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How to Replace the C: Drive in Windows 95

Preparing the Hardware
Copying the Hard Disk, Method 1
Copying the Hard Disk, Method 2
Finishing the Replacement Procedure

How to Replace the C: Drive in Windows 95

I had a lot of trouble finding out exactly how to do this. In fact, I could not find any Microsoft documentation on the subject. I believe that the officially accepted procedure for replacing the boot drive is to install Windows95 on the new drive and then restore a backup of your old drive onto the new drive. The procedure outlined here assumes that you have enough knowledge and experience to install a hard drive on a PC, and moderate familarity with Windows 95. Some of the steps in this procedure are not explained fully here. Chances are, the documentation you get with a new drive will get you through the hardware installation. I tested this procedure recently on my office PC, where I replaced my 540MB IDE drive with a 1.6GB drive. I also already had a SCSI drive configured as drive D:, but after I hooked up the second IDE drive, the SCSI drive showed up as E:, and it did not interfere with this procedure.

Preparing the Hardware

• physically install the new drive as D:, configured as slave.
  
• boot the PC and setup CMOS
  
• boot windows 95 to command prompt
  
• from ms-dos prompt run FDISK to partition the new drive.
  
• reboot the PC to command prompt again
  
• enter format d: /s to format the new drive with a system
  
• reboot the PC into windows 95

 Copying the Hard Disk, Method 1

• set windows explorer to view hidden and system files
  
• run explorer, and open the c: drive. press Ctrl-A to select all the files and directories on the c: drive.
  
• unselect the c:\windows directory by holding the Ctrl key while clicking the c:\windows directory
  
• copy the selected files and directories to d:
  
• create the new windows directory on the new drive (usually d:\windows)
  
• select all files and directories in the c:\windows directory except the win386.swp file and copy them into
  d:\windows

Copying the Hard Disk, Method 2 (I have not tested this but others say it works)

• from the Start Menu, select Run, and enter c:\windows\command\xcopy32 c:\*.* d: /h /c /e /k

 Finishing the Replacement Procedure

• turn off the pc and physically install the new drive as master.
  
• boot the PC from a windows 95 startup diskette.
  
• run FDISK to make the boot partition active.
  
• remove the startup disk from the floppy drive and reboot the PC

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Last updated 11/11/96