Clone Master/ Slave IDEs to one SATA HDD

[monet man]

Hello community, this is my first post here. I knew that this was the best place to consult with my question, since there are so many very intellectual and insightful people here. That being stated, I hope my question isn't too trivial. I am shopping for a new barebones system, and technology has evolved quite a bit since my last PC purchase. My current PC was purchased in..oh..say 1999. I have literally squeezed every penny out of this thing, and kudos to Gateway that I am still using the original HDD and CPU that came with the system. This thing is a relic, but I've had it since before college, through college, and my first 5 years of my career, running processor intensive programs like Matlab, and all of the other engineering software etc. that I have punished it with.

Ok, so I currently have an MSI 2514182 motherboard with a 1.1Ghz AMD Athlon CPU, 40GB Seagate IDE HDD (master), and a 100GB WD HDD (slave). This board has no SATA interface whatsoever. The new board/chipset that I'm looking at is something along the lines of a Gigabyte M68MT mobo, AMD Phenom CPU, and a Seagate Barracuda SATA drive. If anyone is interested, the complete setup is item B69-0449 at TigerDirect.

So, finally, here's my question: Without a SATA interface on my current mobo, and without an IDE interface on the board that I'm shopping for, how can I clone both IDEs over to 1 new SATA drive? Oh, one other thing.. on the 2 IDE HDDs, I have a total of 5 partitions, and 2 OSs - XP SP2, and Windows ME. I would just start from scratch with my new system, but over the past 12 or so years I have accumulated quite a bit of software etc. that cannot be reloaded, due to the fact that I have lost, damaged, or deleted the original installs. Any help, guidance, or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance. If you need any additional info about my setup, I will gladly reply - expeditiously.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Well, the biggest problem is that you have lost, damaged, or deleted the original install packages. Most programs installed under Windows write to the registry and / or put files in the /windows tree. So you can't just copy the installed directories to your new system and run them.

I have had reasonable success Emailing the software maker and requesting a new copy because I'm building a new machine. It's a good idea to run the SW, open Help - About, and copy down the version and any serial number / registration information that you see.

That said. There are several trivial ways to transfer the data from your old drives to the new one.
1) Put both machines on a network. Make the old drives shared with world read. Open them from the new machine and copy the files.
2) Extract the old drives, put them into external USB enclosures, and copy the data off of them.
3) Buy a motherboard that has both SATA and IDE connections. OH, WOW! You can boot your old drives this way!
4) If you use an external drive for backups, restore your backups to the new system. If you do not use an external drive for backups, go buy one now and do a backup.

Let us know which way you are going, and we can provide more information. Wow - a still useful 12-year-old system.

 

[RetiredChief]

My wife's old xp system was in the same boat - Required programs lacked installation disk and one program required ALL previous versions to be install, one ofter the other (10 versions) and first couple required a serial or parallel dongle - you quessed it NO serial/parallel port!!. She bought a new (LOW END HP) vista machine, which I SH** canned and built her a low end I3. My comments are based on her system.

(1) Do not bother getting a MB with IDE connector thinking you can boot to old XP- just not going to happen. But that is one method of transfering all of your generated files/data to the new machine. The other is to get a cheap IDE -> USB enclocure.
IE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=3.5%22+ide+to+usb+enclosure&x=19&y=41

If you are sucessfull in obtainning "New" installation disk, great. otherwize:
This is what I did.
Bought a program that will transfer all programs from old system -> New system.

IE..Setting up a new PC has never been easier! Use PCmover to automatically transfer all your selected programs, files and settings from your old PC to your new one. With PCmover, there’s no need to find old CDs or serial numbers, because your programs are ready to use on your
Ref: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832300018

Some advice if you go this route:
(1) Clean up your old system. Uninstall all programs that you no longer need/want. Uninstall all your externall hardware drivers such as printers and scanners.
(2) Run a program to clean the registry (I use CCleanner - it's free and does a pretty good job.)
(3) I used my router to connect between the two computers rather than the supplied usb interconnect cable.

(4) If you use win7 32 bit (OK if you do NOT plan on going above 4 gigs of ram) your programs should all run (But not 100% sure).
.. For more than 4 gigs of ram you need the 64 bit version of windows 7. Here you may (may not) have a problem. Any old programs that have 16 bit code will not run on 64 bit Operating system (there are some work arounds, but would be better to just upgran to a new program.
.. Also if the old program does not run, first try to run it in compatability mode (right click the program and select run in compatability mode).

 

[WyomingKnott]

PCmover! That's what I used for my wife & daughter's upgrade. Thanks.

 

[monet man]

Thank you for your reply WYKnot. Those were some very good ideas. This is the kind of stuff I was hoping for when I posted. It is becoming an almost weekly task to delete large files in an attempt to keep that annoying bubble from popping-up, telling me that my disk space is low. To accomplish this, I select the culprit drive, search for file *.* for files of size ~ 50Mb. Doing this so routinely, I am to the point where I am forced into deleting files that I otherwise wouldn't. This is how files that shouldn't get deleted, get deleted. I know..thumb drives are cheap, but when I don't have one handy, and I cant build a project that I'm working on because I don't have room, well things such as old installs etc. sometimes get the axe. That being stated, I like the idea of contacting the SW mfg - good tip. Regarding your other suggestions:

1, 2, 4) Do you mean to recreate the same partition scheme, including drive lettering and file system (Fat32/NTFS) on the new drive and just copy one drive over at a time into its corresponding drive on the new partition?

3) I've contemplated this, but I really don't want to limit my options by making this one of my "must haves" for my new system board.

Thanks again. I'm still drooling over this system (being on a limited budget)..

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1165021&srkey=B69-0449

..so after I am certain that I can proceed relatively painlessly with the subsequent transfer of data, I will purchase this or a similar setup, and then hopefully not annoy this forum too badly with the conundrums that ensue.

 

[monet man]

Thanks RetiredChief, those are some great suggestions. I am going to have to check into PCmover, because it sounds like a nifty program. I have made it my practice to install all programs on one drive so that in a jam, i could reformat either of my windows drives if necessary, reinstall windows, and keep the programs installed, intact, and fully functioning. This methodology has kept me happy, so I think that I will continue with this practice.

As for item (4) in your reply, this has me a bit concerned. The system that I am currently looking at comes fully stuffed with 8GB of DDR3. From what I understand by this is that you're telling me that my XP SP2 (and ME for that matter) is headed for the same can that you put your wife's HP machine in. I am SO glad that you brought this to my attention. It probably wouldn't be prudent to copy over 140GB of 16 bit programs etc. to a brand new system, and then make a mess of trying to get them all to work now would it..? I guess now I have to do some homework to see how much this purchase is really going to cost. If the software implications are going to cost just as much (if not more) than the hardware expenditure, then I may be better off just buying a larger IDE drive and see if I can use my current system until it has achieved true antique status.

Thanks again RetiredChief. I'm going to do this homework today, continue reading any additional replies, and get back again when I decide the best course to proceed on. I'm a bit bummed, but this is why I came here - to get the best advise before I act, not after.

 

[WyomingKnott]

1, 2, 4) Do you mean to recreate the same partition scheme, including drive lettering and file system (Fat32/NTFS) on the new drive and just copy one drive over at a time into its corresponding drive on the new partition?

I was just thinking of copying over all of the data that you need, rather than duplicating your existing setup. The chance of cloning the four partitions and having them boot off the new drive in the new hardware is low.


And then the heavens opened up and a ray of light struck. EASEUS To-Do Backup, free edition, has an option for restoring to dissimilar hardware. So if you want to be able to boot those same four partitions, you could try this.

In order of what I personally would do,

Do complete re-installs and only copy the data files from the old drive. In that case, the partitions are a matter of taste.
Backup the whole drive with To-Do Backup, using the dissimilar hardware option, and see if any of the partitions boot.
Clone the old drive to the new drive, do a Repair Install from your XP distribution, and see if anything works.

 

[alphaproject]

Using Acronis True Image is prolly the easiest way to migrate anything over and test it out... Apparently there's an option to migrate for different hardware"...although I have not tried it, I have moved my Win XP to a completely different build without doing much.

The first time I did "the task" was from a Pentium 4, to the Duo Core 2. Now I'm going from that to the I5-2500K, new mobo, new everything. However...I have a dual boot system so mine might get even trickier. I still wanna keep my Win XP because I, like you have tons of programs installed...mostly audio programs and soft synths. The complicated part is they span across multiple hard drives because the smaller ones are all on XP...the larger ones fit where I could put them..alas...on different drives AND partitions.

I can however keep 2 of my SATA drives because they are the Win XP drive and MY Win7 drive 4 partitions in all. The other 2 IDE drives won't have any connections and I don't want to install a messy IDE interface...so I'm planning on cloning over the 160 gig drive AND the 200 gig Maxtor into 1 SATA 500 gig drive. I'll see how it goes if it's even possible. Like others said... I can't just move the contents...because programs have been installed from either Win XP or Win7 64-bit. I just backed up Win XP but I forgot to mention moving to different hardware...unless you check that later...which you might...it's a possibility.