changing boot hard drive, how to copy all drive info so I do not have to manually reload all the software?
88695
I have used Partition Magic with great success.  Keep your 20Gb drive as primary master, and install your new 250Gb drive as a slave or on the secondary IDE channel.  Keep in mind, whatever software you use will not be doing merely a copy, but will also write to the Boot Master Record on the 250 Gb drive to designate it as a bootable drive.  Once your software finishes, shut down, and swap the two drives.  Surprising that the Seagate s/w failed to help you.
283239
Use Partition Magic\n\nIt's very user friendly program that you dont need any instruction on how to use.\nOnce installed you will see all your hard disk partitions.\nRight click and say Unhide partition.\nYou are done.\nCongrats
671099
Just boot using a windows XP CD and follow the steps, once formatted shut down the machine :)
756105
The first thing you wanna do is copy onto disk all of your important files.  Then use the original system disks that came with your computer, place them in your CD drive and it walk you through reformatting and reinstalling your operating system
943793
boot with the cd and re install
707314
just reformat everything.  the windows o/s you have should boot automatically from your CD-ROM.  there are free utilities from majorgeeks.com to retrieve your lost data, even if you've reformatted the drive(s).  good luck, you're NOT an idiot.  everyone has had their computer woes.  how'd your Vista go?
125636
you can do this without any additional program.\n\nRight click My Computer and select Administration\nExpand Data Storage and click Data Storage Administration\nIn the right window upper half all connected drive will be shown. Right click on a Drive letter and then click Change drive letter.\nA new window open and then click on change and then select the desired drive letter.
511162
make a start up disk bootdisk.com will help. restart type in format c then enter
289490
Reformat the hard drive partition on which it is installed.
1144056
Dear friend that is very easy way but u have to be very careful for that because if anything goes  wrong then u have to format and reinstall OS. So 1st open the boot.ini file in notepad and change the 2nd line of the code and save it and restart system. remember copy the original file and make changes in some the copy ed file.
724079
You can't really just copy the os or certain programs to disks... you can either make a whole hard drive backup using a program like Norton Ghost, or reinstall everything. To erase all of you info permanently, (assuming you're on windows) click on the start menu and click run. Then type in cmd and press enter, and it should give you a black window with white writing. Type in "format c: /u" to completely and permanently erase everything. DO NOT try this until everything's backed up and you are completely sure you don't need anything on that computer.
764142
you need the windows operation system disk , from there u get to choose to reformat ur harddrive and install a fresh copy of windows, or u could choose to install another windows so u can switch between them\n\nWhen u put the disk in reset ur computer and it will automatically boot from the disk
582519
No. There is no eay way. Perhaps the easiest is to simply buy another hard disk (if you can actually install one in your hardware) and install a fresh copy of the operating system on it, making it the a new c drive, but this raises some particular issues. Some applications (and many operating systems) require that certain files (configuration stuff, for instance) be on the same drive from which the system has booted (or on which the application is installed). So changing to a new drive like this will involve some obscure issues dependent on not so obvious details of how this or that program (including the operating system) was designed and implemented. \n\n==========\nThere are some things you'll have to think about here, before you do anything at all. I'll assume you aren't going to get a new hard disk, and discuss the problem as you laid it out. Namely, reformatting the existing C drive and reinstalling your system on it. \n\nDo you really need to reformat? You may be able to reinstall Windows over itself, and if a damage Windows file is part of the problem, escape without the major pain of reformatting. \n\n========\nFirst, without the installation CD (or copies of all the files from it) you're sunk. I'm not sure from what you say whether you have a copy of the CD on your second drive or not. If you don't ... Trouble lies that way. \n\nSecond, You must backup everything you have on the C drive that is not reinstalled from the distribution disks. And you must be certain that whatever backup method you choose will be able to actually read the backup formatted files after the reinstallation. It is not unusual, sadly, for some backup programs to be unable to actually read in the backup files it creates. \n"Backup" includes the operating system (Microsoft has dropped support for 98 and for SE, so you would be well advised to update -- my suggestion is to 2000, but some folks are willing to settel for 2000 Lite -- ie, XP. Or even to make this your opportunity to switch to a vendor who poses fewer problems -- the main option as I write this is one of the kind_of_Unixen), Linux -- my favorite is the SuSE distribution). And "backup" includes application files as well. Identifying just which files these are, and where they are is not always easy. Clearly all your pictures and documents you've written and would qualify, but applications (and operating systems) usually have several configuration files, history files, backup files, index files, ... which it will save time to have copes of. But, if an application doesn't provide for saving these and reinstalling them over a fresh installtion of the application, ...  There will be problems here as well. You might have to reconfigure some or all of your applications (and the operating system too) after reinstallation. this is a pain, but may be unavoidable...\n\nThird, you must be certain that any new hardware you've installed will be recognized by the Windows boot routines at reinstallation time. It might be wise to start a reinstallation (with the intent of cancelling it essentially immediately) to test whether the BIOS will call up the Windows installation routines from wherever they are, and whether they will be able to find the new hardware. Since hardware support (ie, drivers and design troubleshooting) for 98SE has mostly been dropped, increasingly more hardware will not be supported for 98SE.  Without support, you'll have to write your own drivers -- not recommended.\n\nFourth, you must, when reinstalling, configure your software in ways which are compatible with how they used to be configured, lest there be odd (perhaps fatal) happenings from the incompatibilites. Some things don't matter -- like icon colors or the shape of the cursor, but some will.\n\nFifth, keep a record of what you did and why at each step of the way, starting before you begin backing up. Include all instructions (and options) and the immediate re
840917
Is the drive you are trying to format still the 'boot' disk?\n\nYou need to be booting on the new drive before you can format the 'old' disc.\n\n///
1023484
Goto: control panel --> Administrative tools --> Computer management\n\nThen goto: disk management, right-click the drives you want to change, and change them.
714051
Hi,\n\nTo run the reovery CD you need to boot from the CD drive. When teh PC is starting, press Del, Esc, F2 or whatever key it says to hit to enter bios setup. Once in, change the boot order so that the PC boots from the CD before trying the hard drive.\n\nWARNING: most manufacturer supplied recovery disks will format your hard drive loosing all the software installed and all your data like photos, emails etc.\n\nIf you provide the make and model of your PC and the operating system, eg Windows XP, it will be easier to provide more accurate information.\n\nHTH
83330
The last thing you can do is to copy all your important data to a clean and formatted drive or even another HDD(by making it slave and connectin it to the IDE channel) and then formatting your Windows drive and doing a new Windows installation.