Best prog to copy a complete hard drive for new install?

Draeger · 26 Jan 2009 at 09:32

Hi,

I have a laptop sat here that belongs to a friend.

He wants to replace the current tiny 40gb drive in there with a larger one.

I have a new 250Gb drive ready to install, but I want to know what the best way to copy his entire current hard drive onto the new one is?.

I'm thinking something like Acronis TI?.

One thing I'm not sure about is will he need to reactivate Windows ( Its running XP SP3 atm ) after its copied across?.

Thanks.

bledd · 26 Jan 2009 at 09:36

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17967123&highlight=acronis

acronis

Draeger · 26 Jan 2009 at 09:42

Ta for the link to the thread.

Tiny wee bit confused from reading it though, from that thread you said :-

two ways of doing it

method a.
put connect new hard drive
cd in + power up, use the 'clone disk' method -it lets you change partition sizes too.
power down, remove old hd

voilla.

What do you mean by "put connect hard drive"?. :confused:

hp7909 · 26 Jan 2009 at 09:48

AFAIK, no need to reactivate after a HD upgrade.

I second above, but note that their some (equal to the task) free tools out there

But what connectors are those HDs? Ask because could get tricky if you only have the laptop to connect to.

bledd · 26 Jan 2009 at 09:50

oops

should read -put in the new hard drive.

or -connect the new hard drive.

Draeger · 26 Jan 2009 at 09:57

So you have to remove the old hard drive, then fit the new ( blank, formatted ) hard drive and then put the Acronis disk in?.

Why?. What do you use the Acronis disk to do with a completely blank hard drive?.

Sorry for the daft questions, just don't want to muck anything up here!!!

Mr Gimp · 26 Jan 2009 at 10:09

Drive Image XML is pretty easy too, I've used that a few times

bledd · 26 Jan 2009 at 10:18

no, you remove the old hd after the clone..

Draeger · 26 Jan 2009 at 10:29

I'm still a bit lost on this "method a" thingy.

Are you saying you connect the new hard drive up to the PC with the old hard drive still fitted, then put the disk in and clone it to the new hard drive via usb or something?.

I still don't understand why you mention "put in the new hard drive/connect the new hard drive"?.

Memphis · 26 Jan 2009 at 10:39

1) Attach new hard drive to existing rig
2) Load Acronis
3) Use "Clone Disk" to clone existing hard drive onto new one
4) Remove old hard drive
5) Set BIOS to boot from new drive
6) Voila

Draeger · 26 Jan 2009 at 11:04

Memphis said:
1) Attach new hard drive to existing rig
2) Load Acronis
3) Use "Clone Disk" to clone existing hard drive onto new one
4) Remove old hard drive
5) Set BIOS to boot from new drive
6) Voila

Ahhhh!!!!

Right!!!

So attach new drive via a usb to IDE/SATA cable, yeah?.

See, I was getting confused, I assumed the only way to clone an old drive was to span it over DVDR's or something.

bledd · 26 Jan 2009 at 11:10

that's what i said!

Draeger · 26 Jan 2009 at 11:20

bledd. said:
that's what i said!

Yeah, I know m8, it's all a bit clearer now though!!!

Thanks guys, think I am sorted now. :cool:

Jakus · 26 Jan 2009 at 13:11

OK, IMO this is a better and faster way

Buy a £6.00 usb 2.5" caddy fit the new HD to it
working in Windows partition the new drive and copy all important data to an extended logical partition ( also use the opportunity to make a second important data backup if required)

Clean up windows, turn off system restore, swapfile, hiberfil file etc and make a Ghost or image of it to the extended partition on Your old Harddrive

Restart windows and copy that image file across to the new HD

Swap drives and restore the image to the new drives primary partition and switch back on System restore and swapfile etc

I deliberately have not given You much more than a list of what to do as if You don't understand partitions etc It may be best to ask someone who does to help, but as I've done the above 100's of times mostly to dead and dying Harddrives I've found it much quicker than cloning at usb 1 speeds !!

You could just copy off all important data then do a clean install to the new drive....which would be the very best way of all

Draeger · 26 Jan 2009 at 17:24

Never thought about doing it that way, ta.

Having just backed up 34Gb of data to an external hard drive via USB, I may well look into doing it using your method, JAKUS.

Took ages to transfer the data via USB!!

Jakus · 26 Jan 2009 at 19:39

Draeger said:
Never thought about doing it that way, ta.

Having just backed up 34Gb of data to an external hard drive via USB, I may well look into doing it using your method, JAKUS.

Took ages to transfer the data via USB!!

LOL , Only the other day someone wanted full disk clone on a brand new EEEpc 1000 so they could restore it to the original "XP sysprep preinstal " before first turn on" state when they sold it.......USB transfer speeds got down to 13MB/min

, I gave up on that after 1.5 hours and did it My normal way.

Faster still would be a cheap 2.5" /3.5" HD adapter and Use a desktop, which Is what I use to recover data from dead and dying laptop drives

Draeger · 26 Jan 2009 at 20:16

JAKUS said:
Faster still would be a cheap 2.5" /3.5" HD adapter and Use a desktop, which Is what I use to recover data from dead and dying laptop drives

Now thats a plan.

Draeger · 28 Jan 2009 at 12:30

Guys, I forgot to ask - If I make an image of the current hard drive ( its running XP SP3 ) when it comes to dropping it onto the new hard drive will there be any licence implications?. As in, will XP think to itself "Ahhh.....I've been reinstalled on a new hard drive" and require to be activated again?.

Ta.

Jakus · 28 Jan 2009 at 13:27

There should not be, If it's legit any reactivation is just a click of the mouse anyway

Draeger · 28 Jan 2009 at 15:26

Cool, ta.

Yeah its a legit install. I've actually got the recovery disks the guy made when he first got the PC so I'm wondering if I might be better trying to reinstall XP with those rather than just making an image and then dumping the contents of the old drive onto the new one.