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Install A Hard Drive-Part 2

Steps for installing a new master IDE hard drive or secondary hard drive (cont'd)

Many people question how to preserve all of the settings of the old drive and not have to reinstall the operating system and programs. Sometimes this cannot be avoided, however, below is a process that can be very helpful.

Using Symantec's Ghost imaging software allows for the preservation of settings and transfers an image from one hard drive to the other without having to reinstall the operating system or any of the programs. After this process, the ribbon cables will need to be changed so the new hard drive becomes the primary master IDE hard drive and the old drive becomes the secondary master IDE hard drive. Here's what you need to do:

  1. Have a copy of Symantec's Ghost imaging software, or a compatible type of imaging software like Power Quests Drive Image.
  2. Follow the directions that came with your software to image the hard drive from the old drive to the new drive. (example: imaging from drive C: to drive D:) This may take awhile depending on how much hard drive space is being imaged.
  3. Once the hard drive has been image or copied over, shut down the system.
  4. Switch the ribbon cables for the two hard drives. Since both hard drives were previously set to master, the only option to be sure of is that the BIOS is set to "AUTO Detect" the drives.
  5. Power the system up and the settings should be same as before but only on the new hard drive. Check the hard drives in Windows Explorer just to verify.
  6. Do not delete any of the information on the old hard drive for a few days until everything has been tested, including all the programs and settings on your new hard drive. Once you are comfortable that everything is running as normal, then information and data can be removed from the old drive.