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How do I transfer my stuff from one hard drive over to another?

567 Views 11 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Bluescreen_Of_Death, 
Tig.
Okay, so this is my first build. Right now, I'm using the computer in my sig. It has a lot of stuff I use on the hard drive (which came with the Acer computer.)

Can I re-use this OEM hard drive?

If I can, how do I backup the certain stuff I need like Steam, iTunes, and my music so I won't have to re-download it again?
I think I have like 5GB-20GB of stuff I need to backup.

I plan on transferring all this stuff over to my new build, which has the Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB and maybe use this old one(if I can) to backup stuff.

Thanks a lot guys, I feel really stupid, but I guess I gotta learn it.
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B
Second hard drive, external hard drive, online file backup service (may cost money except for possible trials)
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Phaedrus2129
You could make an image of the hard drive and transfer it over to the new one. Or use Linux' dd command to transfer the data on a bit-by-bit basis. Or just copy/paste. Or keep using the old hard drive and make the new one storage. Whatever floats your boat.
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rocketman331
Quote:

Originally Posted by Tig. View Post
If I can, how do I backup the certain stuff I need like Steam, iTunes, and my music so I won't have to re-download it again?
I think I have like 5GB-20GB of stuff I need to backup.
You can install a secondary OEM hard-drive and migrate your iTunes library to that drive.

Steam has a option in the settings tab to "back-up" games which you could save to the secondary drive and not have to re-download.
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Tig.
Let me rephrase this. I think I titled it wrong.
How would I transfer the files I want over to the Western Digital HD?

I plan on re-formatting the old hard drive after I transfer the stuff to the Western Digital. Can I just drag and drop the files from the old hard drive to the new hard drive? Will it be corrupted?
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Phaedrus2129
If it's just data (documents, music, videos, save games, etc.) it will be fine. You won't be able to copy programs though because you'll lose their registry entries.
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pablo420
You could also try Acronis.
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slash129
oppps forget about it
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Tig.
Quote:
You could also try Acronis.
If I use Acronis, can I download the trial version?

Quote:
If it's just data (documents, music, videos, save games, etc.) it will be fine. You won't be able to copy programs though because you'll lose their registry entries.
If I do this, does that mean all I have to do is plug in the hard drive, copy and paste all the documents, then take out the hard drive and plug it back into my main computer? Will I have to do anything with the hard drive before I install it?

I'm thinking of re-formatting the old hard drive and use that to store the OS and for it to hold my games and Firefox stuff since it only has like around 120GB. Then I can use the Western Digital to put music and stuff onto it, right? Will it be faster this way? I'm probably thinking of SSD's...
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Bluescreen_Of_Death
Quote:

Originally Posted by Tig. View Post
If I use Acronis, can I download the trial version?

If I do this, does that mean all I have to do is plug in the hard drive, copy and paste all the documents, then take out the hard drive and plug it back into my main computer? Will I have to do anything with the hard drive before I install it?

I'm thinking of re-formatting the old hard drive and use that to store the OS and for it to hold my games and Firefox stuff since it only has like around 120GB. Then I can use the Western Digital to put music and stuff onto it, right? Will it be faster this way? I'm probably thinking of SSD's...
thats it in a nutshell
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Tig.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluescreen_Of_Death View Post
thats it in a nutshell
So do I still need to do anything to the Western Digital hard drive before I put my music and stuff onto it?
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Bluescreen_Of_Death
Quote:

Originally Posted by Tig. View Post
So do I still need to do anything to the Western Digital hard drive before I put my music and stuff onto it?
You'll need to partition it. Just make one big NTFS partition and you'll be set.
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