My new WD 500Gb internal drive isn't recognized by the BIOS I think.

[Computer_Commando]

1.  I downloaded WD Acronis True Image and used it to clone the old 160 to the new 500 drive.
2.  And then used the recovery disk and successfully got Windows installed onto the new 500Gb drive without getting that "Drive not found" error.
3.  But what was really strange was that when I cloned the 160 to the 500, it may have copied everything (OS and all) to the new drive but when I setup the 500 as the master and booted up off it, I went to My Computer, right clicked on C: drive and then Properties, it showed that its size was only a 160Gb drive!...Does that normally happen when you clone a drive? Does the destination drive always become the same size as source drive?
Well whatever caused that to happen is a mystery (I wouldn't mind knowing why) but it was fixed when I installed Windows with the recovery disk.  It's now showing it as being a 500Gb drive...

1.  You performed the clone.
2.  Then you reinstalled Windows from the Recovery Disk?  I don't understand why.  Was it because the 500 was being reported as a 160?
3.  Cloning is an exact "bit for bit" copy.  I've never used Acronis (still use Ghost for DOS), but if you cloned disk to disk, the remaining 340 was a partition on the 500 that was unformatted and not assigned a drive letter.  All you needed was EASUS Partition Master Home Edition (free) to expand the 160 into the 340, giving you the 500.  That takes all of a couple minutes instead of updating and installing after using the Recovery Disk.

[Lee43]

2.  Then you reinstalled Windows from the Recovery Disk?  I don't understand why.  Was it because the 500 was being reported as a 160?

No, not actually.  I'm sure you probably thought...why did I waste my time reinstalling Windows when I had a bootable newly cloned drive?  Because it would give me the same bloated drive like the old 160 was....it became so filled up that my system just wasn't as fast as it used to be and I wanted a fresh install of Windows on the new drive so it'd be fast again. The cloned 500 drive showing only 160Gb's was unexpected but I figured the recovery disk would fix the size issue when it reformatted it...and it surely did.

3.  Cloning is an exact "bit for bit" copy.  I've never used Acronis (still use Ghost for DOS), but if you cloned disk to disk, the remaining 340 was a partition on the 500 that was unformatted and not assigned a drive letter.  All you needed was EASUS Partition Master Home Edition (free) to expand the 160 into the 340, giving you the 500.  That takes all of a couple minutes instead of updating and installing after using the Recovery Disk.

I'm pretty sure I understand what you just said there but I thought the new drive was already factory NTFS formatted and I was under the (possibly crazy) impression that all the cloning part did was like one complete copy & paste (copy from source drive & paste to destination drive) of everything. But due to my lack of cloning experience, I had no idea that would happen let alone what to do about it. 

I've never partitioned a drive before because I've never had a reason to.  I appreciate you telling me about that EASUS program, I'm gonna check that out when I'm done here. Thank you for all your help. 

[Computer_Commando]

...I'm pretty sure I understand what you just said there but I thought the new drive was already factory NTFS formatted and I was under the (possibly crazy) impression that all the cloning part did was like one complete copy & paste (copy from source drive & paste to destination drive)...

They are almost always unformatted.  Cloning is not like a file or folder copy & paste.  It's a sector to sector copy and could care less about the files.  Liken it to a "mirror image or photographic image", hence the use of the term "image".  It's a great way to keep backups of the hard drive, in case of failure.  Create an image stored on a separate USB drive, do it once a month and you'll never be far behind your current configuration.

[BC_Programmer]

mirror image

I know this is a common term, but I've always found it a bit strange... a mirror image, after all, is flipped horizontally... a cloned disk is not.

[patio]

Good point...the Data would be backwards.....

[Computer_Commando]

I know this is a common term, but I've always found it a bit strange... a mirror image, after all, is flipped horizontally... a cloned disk is not.

I know!  But it seemed the best way to explain it to someone who seems to be having a bit of difficulty comprehending the scheme.

Good point...the Data would be backwards.....

No, a 0 viewed in a mirror is a 0, a 1 viewed in the mirror is a 1.

[BC_Programmer]

No, a 0 viewed in a mirror is a 0, a 1 viewed in the mirror is a 1.

Just like a white person will see a black person and vice versa?... oh... wait...

[Salmon Trout]

I know!  But it seemed the best way to explain it to someone who seems to be having a bit of difficulty comprehending the scheme.
No, a 0 viewed in a mirror is a 0, a 1 viewed in the mirror is a 1.

Yes, but the bit order is reversed. 00000001 binary is 1. View it in a mirror and you see 10000000 which is 128.

[Lee43]

They are almost always unformatted.  Cloning is not like a file or folder copy & paste.  It's a sector to sector copy and could care less about the files.  Liken it to a "mirror image or photographic image", hence the use of the term "image".  It's a great way to keep backups of the hard drive, in case of failure.  Create an image stored on a separate USB drive, do it once a month and you'll never be far behind your current configuration.

I wished I knew it was unformatted from the start. With installing Windows using the recovery cd, it formats it then installs.  With cloning however, it apparently doesn't format first then clone which would explain the missing 340Gb's that was unformatted. It only cloned the already formatted 160Gb drive and left the remainder behind. Oh vell, I guess I just lived and learned the hard way. I'll know better the next time around though...    

I will take your advice of creating an image onto an external drive once a month...I just need to get another external drive first though and dedicate it to doing just that.  If I were to clone this new 500 onto one of my two external drives now, Acronis would completely wipe the external drive clean (since it requires a clean, data free drive)  before it cloned the drive...and I'm not about to lose everything I've had backed up from before.  Thanx for the info and that great tip! I'll do that asap.

[Lee43]

Just like a white person will see a black person and vice versa?... oh... wait...

I couldn't help but think of that old 1970 movie titled "Watermelon Man" where this white (racist bigot) guy wakes up one day to find he became a black man!  It's a helluva crazy movie. Wikipedia info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon_Man_(film)

[BC_Programmer]

I couldn't help but think of that old 1970 movie titled "Watermelon Man" where this white (racist bigot) guy wakes up one day to find he became a black man!  It's a helluva crazy movie. Wikipedia info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon_Man_(film)

Interesting, when I said that, I thought... there must be a movie related to this...