Easiest way to move Windows to a new hard disk?

[Guest OnlyMe]

I've currently got two hard disks in my machine:

 

C:\ [windows]

D:\ [junk] / [programs]

 

Everything is installed on the second, larger drive, apart from Windows. Because both drives are full, I've purchased a third (160gig) drive, with the intention of replacing the C:\ drive.

 

I've got Windows set-up just how I like it (custom skin, streamlined start menu) etc. so I'd really like to avoid having to reformat and lose all that.

 

Is it possible for me to remove the D:\ drive, and replace it with the new (lets call it E:\) drive, copy EVERYTHING from the C:\ to E:\, and then put E:\ back as the master drive, and D:\ as the slave?

 

Or is there an easier way of doing it?

 

Thanks for any help...

 

Nik

[MrRant]

Get a disk migration tool. Check download.com to see if there are any free ones or you may need to purchase one. Usually not more than $30 bucks.

[razazteca]

Norton Ghost might work, its makes a complete image of the drive and you could migrate it to another drive.

[Guest OnlyMe]

Fast PC-to-PC  communication using a home network IP, USB, or high- speed parallel connection provides versatile direct cloning.

 

Norton Ghost features

 

 

Excellent stuff - thanks, guys.

[Guest Razor Roman]

Norton Ghost would definately work... but I've never used it outside of our network environment here at work - so I wouldn't know the first thing about getting it to write to CD-R's or whatever you would need.

 

One thing I would recommend to save you a lot of time and space when ghosting, migrating, or whatever - clean out your internet caches and temp directories and anything else you don't need. :-)

[MrRant]

You can do a drive image with Ghost to CD-R