Moving programs from one HD to another.

[mugenteg]

I tried searching on Google but I cam up empty handed so hopefully you guys can lend a hand. This is the scenario, a good friend of mine gave me his old gaming PC as he upgraded to an alienware PC. Now the problem is the PC he gave only has a 40GB hard drive and after I installed FF11, AVG, CC cleaner and other things the Hard drive now has a little under 2gb left in it. I found a 1Tb hard drive at Tiger Direct for $89.99 and I'm going to pick it up today. What I would like to do this move all the programs from the 40gb Hard drive to the new one and use the 40GB just to run the PC's OS. I know is not as simple as just copying the folder of all the programs that I want to move. If any one knows the correct way to do it please help me out. The PC has the following games on it that I want to move to the new 1TB hard drive, CoD4, Far Cry 1 and 2, Grid, and of course FF11.

 

[Gohaan]

Your best bet is to format the drive and install windows on the 40g drive and reinstall all your programs on the other drive. It will be easier.

 

[Tristam Green]

1) this belongs in Computer Talk; it's why that board exists.

2) Gohaan's right. I'm sure it *can* be done, but with much grunting, editing of myriad registry keys, editing shortcuts, etc etc. You're better off just either rebuilding, or just using that 1TB drive as a dedicated data drive.

 

[mugenteg]

I would not mind doing that but my friend did not give me the CD's to all the games the PC came with. Sorry for posting in the wrong forum I never enter the off topic area so I did not know a computer talk sub forum was available.

I also found online that I could basically clone my 40gb harddrive to the new one but no one went into detail on how to do this. Would any of you happen to know how to do this instead.

 

[Nugotugo]

Search for free "Drive Cloneing" software. I think acronis might have a free home version don't really remeber. Only real common ones i know of are Symantec Ghost and Acronis. Im sure there is a freeware app that can do it just never had a need to find one.

 

[Tristam Green]

I would not mind doing that but my friend did not give me the CD's to all the games the PC came with. Sorry for posting in the wrong forum I never enter the off topic area so I did not know a computer talk sub forum was available.

I also found online that I could basically clone my 40gb harddrive to the new one but no one went into detail on how to do this. Would any of you happen to know how to do this instead.

I still think that 40gb is a moderate amount for an operating system and a few games, especially if you migrated any other documents/pictures/music off of it to a second drive.

I'd still set that 1TB drive up as a secondary drive dedicated to Documents and Data, even if you direct saved game data to it. Then, if your 40gb crashed, you'd have all your documents and save-data ready to go, and wouldn't be reliant upon a single drive.

 

[Lucki]

Search for free "Drive Cloneing" software. I think acronis might have a free home version don't really remeber. Only real common ones i know of are Symantec Ghost and Acronis. Im sure there is a freeware app that can do it just never had a need to find one.

ODIN and FOG are listed as free disk cloning software tools (according to Wiki). Acronis looks like it's program is free for 15 days, but it looks like Symantec Ghost doesn't have a trial version.

 

[Nugotugo]

I came across one called PING(Partimage Is Not Ghost) its a Linux based free ware but i have no idea how well it works or if it is reliable. Only thing i know for sure works is Ghost as that is the only application i have had to use in work environment.

 

[Urywury]

I've also used a free tool called dd in the past. I'd also liked to note that many drives come with manufacturer tools that will allow you to copy from one partition to another. I've seen some that even come with an oem version of Norton Ghost. I'd generally tend to agree with Tristam that I'd set up the small drive for OS and Programs and the 1TB driver for all that data from them.

 

[Tristam Green]

I've also used a free tool called dd in the past. I'd also liked to note that many drives come with manufacturer tools that will allow you to copy from one partition to another. I've seen some that even come with an oem version of Norton Ghost. I'd generally tend to agree with Tristam that I'd set up the small drive for OS and Programs and the 1TB driver for all that data from them.

dd isn't just a free tool, it's a UNIX command, and a VERY powerful one at that, designed specifically for copying bit-level data.

 

[Pascal]

Cloning the drive is your best bet and just trash the 40gb. I'll let other explain how to do that and with what software.

To answer your orginal question. Assuming you are running NFTS with Windows 2000 or higher, you can move the target applications then create a NTFS Junction from the old path to the new path. You will need to download a free utility to do that.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx

With Windows Vista you can create Symbolic Links like you do on Unix/Linux using the command mklink.