Transfering from small HD to larger

[texasboy]

To transfer all the info approx 20GB from a 40GB HD to a new larger HD say 250GB HD the info on google points to imaging software at a price. Came across this site for free.http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2007/09/download-free-hard-drive-imaging.html.
Has anyone any ideas as to the best and least expensive way to go if I were to do this?? Is there a cable?
cheers

[Quantum]

Depends exactly what you want to copy. If it's just files and stuff, then copy and paste will do. If it's program files and stuff, a lot can be copied along yourself if you know where to copy from and too and remember to set-up the short-cuts yourself some times, though some need complex windows registry, but I often find their just worth re-installing on a fresh windows rather than trying to copy the whole of windows as an image.

That software looks good but it's only for Seagate Harddrives (seagate now own maxtor). What exactly do you need the software to do?

[TheHalf™]

If you already have that 250GB HDD mounted with an OS, then transfer the data from the 40GB HDD via FIREWIRE to the new 250GB HDD.

TheHalf™

To transfer all the info approx 20GB from a 40GB HD to a new larger HD say 250GB HD the info on google points to imaging software at a price. Came across this site for free.http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2007/09/download-free-hard-drive-imaging.html.
Has anyone any ideas as to the best and least expensive way to go if I were to do this?? Is there a cable?
cheers

[TheNightWatchman]

There's a few bits of software (I've only used Norton Ghost and that was a while ago) that will clone the disk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_cloning#Software

[texasboy]

   Many thanks to all.
The larger HD would be new(in the box).  What I thought I might be able to do was to transfer the complete contents of the smaller HD(40GB)including the complete WinXP set up BootSect etc But reading through some the items in NWM`s links I might have to make some partitions on the new hard drive and transfer to one of these. However when you think of it I will have 2 PCs (one old and one completly new with no OS on the latter). I only have one bought WinXP CD Rom which I used for my other PCI-E rig and MS seem to insist that you need a cd rom for each PC?? They even changed the original Key later when I formatted the complete HD.
So is it possible to transfer with the firewire or as Quantum suggests go with new cd rom installation. Would ghost transfer the OS.
cheers

[RiffRaff]

I have a 114gig drive and a 300 gig drive, I transferred the contents of the 114gig drive to the 300, now the 300 says it's the 114 gig hard driive???
I used Maxtor Maxblast and it worked really smooth, but I lost a bunch of hard drive space.

Any suggestions...??

[Quantum]

I have a 114gig drive and a 300 gig drive, I transferred the contents of the 114gig drive to the 300, now the 300 says it's the 114 gig hard driive???
I used Maxtor Maxblast and it worked really smooth, but I lost a bunch of hard drive space.

Any suggestions...??

Yeah, you just need to open the rest of the drive to that partition.

You should see in disk management that only a certain amount of the hard drive is partitioned:

Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc

I forget how you expand the partition, but there is a way, play around with it. Also what OS are you on? If it's XP you are on SP2 right?