Tips for cloning newbie

martian_aphid · 3 Apr 2010 at 12:14

Hey guys

I've had a 500gb Seagate [one of those that came with dodgy firmware] as my boot drive for about 2 years now. Lately boot times have increased and its been acting up a bit. Extra long open times on certain files, particularly unzipping files and then opening them - this might be something else but I get a feeling its the drive. Since I'm not sure about the drive and I'm pushing its limits in terms of space, I'm thinking about getting a 1Tb to replace it [probably the F3].

This is where I face a slight issue, since I am away at university and was foolish enough to leave my windows disc at home, I figured I would have to clone the drive - I assume its also quicker than a fresh install so I can get back to work. This is something I haven't done before so I have a few queries I hope you guys can clear up.

Firstly i'm assuming the drive sizes aren't an issue?

Will it simply be a case of plugging in the new drive initialising it and formatting it as if it were a second drive, then cloning it through the OS and then setting it to the boot drive in the BIOS? Will there be any other steps or issues with it being a different drive - drive letters associations, drivers ???

How long will this process of cloning take on a 500gig drive with nearly as much data - i.e. is it an overnight job?

Will the new drive bear the file same structure as the one it was cloned from? Does this mean it will be fragmented. I guess not really an issue after a defrag?

Will I need to re-activate windows - it's going into the same desktop, the only change is the drive?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice

Regards

MA

cheechm · 3 Apr 2010 at 12:52

I was literally about to post the same question, and await the replies, however I have already tried doing it.

On Windows Vista, I found that after cloning it, you need the Vista install disc so that you can run a "Startup Repair" which basically makes booting from the new drive work.

Which program are you going to use?

martian_aphid · 3 Apr 2010 at 13:12

Hey cheechm

I am just checking out what is available right now. I'd known about Acronis Trueimage and Norton Ghost, just looking at clonezilla atm. Any recommendations, what did you use?

I guess I will try to borrow a Vista disc for the startup repair.

How did yours go?

jbloggs · 3 Apr 2010 at 13:26

You can use the trial version of Acronis True Image Home 2010...using that you "may not" need to run the Vista DVD for a repair...

bremen1874 · 3 Apr 2010 at 13:32

I normally use True Image and boot it from CD rather than using it under windows.

If the cloning works correctly then you shouldn't need to performing startup repairs.

Both Seagate and Western Digital supply free versions of Acronis for use with their drives and instructions on how to use it.

martian_aphid · 3 Apr 2010 at 13:44

Thanks for the recommendations guys, any idea of the difference between the True Image software and the Migrate Easy software they make, they appear to do virtually the same stuff.

I'm a bit unsure of the actual physical process involved. Most of the stuff I have read involves the use of an external hard drive, is it ok to just use an internal drive? I was just going to get hold of an F3 stick it in my desktop, format and see what needed to be done from there. Will there be any issues with drive letter allocation, or do I simply disconnect the old drive and set the new drive to boot and everything works from there?

bremen1874 · 3 Apr 2010 at 14:47

With a desktop machine my normal procedure is...

Switch off.
Install new HDD alongside old HDD.
Boot from Acronis CD.
Clone old HDD onto new HDD.
Remove Acronis CD and Switch off.
Remove old HDD and put new HDD in its place.
Start machine and boot into OS.

Migrate Easy only appears to do cloning, whereas True Image also performs automated backups.

martian_aphid · 3 Apr 2010 at 15:34

Thanks a lot for the run through bremen, looks simpler than I had imagined. I just wanted to clarify the process; the main idea of cloning is to get back up and running asap. Just wanted to know what to expect beforehand so I don't run up against things I haven't anticipated.

I see the extra backup functionality that True Image has now, was only interested in the cloning aspect but I may as well check out the True Image trial and see how it goes.

Thanks for the help guys, fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

cheechm · 3 Apr 2010 at 17:58

Just used Acronis because I could get a free copy from WDC, however just a note: if you have two WDC drives in a RAID array, they won't be recognised as WDC drives (which is required for Acronis to work) but will be recognised in the cloning procedure.

I just successfully did it using Acronis from two 500gb in RAID0 array, to a single 500gb, and it was easy as 1, 2, 3. Technically the desktop program works like the boot program, as you have to restart the computer as Acronis runs before Vista is booted. Didn't need to do a start up repair.

HTH

martian_aphid · 4 Apr 2010 at 15:48

Glad to hear it was a successful process cheechm. Not doing anything with RAID atm, just a disk to disk clone but I'll bear that in mind if I get time to explore RAID in the future. Thanks again.

Devrij · 4 Apr 2010 at 15:58

I was wondering a few of the same things, so I'm glad this thread came up. I vaguely remember something about the boot partition in W7 (usually around 100MB?)needing to be included when cloning the drive or you'll need that windows repair disc. Please correct me if I'm wrong though!

drunkenmaster · 4 Apr 2010 at 18:29

http://www.xxclone.com/ixclnfaq.htm

I don't know if that will work for you, I happened to just be reading up on a good way to clone a fresh install of windows with a few normal apps installed, so I can restore it as and when I want.

Apparently, from what I read, this app has the options to fix a new drive, make it bootable and some other things. It seems to be free for a basic back up, but subscription needed for regular backups, should work fine for free as a one off clone.

Someone said they'd install fresh, install whatever they always have, clean it up, then use that app to make a clone bootable image on a usb stick. Then if the install gets hosed, or they just want to reinstall they load windows from the cloned copy, and repeat the process backwards, so basically copy the it back to the original drives.

Only thing is I'm looking for a way to back up my raided ssd OS install, and reinstall it quickly and easily, but so it will work in raid which is a bit of a pain.