select Ghost Advanced, then click the Clone button.

• Specify your source drive. This is the OLD drive that you will copy. Double check to make sure you've selected the right drive, otherwise you could copy a blank hard drive to your old hard drive, overwriting all your data.

  

• Specify your destination drive. This is the NEW drive that holds the files you copied. This is the drive you just mounted. You can see the model and size of each option under the frame.

  

• Click Next to get to the summary. This is your last chance to make sure that your settings are correct before the cloning process begins. When you are ready, click Run Now. Your system will reboot and Ghost will load in DOS.

  

• Wait for the cloning process to complete. Depending on the amount of data you are copying, this could take a while. Once the cloning is complete, your system will reboot again and Windows will load. You can verify that the drive is cloned by going to My Computer and checking the new drive.

  

• At this point you are still running your old drive. To start your new drive, proceed to Step 6.

  

Step 5. Clone the drive using HDClone

Burn the HDClone image file to a CD so you can boot from it. If you boot from the CD, the DOS interface will load.

• Use arrow keys/mouse click to specify your Source disk. Disk Source is the OLD hard drive that you will copy.

  

• Use arrow keys/mouse click to set your Destination disk. Disk Destination is the NEW hard drive where you can host copies of your files. Check carefully that you have selected the right drive so that you don't accidentally overwrite your old data with a blank disk.

  

• Set the options. Use advanced options for safer copying/cloning.

  

• Click start to start the cloning process and wait for the cloning process to complete. This can take a long time, especially if your hard drive is large. Once the process is complete, your new drive will have an exact copy of the old drive, and the remaining space will not be filled.

  

  • If you want to add that unallocated space to a partition running Windows XP, use Partition Magic. If not, you can create a new partition with that remaining space to use as storage.
  • Note that you can copy an entire disk to another disk including all its partitions and you can also copy just one partition to a new disk. Your new disk should be larger than your current disk/partition. The remaining space will be left UN-partitioned and you can partition it later according to your needs.

Step 6. Uninstall your old drive

Once you have confirmed that the cloning process was successful, shut down your computer and remove your old hard drive. Make sure that your jumper settings are set correctly on the new drive.

Step 7. Turn on the computer

Make sure that everything boots normally and works as it should. If your hard disk is not detected, make sure that the jumper setting on your hard drive is set to Master. Once you know that everything is OK, you can reinsert your old drive and format it.

• You may be asked to reactivate your copy of Windows. This doesn't always happen, but if it does, call the number provided and Microsoft will give you a re-activation code over the phone.

  

• If you're cloning the drive to place into a new computer, you'll need to do a repair install of Windows XP for everything to work properly. When doing this, you must contact Microsoft for a re-activation key.

  

Tips

• Most copying software can also copy to a CD or DVD.
• You can copy files individually in Windows Explorer if you don't need the operating system (Windows) or software.

Warning

• Make sure you're copying in the right direction. There's nothing worse than copying an empty drive to one with contents and all your data gone!
• If you continue to use your old computer, don't violate your license agreement.
• If you continue to use the old computer on the same network, your IP address could be in conflict.