I was attempting to Image my primary drive to another drive of different size (smaller) and of course it will not work - even tho the data on the primary drive is no wheres near capacity for the 2nd drive.

Is there a prg that would do this and ignore the free space? Image the data only?

How about making a partition on the second drive that is equal to that of the first? I have no idea if it would work, since all my raid experience comes from a commercial server I used to work with but it would be neat if it did.

I thought about the windows file and xfer wizard, tried that - at first glance it seemed to work. But there was no quick launch loaded with my proggies and no programs in the prg list.

funny tho cause the file it created for the file and settings xfer was the same size and the used space on my C drive.

Symantec Ghost will do what you are looking for.

thank you for the reply, what version is suggested?

I think that they are on version 14 right now, but I can confirm that anything from 9 up will do what you are looking for. I cannot say for sure it is the same with Norton Ghost but I imagine it would be. I have just never worked with the consumer line of it.

Alrightttyyy thennnnnnnnnn.

I will giver on Norton Ghost when I get off work later this evening and let ya know how she goes.

Ghost is an A+ program, even the new version that kinda runs on a Vista kernel heh.

is there a certain version of Ghost suggested? I tried a couple free online but they take into account the free space as well which screwed me over.

I will check out a few versions of Ghost and see how she goes.

Have you tried defragging the drive before attempting this? This "free space" may be scattered throughout the drive and could be the reason why the applications are attempting to copy what appears to be the entire disk.

if you have a spare drive you can make a .gho file and put it on that drive and then use ghost to load the .gho back on to the new drive.

Defrag. Christ, never thought of that DOH!

Yes I got two hdd's one primary and one for backup, downloads that kinda thing. I just picked up a Raptor that I wanna use for my primary, so I thought i would image it from my current C:

...defraggin' now. Also getting a couple versions of Ghost. I will make the image and stick it on my F drive and giver from that. See how she goes.

someone boot me for not thinking about defrag. Perhaps hold off on the i.v of coffee

I have used the software at the following link for exactly your needs

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-personal/

Man..whata sh*t storm. Used Norton Ghost to image my C, put the image on my 2nd drive. Plugged the raptor in and tried to image it and it failed. So put my C back on it somehow the MBR got screwed.

Threw a generic xp install on the raptor, reimaged my C but it was unstable.

Had to redo windows completely, luckily, I didnt lose the data. Up and running like nothing happened in a few hrs. Reinstalled COD4 and threw the profile folder in and didnt lose my rank(thank christ) Considering setting up my two other drives in Raid but many people say not to use the onboard raid as it sucks donkey dick. Anyone have issues with Raid on an Asus board?

It is a little late now but I have NEVER had a failed HDD upgrade using Acronis True Image Server. It cost me a couple bucks, but I'm sure you could find it floating around out there somewhere. I've used it for cloning and for backup/restore. If you make an image that can be stored on cds/dvds it will even chuck the program on the disc so its ready to boot and restore direct from the backup. I got burnt with Ghost twice, that was enough for me.