New HD with Vista Business

I trying to change my 80G HD WITH A 500 G HD. I made a complete backup of my computer (5 DVDs). The new HD was unable to boot up with the backup DVDs. How does one replace a HD in vista business?

Thanks

"edward7458" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:66b7443a836bd3db3239c29a75f60373@xxxxxx-gateway.com...
When you say "complete backup" what, exactly, do you mean?
What you need to use is a tool that will create an image of the existing
drive and then transfer that image to the new drive. Any procedure that
simply copies the existing file/directory structure will not give you a new,
bootable drive. One potential source for the tool you need is your hard
drive manufacturer. Hard drive makers typically supply disc utility software
on their web sites at no charge. Commercial sources for such software
include Acronis and Ghost (Symantec).

edward7458 wrote:
Your new drive, if purchased retail, will have come with cloning software.
If you bought whitebox, then you can download the utility from the new
drive's mftr. You'll create a bootable CD with the file you download by
burning with third-party software as an image, not as data. Boot with the
media you created and clone the first drive to the second drive. Now remove
the first drive entirely and replace it with the new one. The computer
should boot into Windows. Now you can add back the second drive if you like
to format it and use as storage.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ