bigger hard drive

[baraqua]

I am about to replace my hard drive in my pc for one with a bigger capacity Is it just a case of replacing the old one in the tower, and then running operating system discs, or is there more to it than that, ie would the operating system not recognise the new drive or would windows fail to run ect. Thanks

[hc4361]

Why replace it? You can buy a huge external hard drive cheaply enough.

[baraqua]

thanks for the answer, would that external drive support my operating system and allow me to run applications from it, ? Bit of a novice at this game sorry

[ACtheTROLL]

no - external drive wouldn't

you should add to the disc set - not just replace it (unless it's faulty)

my system has a small fast HDD for the O/s - and then a couple of big drives for storage

drive1
c: holds my o/s and core software
it's 60% free

drive two - two partitions
d: is my data drive (easy to backup)
e: games and progs that are on trial

drive 3
f: storage
Z: - paging file

I then have some nas space for storage and backup

http://clonezilla.org/
will transfer your existing Os to the new drive

[baraqua]

thanks for the answer ACtheTROLL Could you tell me though, if I do just replace the hard drive would I be able to load my old operating system from my recovery discs, would the new hard drive recognise the system or visa versa

[ACtheTROLL]

should be ok

vista ... so it's probably a sata drive
(it's well worth checking before you buy)?
easy peasy to install 4 screws 2 cables ... do get yourself a new angled sata cable as well - they are prone to pop off.

and I always find that a week after buying a new drive - it's too small - but equally - just another �10 is a slippery slope

clearence corner is always worth a look - few machines can actually exploit the latest spec - so a slightly older model is fine
http://www.shop.bt.com/clearance-corner/compon ents-and-storage,storage/11026

how big/what are you going to do with the old one though ... it's worrying me ;-(... they always come in for something

[baraqua]

thanks for the answer, planned to use the new disk as the main drive containing the operating system and use the old disk as storage, my only concern was the operating system discs not recognising the new hd

[hc4361]

You may not be able to install the OS from recovery disks, they are not full programs.

[ACtheTROLL]

I don't like big Os discs (server mentality) and difficult to backup/image

(I use a Western Digital 150GB VelociRaptor 10,000RPM SATA for the os)
for me big discs are for storage - it's just getting used to installing to d: and not c:

the thing that might happen is that if vista is oem it could possibly see the new disc as a system change too far and refuse to activate without a call to ms

it won't be a problem (not sure what hc means - an image is an image) -

either the software will just resize the partition - or it might restore a partition the same size as it is now - so you may need to resize the partition to fill the drive after

[baraqua]

thanks for those answers very knowledgeable and very helpful.