Cloning HDD

[DanielColato]

I have my friends HDD (i installed a new motherboard to his pc) and windows didn't boot so i took the drive home and connected it to my PC.

 

My question is how can i copy his HDD to mine, without the Windows files. Like which files/folders don't i copy over to my drive id you catch my drift.

 

I'm going to copy his hdd, format it, take it back to his house put it in his pc install windows on his drive then connect my drive and transfer it back over

[epeglab_1_]

Im pretty sure you either cannot copy the software, unless they have the same directory, so he can say goodbye to all his steam games. Also I am sure if you look around you may find cloning software, just for applications. So the answer is "maybe".

[DanielColato]

Im pretty sure you either cannot copy the software, unless they have the same directory, so he can say goodbye to all his steam games. Also I am sure if you look around you may find cloning software, just for applications. So the answer is "maybe".

i'm mostly worried about documents. Pictures/files. Is there any way to know which programs were installed exactly? I don't mind reinstalling for him

[epeglab_1_]

i'm mostly worried about documents. Pictures/files. Is there any way to know which programs were installed exactly? I don't mind reinstalling for him

 

You can do that manually. Easy, I had to do that when I had switched to an SSD. Just hook it up via SATA or USB( have to use an adapter). Then go into your user files and copy.

 

Its pretty simple if you have everything on the drive nicely organized. Hopefully your friend is not like me, i like to make folders inside of folders, leading to folders =D

[Bonsai99]

I have my friends HDD (i installed a new motherboard to his pc) and windows didn't boot so i took the drive home and connected it to my PC.

 

My question is how can i copy his HDD to mine, without the Windows files. Like which files/folders don't i copy over to my drive id you catch my drift.

 

I'm going to copy his hdd, format it, take it back to his house put it in his pc install windows on his drive then connect my drive and transfer it back over

Just copy over everything except the Windows directory then slowly comb through everything with him deleting what doesn't need to be kept.

 

Im pretty sure you either cannot copy the software, unless they have the same directory, so he can say goodbye to all his steam games. 

Wut? You can just copy the whole SteamApps directory over, re-install Steam on the new computer, and dump the SteamApps folder right back into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam and it will work fine.

[DanielColato]

You can do that manually. Easy, I had to do that when I had switched to an SSD. Just hook it up via SATA or USB( have to use an adapter). Then go into your user files and copy.

 

Its pretty simple if you have everything on the drive nicely organized. Hopefully your friend is not like me, i like to make folders inside of folders, leading to folders =D

so just hook it up and copy everything over? 

 

Thing is when i copy it back over i don't want the windows files there twice? If you understand what im saying

[DanielColato]

Just copy over everything except the Windows directory then slowly comb through everything with him deleting what doesn't need to be kept.

 

Wut? You can just copy the whole SteamApps directory over, re-install Steam on the new computer, and dump the SteamApps folder right back into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam and it will work fine.

Windows directory would be the folder called.. WINDOWS, right?

[Bonsai99]

Windows directory would be the folder called.. WINDOWS, right?

Yes

[DanielColato]

Yes

ok man thanks hope he isn't anal about everything being exactly the way it was

[Ahnzh]

Im pretty sure you either cannot copy the software, unless they have the same directory, so he can say goodbye to all his steam games. Also I am sure if you look around you may find cloning software, just for applications. So the answer is "maybe".

 

This.

 

Actually copying steam games is fairly easy from my experience

 

Cloning and Data rescue is a difference @DanielColato I still don't think it's the HDD, more like some bios BOOT order settings or so as long as it booted earlier.

 

Important data is saved in 'Users' usually, program files are hard to transfer, maybe you have to type in serial numbers again and some programs might not work, most of the programs might work though.