Here's the scoop...it works 100% of the time!  (Hey, I sound like
spam...ack...)

This assumes that you want the new drive to be your C: drive and the old
drive to languish as the D: drive.

First, install the new drive as a slave, FDISK and FORMAT it.  Don't worry
about system files for now.

Right click on "My Computer", select "Properties", then "Performance".
Click on "Virtual Memory" and click on "Let me specify my own virtual memory
settings."  Then click on "Disable virtual memory".  Click on OK to close
the windows.  At some point, Windows 95 will want to restart.  Go ahead and
do that.

When Windows 95 restarts, close all running programs, except for Explorer
and Systray.  You can press <ctrl><alt><del> to get the Close Program dialog
box.  Highlight the running program and click on "End Task" to close it.
Remember, do NOT close Explorer or Systray.  Leave them running.

Once you've done that, double click on "My Computer", then double click on
your C: drive.  Repeat the steps to open a windows to your D: drive.  Here's
where things may diverge if you have Internet Explorer 4.0 installed.  Let's
start with non-IE 4.0 systems.  Click on "View", then "Options".  Click on
the "View Tab".  Click on "Show all Files", then click on OK.  If you have
IE4.0 installed, click on "View", then on "Folder Options".  Click on the
"View" tab, then scroll down to the "Hidden Files" section.  Click on "Show
all files".  Click on OK.

At this point, the only windows that should be open are the windows for your
C: drive and D: drive.  If any other windows are open, close them.
Highlight every icon in the C: drive windows.  You can do that by clicking
and dragging your mouse over them or by pressing the <ctrl> key and clicking
on each icon individually.  Once all of the icons are highlighted, drag them
to the D: drive window.  The copy process begins.  At this point, you can
either get a cup of coffee, or go out for a really nice lunch, depending
upon the speed of your computer.

Once the copy process is completed, look around and find a boot diskette.
Don't have one?  Make one!  Click on "Start", then "Settings", then "Control
Panel".  Double click on "Add/Remove Programs".  Click on the "Startup Disk"
tab, then click on "Create Disk" and follow the instructions.  Once the
process is done, close all of the windows.  Shut down your system and swap
the drives, making the new drive the master (C:) and the old drive the slave
(D:).

Once that's done, restart the system and make any necessary BIOS changes.
Boot the system from the floppy drive.  Run FDISK from the floppy drive.  If
you receive a message that there are no partitions set "Active", follow the
(very) brief instructions that FDISK presents to make the first partition of
drive 1 active.  Exit FDISK and reboot with the floppy.

Right now, your C: drive is not bootable because it does not have any system
files on it.  At the A:> prompt, type "SYS C:" without the quotes.  Things
will chug along, then you'll get the message "System Transferred".  Remove
the floppy and reboot.  At this point, one of two things will happen:
Windows will boot, or it won't.  If it does not boot, you'll probably get
the splash screen, then a C:> prompt.  Not to fear!  Your MSDOS.SYS file has
been overwritten.  Fortunately, we can fix that.  Change to drive D:.  Type
this:  ATTRIB -S -H -R MSDOS.SYS.  Then type this: COPY MSDOS.SYS C:\.
(Don't type the periods at the end...they're just punctuation...)  Next,
change to drive C:>.  Type this:  ATTRIB +S +H +R MSDOS.SYS.  One more
time...reboot your computer.

This time, Windows 95 will start up normally.  Hooray!  There's just one
thing left to do...right click on "My Computer".  Click on "Properties".
Click on the "Performance" tab, then on "Virtual Memory".  Click on "Let
Widnows manage my virtual memory settings."  Click on OK.  At some point,
Windows will tell you to reboot your system.  Do it, and everything will
work like a charm.

This works for both Windows 95A and B, as well as Windows 98.  I used this
very process yesterday to change a hard drive in my dad's notebook computer,
so not only does it work, but it's fresh in my mind!

Be sure to print this out before you forge ahead...

Oh, there is an alternative, if you're deep of pocket.  A couple of
companies have produced software that does this same basic thing.  The big
difference is that it's automatic from them...this is sort of the Model T
approach to a Cadillac problem.  It might seem cumbersome, but, in fact, it
goes pretty quickly!

Good luck!

Drew Dunn
[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: PCSOFT - PC software discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of William Rysanek
> Sent: Sunday, February 22, 1998 9:27 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [PCSOFT] Copying Harddrive contents
>
>
> What is the easiest way to copy the contents of one harddrive to a new
> hard drive?  I am running Win95 and need more space and have recently
> purchased a bigger drive.
> Thanks
> Bill Rysanek
>