move os to another drive

Hi guys, i have a 1tb samsung F1 drive as my c drive and a WD caviar black 160gb as a second drive. my F1 sounds as if its about to die, clicking on boot and not booting for 3-4 tries so i want to move my OS to my 160 gb drive and make it my boot drive, what do i need to do this and how can i get everything to save on the F1 disk?

If i create a RAID set up is it possible to have both drives as c: drive but specifically have the OS and program files on the WD 160gb and everything else on the F1 or not? that way if the F1 dies i can just back up clone and swap it out without it effecting the system

any help if apprechiated thanks

Better to clone or copy Win7 to the other HD.

You can first try built-in Win7 Backup Imaging to save an image externally or to a partition on old HD, reimage to new HD using Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD.

Another free imaging program to try: Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition - Free Download

You can copy using free Partition Wizard CD: boot it, select 1 for screen res, rightclick on Win7, Copy, then point it to new HD unallocated space, Copy it over, making sure it remains Active partition.

Now unplug old HD, make sure new Win7 HD is set first to boot in BIOS, reboot into Win7 DVD Repair console, click through to Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times to repair or rewrite the MBR which might not be copied correctly.

If the MBR is not copied, it may take more than running the Repair Wizard to write the MBR to copied Win7.

After booting Win7 DVD Repair console, click through to Recovery Tools list, select Startup Repair and run it up to 3 separate times with reboots.

It will first attempt to repair and then rewrite the MBR, using all former bootrec and bootsect recovery commands as well as its other myriad tests.

Some give up too early but as long as partition is marked Active, it will work if run enough times.

is it possible just to clone the windows and program files as i have a lot of video files etc on the 1 tb that exceeds 500gb

fitnessman said:

is it possible just to clone the windows and program files as i have a lot of video files etc on the 1 tb that exceeds 500gb

Best to clone to a empty HD.

Yes you can clone one HD to the other using a cloning app. I dont' know of any free ones; maybe someone else does.

Sometimes the HD maker has cloning software on their Support Downloads webpage for this purpose.

You can consolidate your existing files into a partition so that a good copying app like free Partition Wizard CD can copy your existing OS into the remaining unallocated space. If you want to make the space at the beginning of the HD to copy into, PW can do that by resizing existing partition over to the right.

gregrocker said:

Yes you can clone one HD to the other using a cloning app. I dont' know of any free ones; maybe someone else does.

Sometimes the HD maker has cloning software on their Support Downloads webpage for this purpose.

You can consolidate your existing files into a partition so that a good copying app like free Partition Wizard CD can copy your existing OS into the remaining unallocated space. If you want to make the space at the beginning of the HD to copy into, PW can do that by resizing existing partition over to the right.

Look on Western Digital website under "Software downloads" They provide free cloning/copy/partion software!

I expect Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung etc also provide similar free programs.
Western digital also provide a free version of Acronis copy/partion prog fully working - no time limit!

fitnessman said:

is it possible just to clone the windows and program files as i have a lot of video files etc on the 1 tb that exceeds 500gb

I would first create a seperate data partition and move everything that is not system files (videos, pictures, music, etc.) to that partition. Here is a little video tutorial I once made that shows you how to do that. Later you can "include" all those into the libraries without moving them.

PS: for shrinking, you may have to temporarily move some of the data to an external disk - just to get the room.