Transferring an OS partition on a new hard disk

[BansiJ]

I am going to buy a new 640GB hard disk recently to increase the overall capacity of my pc. At present, my OS (Windows 7 64 bit) is on the system partition of my 250GB hard disk. So is it possible to transfer entire system partition of the old system on a newly created larger partition on the new hard disk? Is there a particular software for the same?

[Mindstorm]

What are you saying: you want to transfer your installed OS from one drive to another? According to my knowledge, it is impossible to transfer an OS from one drive to another. You have to reinstall it once again otherwise it will not work. If you are adding the disk just for increasing the capacity then you can go ahead but then why do you want to move the OS? You can keep it in the current location. It will still run effectively and you can add the additional hard drive to the existing OS with minor manipulation.

[pddaugusto]

You can do this. At first get gpart iso image and burn a free CD with (small image) and then use it to make the partitions as per your requirement. Then go to the hard disk manufacturer's site to download hard disk diagnostic tool and also Acronis True Image free. With these two tools you can get the hard disk images and restore them on your new drive, or clone directly on the former without doing the new image. In this case use the manual to select or verify the sizes of partitions on the new disc. If you just rehabilitated creating the system partition with Acronis you'll first need to make a repair booting the installation DVD. The principle is simple cloning, just need to understand the choice of options that present themselves. With Gpart create two partitions and with Acronis clone the disk using the partitions created by gpart.

[Yitzchak909]

To Mindstorm, I think you have never tried this or might not be knowing this but it is quite possible and definitely something similar to as explained by pddaugusto.

BansiJ: if you are looking for some free software which can help you in transferring your OS from one drive to another then Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost will be helpful for you. Apart from doing the duplication, you also need to turn the swap file (properly in turning over the windows in safe mode) and then recreate the next.

[BansiJ]

Ok thanks for that information and I forgot, should I install my new hard disk to SATA in the box? Is there any precautions for me in case of master and slave? Can I mount it on a virtual drive and then to partition my new HDD in windows? Moreover, I found gparted and gparted live cd. According to you which should I go for?

[pddaugusto]

I don't have much knowledge about virtual disk and so I will ask you to avoid it. Gpart is autonomous but it does not run under windows (it has linux inside). Hence gpart is always good to have. You can also partition with Windows 7 x64 second disc.