I have an issue concerning my hard drives.

Just to mention my problem quickly, I had to restore my comp a while back, like clean it and delete everything, thing is I have two HD's in there a 15g one and one thats like 50gigs. Since I started I apparently messed up and connected the 15g one, and I was wondering how I connect it to the other one correctly and move all of my stuff on this HD onto that one.

Hope its not too confusing, appreciate any help

easy as pie. Depending on your comfort level, set the 50 gig as slave and the 15 gig as master, and then boot your system. Your system should see the new drive; you may need to format it. Then you just copy the stuff over.

You can't copy programs, such as windows or office; those need to be uninstalled and reinstalled on the new one.

Let me know if you are not comfy with those instructions, and we can continue on depending upon your level of knowledge.

But trust me, if I can do, it's not that hard.

And I can do it.

Actually, couldn't you copy the registry over too? Well, yeah, you'd need to reinstall Windows on the new Hard Drive to do that, but wouldn't the copying over of the registry handle all the copied-over files? This worked when I transferred the files and registry data over from my backup when I formatted. I didn't do it for stuff like Office but I seem to recall it working for Photoshop and a bunch of my other programs like WinRAR...

Most of my other programs are simple, like the Animal Crossing Desktop Clock ().

Hello Eagle10
It is a little confusing, but not too bad. LOL Are you wanting to copy over the operating system and all your files, or just files and folders? Do you want to copy from the 15g drive to the 50 or vice versa, which one is the boot drive now? What type of drives are they? Most mfgs. have installation software that you can go to their website and download, that will allow you to clone from one drive to another. Here are a couple:
Seagate Technology - DiscWizard 16-bit End User License Agreement

Maxtor.com - Software Download - MaxBlast 4

However, with most of these programs you can only clone from a small drive to a larger one, if thats what youre trying to do. If you want to go the other way, or clone partitions , you`ll need a program like Acronis True Image, but its not free.

EDIT: I have used the Seagate Disc Wizard on non Seagate drives with no problem, havent tried the Maxblast yet.

Ah yes, I had forgotten about the Acronis cloning........

Wow, thanks for all the help guys.

So ya, I am currently using the small 15g one...in My Computer the name of it is called FAT32, don't know what that means....

My problem is that way back when I had to remove the hard drive and put it back in the PC, I had to connect it myself and thats why the 15g is hooked up and the other is not hooked up at all. I don't know how to hook the other HD up.

Anyways, ya I would like to transfer things such as my music, my videos, some programs such as Firefox because of all my bookmarks, settings, etc. There are some programs I would like to transfer, otherwise its mostly files. Many of the programs I can easily download again, but if I can transfer EVERYTHING then yes thats what I want to do.

With that said, what would be my best option to just transfer everything from this one to the larger HD?

Oh and just a question, this HD has Windows XP, now when I transfer to the other HD will that one have Windows XP as well or will I need to put in the restore disk? That part confuses me.

Hello Eagle10
Sorry no one got back to you sonner, been having some ISP problems. The FAT32 that you see is your type of file system. You can copy everything over from the 15 g to the 50 including the operating system, and you shouldnt need to use the restore disk, unless something goes snafu. I suggest backing everything up first before you start. You didnt mention what brand of drives you have, but go to your drive mfgs website and download the software we mentioned above. Its best to use the one for your drive when possible. Heres another for the WD drives:
Downloads
Follow the directions in the help files for whichever one you use, its a bit detailed to type here, but not difficult and each mfg has a little different instructions. Basically theyll tell you to set the jumpers on the boot drive(the 15g) to master, and jumpers on the 50g to slave, then follow their instructions for copying the files over. (The jumper pins are the row of 8 or 10 small pins between your ide cable and the power cable, the little black cap will go over two of them to set it correctly) The jumper settings are usually marked on the drives, or you can get detailed info on changing them from the mfg website. If you have any trouble with that post back. Your IDE cable thats hooked to your drive now should have two connectors on it. Hook the master to the end connector, and the slave to the middle one. Reboot to be sure the drives are both recognized. These instructions are also in the help files. When you get everything copied over, youll unhook the drives, reset the slave to master, and if everything went ok that will now be your boot drive. Holler if you need anything else.