Combining two drives into one - need to reinstall?

[Soulburner]

I currently have 2 Raptors - 36gb and 74gb.

Windows and drivers are on the 36.

Games and applications are on the 74.

I have the speedy new 150gb Raptor on the way to replace them both.

My question is, can I simply copy all the data over, or will I need to re-install everything since things are associated to different drive letters (C and D)?

Basically will I have problems with things not working correctly if I just copy it all over?

I just formatted and re-installed everything when I got my 8800GTS and it was a nightmare to work out all kinds of new bugs that popped up...If I have to do it all over again, I may as well get Vista over with because I'll just have to redo it all again when that comes too. Better to do them at the same time IMO.

[justin_c]

Sure you can copy over. Software like Acronis True Image or WD software will do it.

[nn_step]

in theory if you partition the raptor into two separate logical drives. then there couldn't possibly be any problems

[Clint]

Plug in the new driver together with the old ones, then use Acronis Image to duplicate the old drives to your new one.

I'm not sure if Acronis can handle to duplicate two drives at a single operation.
You might need to partition the new drive into two partitions before you do the duplication.
A 30-40GB sized C: partition seems logical to me.
Acronis will provide you with suggestions regarding sizes of partitions on the new disk, but you can change those to your liking.

Do not attempt to put it all on same partition, it can be done but will in most cases give you more work. (extensive registry editing)

[Soulburner]

That's what I was thinking, the system is going to want a C and D again like before, which I didn't plan on. I didn't want any partitions this time around though. I'll have to think about what I want to do.

Does partitioning have a negative performance impact?

[Open Book]

Does partitioning have a negative performance impact?

Under bench testing it will not. However if you are trying to pull data from both partitions at the same time it then yes.

Your much better off to do a clean install. I have done drive app. splitting and joining and the performance is never as good as a good old nuke epically in a RAID array.

[lawrywild]

Agreed, always best to start off clean. I can always feel the difference between an Acronis install and a clean install.

[nn_step]

That's what I was thinking, the system is going to want a C and D again like before, which I didn't plan on. I didn't want any partitions this time around though. I'll have to think about what I want to do.

Does partitioning have a negative performance impact?

for about 99.999% of the time no, but if you are trying to read from both partitions and write to both partitions at the same time, it slightly slows down.

[Soulburner]

Yeah I was pretty sure this wasn't going to be fun.

I have another partition question but it best belongs in a new thread in the hardware section. Thanks guys.