new hard drive....driving me crazy.

hi everyone, first post.

i recently picked up a pair of western digital 500 gb ide drives, that was to replace my now almost full/tired 60 gb in my dell dimension. i downloaded the data lifeguard tools, and proceeded to make the new drive the NEW boot service drive as stated by the program.

the transfer went well, but when i swapped the ribbons to make the new drive the primary boot drive......it would not boot. i went in the bios to see what was going on and i enabled the second drive and the bios recgonized it.

but no matter what i do it will not boot, and i stumped. i`m a computer novice at best so i`m not sure what my next step is?

any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

KH.

Your most likely issue is you are using a manufactured computer i.e. Dell.

There are most likely processes in place to deny replication of the Operating System.

What is the exact Dimension model? Dell might have specific proceedures.

Did the Data Lifeguard claim to "clone" the hard drive?

Many possible issues here.

If you were "cloning" then most likely you need to be on different IDE channels. Primary Master to Secondary Master for example. Jumpers also need to be set appropriately.

i`m not sure exactly what they deem the procedure to be, in the drive config set up it justs ask to make the new drive "additional storage" or "make it "the new boot service drive".

i also moved the jumpers out of cable select mode to configure a master/slave setting, but it will not boot from the new drive.

i thought about going back and making the drive "additional storage" which i presume would erase the data, and than use different program to clone the info from the old drive??????

What is your goal here?

Do you want to replace the original drive? In other words move your Operating System to the new drive and then leave the old one out?

If so you need to "clone" (disk image) your old hard drive (assuming Dell will let you).

I see no options (quick glance) from WDC to clone drives.

http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n

If WDC does not have a "clone" option you will have to reinstall your Operating System assuming that you want to remove your old hard drive.

Also there are third party softwares you can purchase to do this running @ 80$ US.

If you just want the new drives for storage that is a different and easy thing to do. Just plug them in and format.

my goal is to replace the original drive with a 500 gb, and also add another 500 for additional storage.

i guess my next step would to make the bigger drive "additional storage" than clone the info? or do i need to re-format the drive for the re-image?

Just deal with one drive. You can add the second afterwards with no problem.

The question is how to "clone" your current drive onto a new one.

Again Dell might impose limitations here. I am not sure having only used computers that I have built wherein there would be no problem.

Your Operating System was supplied by Dell and not Microsoft so your first limitations come from Dell.

What is your exact Dell make and model?

There are some free ways to do this. Many hard drive manufacturers offer this software option but Western Digital does not.

I would first off see what Dell has to say on their web site regarding your particular computer then next choose the appropriate software to "clone" the drive.

As to this software I know of some free versions that require a bit of effort on your part and then again there are "point and click" packages for sale usually @ 80$ US.

the dell is a dimension 8250. now should i re-format the drive(to get rid of the partitions and data installed) through windows (if thats possible) or make it an additional storage drive through the WD software?

Dimension 8250

Adding and Replacing Parts

Unfortunately there is no information about transferring the Operating System.

Here is the Dell reinstall guide for XP (interactive):

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...ggle=false&dl=

You should do neither of your ideas.

Before you do anything you need to "clone" your hard drive.

Otherwise all data and your operating system will be lost.

If you have a Dell Recovery CD then you might be able to back up your old data to CD's then try a Clean (destructive) Recovery from the Dell CD on the new hard drive.

Or go through the interactive guide posted above and see what that suggests as to reinstalling your operating system.

If you want to try "cloning" here is a quick Google to resources:

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...one+hard+drive

i`m downloading some software to accomplish this. but i already have a copy of my original drive on my new one from the wd transfer. if i clone the old drive to the new one, would there be a conflict? (just trying to think ahead)

thanks in advance for all your research and time you put in to help me.:yippee:

The language technicalities are important here.

I saw that the Western Digital Lifeguard had the option to copy files.

This will not/ did not "clone" your drive. This will not make a bootable operating system. All you did was copy files. As in a data backup. Western Digital does not provide a "cloning" tool.

Your new drive should be blank before you "clone" to it.