Replacing Hard Drive

[hrasco]

I have purchased a Maxtor fluid bearing drive to replace my noisy one. Has anyone used the MaxBlast software to clone a drive and how well does it work?

Thanks for any input.

[MisterX]

It works pretty good for a freeware program.
The only problem your likely to encounter comes when you are running Windows XP. An installation repair may be required to get the machine to boot.

[Nick Driver]

Norton Ghost 2003 works perfectly fine on cloning XP (NTFS 5) disks if you can get your hands on a copy.

[hrasco]

Thanks for your replies. I am running 98se so that should not be an issue. I neglected to mention I have three partitions on my old drive. I am concerned about whether the apps I have on the D partition will run when cloned to the new drive.

I considered Ghost but:
(1) I have heard about people having trouble with Ghost 2003. Anyone have input on this?
(2) I don't want to pay retail locally and I don't want to wait for it to get here.
(3) I didn't see the point if MaxBlast will do what it claims it will do.

So, any first hand experiences with MaxBlast?

Thanks to you all.

[+Erik.+]

sorry, i haven't used it either but i think with 98se you should have little trouble getting it do what you want.

[MisterX]

Originally posted by hrasco
Thanks for your replies. I am running 98se so that should not be an issue. I neglected to mention I have three partitions on my old drive. I am concerned about whether the apps I have on the D partition will run when cloned to the new drive.
That should not be an issue. Remember the key configuration file were Windows and many of your programs keep their data is in the Windows registry. Cloning your drives with Maxblast will not change this configuration data, unless there is a catastrophic failure of some sort.

Originally posted by hrasco
I considered Ghost but:
(1) I have heard about people having trouble with Ghost 2003. Anyone have input on this?
Many of the problems associated with ghost are typically user errors, its unfriendly interface and complexity tend to make it easy for n00bs to have problems with.
Originally posted by hrasco
(2) I don't want to pay retail locally and I don't want to wait for it to get here.
LOL.

Originally posted by hrasco
(3) I didn't see the point if MaxBlast will do what it claims it will do.
Ghost does more then just harddrive cloning, it is (IMHO) one of the better data backup applications out there.
The last time I had to wipe and reload my OS it only took an hour because I took the time to backup my data to cdr media.
Compare that hour to the 6 hours it took to install Windows and all of my other applications the last time I did it "the hard way."
One tip for those out there.....I install Windows and then my favorite software, burn the ghost image and then install the drivers. This is the most painless way to roll back your system after driver updates trash it. http://www.audioforums.com/forums/biggrin.gif
Originally posted by hrasco
So, any first hand experiences with MaxBlast?

Sure. Configure your new drive as the master drive on your secondary channel (assuming your old drive is primary master).
Insert the Maxblast disk into the floppy drive (make sure your machine is configured to boot from the floppy drive) and boot the machine. Follow the on-screen instructions and you should not have any problems.


[This message has been edited by MisterX (edited 05-13-2003).]

[hrasco]

Thank you all, so much. I love this place.

[hrasco]

Well, I used MaxBlast to clone my drive. It boots up fine and all apps work with the exception of the Sonic Foundry stuff which all give me a message the app must be reinstalled. Is there any way I can avoid this? If I clone the drive again with Ghost will the Sonic Foundry apps run?
Thanks for any help you might be.