Question 27 February 2003
My
question: Can I
increase the size of my hard drive with out having to reinstall
all my software and save all my important files. I have a 4 gig hard
drive and would like a lot more space for more information. Do you have
any suggestions .
Thank You
Tom
Answer
Dear
Tom,
A
good question. With the larger programs available today many people are
finding themselves adding a hard drive. Your 4 GB hard drive was a giant
in it’s day, but today’s computers are fitted with much larger
drives.
You
could just install your new drive as a second hard drive, but it would be
much better making your new drive the primary drive, and using your old
drive for data back-up.
You
can’t just copy all the files from your old to new drive. If you did you
would lose your hidden files. A much better solution is to copy (Clone) your old
drive to your new drive. A Clone is an exact image of your old drive,
including hidden and system files. When the operation is complete and you
restart your computer with your new drive it will look and act just like
it did with the old drive.
Your new hard drive may have come with a program that allows you to do
this. If not there are programs you can purchase. Two that come to
mind are Norton's Ghost and Acronis True Image. We use Acronis True Image.
No matter which program you use, carefully read all the instructions.
Before
copying your old drive you might want to delete your outdated data and
programs that you no longer use.
When
taking into consideration the price of the drive and the price of the
software it might be more cost effective to have the drive added by a
computer professional.
Mango
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