Painless HD to HD move without GHOST?

[slackerinabox]

Hey,
I need to move my entire system (windows install, apps, files, etc.) from one Windows XP pro partition to a blank, formatted hd.. Is there a painless way to do this without GHOST? Is there any other (key: cheaper, better, etc.) program than ghost that does this?

Thanks!
P.S. Again, I don't want to do a clean instal and then MIGRATE the files and settings - I want to mirror the whole drive..

 

[jackschmittusa]

You could use xcopy with the /s and /e switches if you are using FAT32.

 

[loup garou]

You need an imaging program like Ghost, PowerQuest DriveImage, or Acronis TrueImage. I don't know of any freeware imaging apps, but I do know that some retail hard drives come with a utility to migrate an old drive to a new one.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

What werk said. Every Maxtor/WD I've bought always comes with a disk to do an exact copy of partitions to your new drive (contents, not the size). You can download them off their website if you bought an OEM drive or something

 

[xSauronx]

my mobo came with Ghost on the driver cd...epox board, maybe your mobo maker did the same?

 

[corkyg]

I do that every week on several computers - use powerquest DriveCopy 4.0 with a set of bootable diskettes or a bootable CD. Have both. It is precise and fast - but limited to drives of 80 GB or less.

 

[DantheMan2000]

maxtor... seagate... ibm... westerndigital all have software backup programs that can completely copy your hard drive to another. only downside is some of the programs don't work if one of your hd's aren't that brand, and it takes along time. check their websites for the programs.