Moving your System to a NEW IDE/EIDE HARD DRIVE (updated 10/98)
If you don't have a Win95 or Win98 Startup Disk, make one now from
CONTROL PANEL/ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS/STARTUP DISK.
I will refer to your present HD as C, and your new HD as D. If you
haven't, install the new drive as slave and set it up in BIOS, most BIOS have an auto find
feature for the hard drive. Make sure you have the new drive jumper set for slave. After
saving the new BIOS information make sure it shows up in the BIOS window as it reboots.
Win98 sets up a ram drive as the last hard drive for all the Dos commands you will use.
If you have the first drive partitioned, the new drive will become the second letter
assignment. (If you had the first partitioned as C(Primary DOS Partition),D and E (Logical
Dos Drives), the new drive becomes D and D and E are moved to E and F.
1. Boot with your W95 or W98 Startup Disk. From the A:\ Dos Prompt (or the ram drive for
W98, watch the screen it will tell you which drive letter the ram drive is assigned to
toward the end of the boot process) type FDISK, select "Change current fixed Disk
Drive", and Select the # of your New Drive, usually # 2.
It is helpful if you have used LABEL at the Dos Prompt, or Properties in Explorer to give
your Old Drive or Drives a distinctive name. My choices are "OLD HD" and
"NEW HD". If you should make a mistake, you will have to type in these words at
some point before you will be able to wipe out a partition, and everything in it.
(2) From FDISK Select "Create Dos Partition or Logical Dos Drive", then Select,
and Create a Primary Dos Partition (along with extended partitions, and logical dos drives
if wanted). When finished exit FDISK and restart the computer. Do not forget to make the
first partition active if you intend to boot from that drive. Win98 has the ability to use
FAT32 (32 bit) as well as FAT (16 bit), If your new drive is over 2.1 gig I suggest you
set it up as FAT32 and make it all one partition. You can also set it up for FAT and
partition it into several partitions, it's up to you. If you intend to dual boot with NT,
you'll need to use FAT. NT will not recognize FAT32 and W98 will not recognize NFTS.
(3) From the A:\Prompt, type FORMAT D: (Win98- From "Ram Drive":\ Prompt, type FORMAT D: or the new drive
letter assignment), remove the Startup Disk and reboot the System. (NOTE: that I did not
use the "/S" switch, you will use "SYS C:" later).
(4) To eliminate the possibility of "WIN386.SWP" causing problems in the
following step, go to SYSTEM PROPERTIES/PERFORMANCE/VIRTUAL MEMORY, click on "let me
specify my own virtual memory settings", and change the HARD DISK setting from C:\ to
D:\, click on OK, (ignore scary warnings) and click YES. Reboot and make sure
"WIN386.SWP" is on D:\ and not C:\.
There are several Hidden Directories, and many Hidden Files from the W95/W98 installation.
From EXPLORER/VIEW/OPTIONS select "Show all Files".
You now want to make a Mirror Copy of Drive C on Drive D. From Explorer Drag
and Drop everything from C to D. The best way to do this is Select the Drive letter in the
Left Pane of Explorer, then Select the Directories, and Files to be copied in the Right
Pane, Drag and Drop them onto D:\.
(My preferred way)
(ALT 4) Using XCOPY to transfer Files/Directories.) Copy, and Paste the following XCOPY
line in OPEN, after selecting START/RUN from the W95/W98 task bar.
XCOPY C:\ D:\ /c /e /h /k /r /s
/C Ignores errors.
/E Copies all sub directories, even if they are
empty. Used with the /s and /t switches.
/F Displays source and destination filenames
while copying.
/H Copies files with the hidden and system file
attributes.
XCOPY will not copy hidden or system files by default.
/K Copies attributes. Normal XCOPY will reset read-only
attributes.
/R Copies over read-only files.
/S Copies directories and sub directories,
unless they are empty. If you omit this switch, XCOPY works within a single directory.
/P Prompts you before creating each destination
file.
(You don't have to worry about WIN386.SWP being on C:\, if you use XCOPY with the /C
switch) Do not use XCOPY in DOS, it will destroy LFNs, and more.
Now use SCANDISK/THOROUGH on your new HD to insure integrity of transfer.
(5) Power down your computer and reset the jumpers to make your New Drive the Master.
[Leave your old drive out of the System for now] Power on your computer, and EDIT the CMOS
drive table (BIOS) settings [if necessary] to reflect the change, continue booting with
your W95 or W98 Startup Disk.
(6) From your Startup Disk or ram drive in W98, type FDISK, and select "Set Active
Partition". Also type "SYS C:", (this replaces the "/S" switch
mentioned above). Exit FDISK, remove the Disk from the floppy, and restart the Computer.
If you have followed the instructions accurately, you are now running with your new HD
exactly the same as you were before.
BE AWARE if you followed the #(4)steps W95 will be looking for "WIN386.SWP" on
D:\ when you Boot. You will want to change it back to C:\, and reboot.
When you are satisfied that everything is working properly, install your old HD as Slave,
(if you plan to use it) and edit the CMOS drive table (if necessary). Some systems do not
like a bootable disk [your old drive C] connected as a slave, and may not boot up. If this
should happen you will need to boot with your W95/W98 Startup Disk, use FDISK on your old
HD, [I assume you have a mirror copy of it on your new HD] and reboot.
Copyright © 1996-98 Richard Mask
Last revised: November 26, 2000.
