External Harddrive Help.

Hello all,

Tomorrow (Sunday) I am getting a 1TB external harddrive and was wondering weather I could basically copy the whole of my C: drive including the OS to it. I also want to boot straight from the external drive. I also do not really care if it is'nt recommended lol. If this is possible would it also be possible to dual-boot with XP? I have both install disks for Vista and XP and I am willing to buy software.

Please could you tell me exactly what to do and what programs I need.

Thanks in Advance

Super_JS

Hello super_js.

You could use Acronis to create a ghost of the HDD, including C:.

Backup software for data backup and disaster recovery in Windows and Linux - Acronis

Also have a look at the link below.

How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

Keep us informed!






Later Ted

Thanks a lot Ted. When i get the drive I'll try it out.

Ok Guys, I've just Purchased Acronis True Image 11 and Acronis Disk Director Suite. So do what exactly do I do after I have installed these programs? Like how do I make the disk image and how do i put it on my External Hard drive?

Super_JS

Hello again.

As there is plenty of info on the net on how to use Acronis, it may be easier to 'ask' google.

Keep us informed!













Later Ted

Thanks for all your help Ted, Acronis explained itself I didn't need to google it.

I'm running from my external drive now and its actually faster than off my internal lol. I have one last question for you.

Is it worth Dual-Booting with XP?

Super_JS

Hello and thanks for posting back.

From what I've seen, most people that dual boot don't do it very long, too much trouble.
Besides Vista is more than capable of handling whatever you need on it's own.

One tutorial to have a look at.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/127417-system-restore-points-stop-xp-dual-boot-delete.html?ltr=S

Keep us informed!








Later Ted

super_js said:

I'm running from my external drive now and its actually faster than off my internal lol.

Super_JS

Click to expand...

Turns Out that I was running from my Internal Drive. When I booted from the external it was sloooooooooooooooooooooow. Now i have all my files back in my C: drive loads of my programs have errors .

Also my internal HDD has lost about 100gb due to having vista cloned onto it. Does anyone know if the Windows Format will bring back my 1tb? When i click in the format is says capacity 852GB and When i tried earlier it was 930GB.

Lol thanks anyway Ted for all of the info-it was good knowledge.

Super_JS

If you were connecting using a USB it will be slower.
Just because the HDD manufacturer 'says' it's 1TB doesn't mean you get 1024GB.
It depends on the formula they use to rate it.

If you want to remove the clone just re-format and find out.

Run this http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html?ltr=S to see if it can repair the corruption.

Keep us informed!









Later Ted

Ok I formated and My external Drive is still only 852GB. Please help me gain back my 930GB someone.

Acronis seems to have done something to the drive.....

Super_JS

Hi super_js,

looks like you may have two partitions on the drive?
one where the clone was placed and one for the remainder of the drive

check with Vista disk management or Acronis should show partition info

If I remember correctly, Acronis installed some sort of image drive on your external because it has an option to let you decided whether you want the changes done or you were simply testing. I know there is an option to delete this sort of partition image but I never used Acronis extensively to know how so I uninstalled Acronis and that did the job.

Hope this helps.

Ok I don't think that my drive is partitioned as in Computer in Vista all that shows up are my Internal Drive and My External Drive. Also when I looked in Acronis Disk Director Suite I don't think it said that there was a 2nd parition of my external.

You can also check in computer management and see if its 1 partition.

What is Computer Management lol?

Super_JS

Guys Thanks For Your Help, but I opened Acronis True Image Home 11 and clicked Disk Utilities then Add New Disk. Next I selected my external drive (it said 931GB!!!!) and clicked next i clicked delete all paritions then ticked the box in create new partition. I then selected Primary Partition then I waited for the program to finish and now my hard drive is back at 931GB!! I'll make this thread solved now.

Super_JS

Oops i dnt no how to make this thread solved. Well hopefully people will see that its been solved

Hi super_js,

glad you've solved it :D

If you go back to your original post edit it and add Solved to the start of the title that will mark it as solved

Super_JS, that's what I was trying to say in my previous post but I can see that I still have that English Barrier as a second language... sorry! :P

Hello super_js.

I'm glad that you've found a solution.














Later Ted