Easiest method of cloning Windows 7 OS Install to a larger HDD?

antispam246 · 25 May 2010 at 20:17

I want to move my windows 7 install currently on an 80GB HDD to a larger 1TB HDD. I've researched around a lot and though the easiest method was to use windows 7 built in backup and restore. Unfortunately I cannot get it to choose where to install the windows 7 image to, doesn't give me an option.

So, now I'm looking for alternative methods or a full solution as to how to use win 7 backup and restore and be able to choose where I want to clone the system image to exactly.

hp7909 · 25 May 2010 at 20:23

Much easier & faster if you use a cloning tool such as the one found in Acronis True Image

SiriusB · 25 May 2010 at 20:29

Acronis and Macrium should both be able to do what you want.

antispam246 · 25 May 2010 at 20:55

I was under the impression either Acronis 2010 didn't support windows 7 or/and it caused issues with windows 7? Otherwise, I'd have used that straight away. It's my number one tool on XP I swear I didn't look at it because of several issues i read relating to it's use on win 7. Perhaps I'm wrong?

Skeeter · 25 May 2010 at 20:57

antispam246 · 25 May 2010 at 21:00

Sorry, just to clarify, it's win 7 64 bit, incase it matters.

WHS? That seems like a long winded solution. Right now i'm running WHS in a virtual enviroment which resides on the same pc as the one in question (i.e. with win 7 on) so I'd rather not go that route right now as I'm in the process of choosing my ideal setup for WHS which is a long long query that, again, not touching on here.

Superficial · 25 May 2010 at 21:00

antispam246 said:
I was under the impression either Acronis 2010 didn't support windows 7 or/and it caused issues with windows 7? Otherwise, I'd have used that straight away. It's my number one tool on XP I swear I didn't look at it because of several issues i read relating to it's use on win 7. Perhaps I'm wrong?

i used it for windows 7 ultimate 64 bit and it worked perfectly. used it for around 4 months until i got my ssd

AbsenceJam · 25 May 2010 at 21:00

Acronis works fine and you're simply cloning.

What's the issue with System Image Restore? Just disconnect other drives.

Skeeter · 25 May 2010 at 22:40

antispam246 said:
Sorry, just to clarify, it's win 7 64 bit, incase it matters.

WHS? That seems like a long winded solution. Right now i'm running WHS in a virtual enviroment which resides on the same pc as the one in question (i.e. with win 7 on) so I'd rather not go that route right now as I'm in the process of choosing my ideal setup for WHS which is a long long query that, again, not touching on here.

Yeah, its not really a solution for you now, but I would definitely recommend setting up a proper server for times like this in the future. The back/restore on WHS is fantastic. Take out old drive, insert new one, boot from recovery CD, choose backup to restore, wait 20 mins, have fully working PC just as it was, only on a larger HDD

antispam246 · 25 May 2010 at 23:11

AbsenceJam said:
Acronis works fine and you're simply cloning.

What's the issue with System Image Restore? Just disconnect other drives.

Thanks. The issue was that it wouldn't allow specification of where to install to. I was going to do exactly as you stated, it just seemed overly tedious to have to physically remove hardware versus a program giving the option of which HDD to install to.

Acronis seems to be the preferred option all round so i'll probably give that a try first as I always used it with XP.

antispam246 · 26 May 2010 at 05:24

Thanks peeps. Ended up using Acronis True Image 2010. Ran into one issue when attempting to clone but a quick google resolved it. Basically after I chose the source HDD to clone it kept saying "Processing, please wait", it never stopped. Fix was to go into services and disable "Distributed Link Tracking Client". Anyway the process completed successfully and I was able to boot from my new HDD.