Clone Vista onto new larger drive

[jdr.smith]

OK,

Hard drive is full, I've bought a larger new replacement drive,
changing from EIDE to SATA into the bargain...

In the old days I would have just reached for my copy of Norton Ghost,
a short while later I had an exact copy of my original drive on a
larger drive, swap them over, job done.

Now...Vista...where do we start with that ?

Anyone any recomendations on any cloning software to use with Vista.

I am aware that I may need to speak to Microsoft to get it re-
activated afterwards, but hey that's no great shakes is it.

What I'm after is a cloning program for Vista, ideally a free one..?

Jim.

 

[Malke]

OK,

Hard drive is full, I've bought a larger new replacement drive,
changing from EIDE to SATA into the bargain...

In the old days I would have just reached for my copy of Norton Ghost,
a short while later I had an exact copy of my original drive on a
larger drive, swap them over, job done.

Now...Vista...where do we start with that ?

Anyone any recomendations on any cloning software to use with Vista.

I am aware that I may need to speak to Microsoft to get it re-
activated afterwards, but hey that's no great shakes is it.

What I'm after is a cloning program for Vista, ideally a free one..?

You can still use Ghost (probably not your old copy, however) or Acronis
True Image (my preference) with Vista. I don't know why you think you
can't. It works fine. The tricksy bit will be to go from IDE to SATA. I
know it can be done, but someone else will need to tell you how.

Malke

 

[cheen]

Acronis true Image 11x the latest version always... ROCKS!

I hate anything to do with norton.. even the new norton 14 thats coming out
looks crappy (screenshots)
http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/Symantec-Norton-Ghost-Screenshot-29350.html

 

[Bob Harris]

If this were XP, you would need to do a repair installation of XP after the
cloning in order to install SATA drivers, since XP has not native support
for SATA. And, to do that repair you would need a retail XP CD, the same
one that installed originally, or a new CD with associated unused license.

Try a few newsgroup/google searches to see whether Vista is any smarter, or
how to procede

 

[AlexB]

If this were XP, you would need to do a repair installation of XP after
the cloning in order to install SATA drivers, since XP has not native
support for SATA. And, to do that repair you would need a retail XP CD,
the same one that installed originally, or a new CD with associated unused
license.

Try a few newsgroup/google searches to see whether Vista is any smarter,
or how to procede

 

[AlexB]

Bob hi,

Could you elaborate on that. I am just curious. I installed XP on a few
machines in the past with MB that does not even have IEDE support. They had
only SATA slots. The MB was definitely designed for XP but at the time I
purchased it from DELL I wanted Win2K badly (it was a bad idea which I later
came to regret). So, they installed Win2K on 3 machines which I later had to
abandon. I installed XP on same SATA drives then Vista.

 

[forty-nine]

Bob hi,

Could you elaborate on that. I am just curious. I installed XP on a few
machines in the past with MB that does not even have IEDE support. They
had only SATA slots. The MB was definitely designed for XP but at the time
I purchased it from DELL I wanted Win2K badly (it was a bad idea which I
later came to regret). So, they installed Win2K on 3 machines which I
later had to abandon. I installed XP on same SATA drives then Vista.

The Dell Installation disk have SATA drivers...that's why.
My Dell XP SP2 installs just fine on SATA.

Try "bottom posting"......it 's the RAGE

 

[AlexB]

Thanks a lot for the tip yesterday. I installed the driver for nVidia 7600
with no problem. It allowed me to finish off the last piece of work that
tied me to XP so far. Settled my last accounts with the old OS.

I should also give my thanks to DanS. You both have good awareness.

What is wrong with top posting? I am personally quite irritated when I have
to go down the long window and see what is down there. I would prefer
everyone would do it. Let's set a new rule: everyone top post from today.

I am kind of serious believe it or not.

 

[forty-nine]

Thanks a lot for the tip yesterday. I installed the driver for nVidia 7600
with no problem. It allowed me to finish off the last piece of work that
tied me to XP so far. Settled my last accounts with the old OS.

I should also give my thanks to DanS. You both have good awareness.

What is wrong with top posting? I am personally quite irritated when I
have to go down the long window and see what is down there. I would prefer
everyone would do it. Let's set a new rule: everyone top post from today.

I am kind of serious believe it or not.

Does this.

Top posting.

No sense.

It really makes.

When you bottom post , its like reading a book from the beginning.

When you top post, its good for reading one liners...but you lose the "jist"
of the conversation.

NoStop top post....DON'T BE A COMMIE !

 

[NoStop]

hehe, OK.

Cheers.

Does this.

Top posting.

No sense.

It really makes.

When you bottom post , its like reading a book from the beginning.

When you top post, its good for reading one liners...but you lose the
"jist" of the conversation.

NoStop top post....DON'T BE A COMMIE !

--
Frank's Brain Activity Plotted (watch the red line):
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i4/Astronomy2/PreformanceMonitor.jpg

How a Windows Firewall protects your computer:
http://tinyurl.com/2z9qdn

AlexB (another Vista expert): "I ruined at least 5 or 6 installations of
Vista before I realized what was going on."

Contact AlexB to find out how to "delouse" your Vista system.

 

[Gary Mount]

If you have Vista Ultimate, you could do a complete pc backup, then replace
your hard drive, then do a restore onto the new larger drive.

 

[jdr.smith]

If you have Vista Ultimate, you could do a complete pc backup, then replace
your hard drive, then do a restore onto the new larger drive.

I've got Windows Vista Business, so I am trying the Complete PC
Backup / Restore option.

So far so good.

I performed a Complete PC backup onto my external USB HDD.

Then shut down, removed my internal EIDE 80GB HDD and attached the new
SATA 250GB HDD

Then inserted the Windows Vista DVD and booted to that and selected
the repair option.

Then selected the Complete PC Restore option.

Went throught the steps, not a lot you can change, most if not all
fields are locked.

Started the restore, and just as it was about to kick off it said that
it could not complete due to no drives being found or drives of a
different size to the original backup !!!! eh..????

So I went back a step and dropped down to the MS-DOS box.. Uhh..seems
that it's made my Maxtor external USB drive the C:\ drive ?

OK, restart without the Maxtor connected, then attached that after
everything has got going...OK that doesn;t work, now cannot see the
Maxtor drive at all.

Back to the original setup again...

...weird...this time it's doing it OK....though I think it's going to
restore the backup to an 80GB partition..I really don't want this, I'd
like the whole C:\ drive to be 250GB..

Anyone had any experience with Vista's Complete PC backup and more
importantly a Complete PC Restore.

Ideally I want the backup to restore onto the new drive but using the
entire disk.

Dontcha just love Vista eh !

Methinks I might be doing a fresh install and then doing a File and
Settings Transfer... :-(

Jim.

 

[jdr.smith]

Ideally I want the backup to restore onto the new drive but using the

entire disk.

Dontcha just love Vista eh !

Methinks I might be doing a fresh install and then doing a File and
Settings Transfer... :-(

Jim.

Then again I suppose I could always extend the disk partition to
include the remaining space with that new natty Vista tool.(perhaps
that's why it's included...) .would I trust the system after
that...Hmmm...

Jim.

 

[jdr.smith]

Then again I suppose I could always extend the disk partition to

include the remaining space with that new natty Vista tool.(perhaps
that's why it's included...) .would I trust the system after
that...Hmmm...

Jim.

OK it's finished restoring...

At first it wouldn't boot so I turned off and booted back to the DVD
disk and ran the Repair option, selected the C:\Windows folder to
repair.

It said that I should disconnect my USB camera and try again ???? (no
camera connected obviously)

So I disconnected the external USB and also removed the DVD disk and
then it booted up OK.

Seemed to take a long time booting into my profile, but once it had
got in it said that it needed a restart.
Did that booted back up and then all looked OK, albeit it was on an
80GB partition as expected.


OK, lets extend the volume then using the new option in Disk
Management..
Did that, added the extra 159GB, job done. now have one single 232GB
volume

So all seems to have worked, even went from EIDE to SATA as well, I
wasn't counting on that working !

Several trial reboots later all seems OK. Wonder how long that will
last ;-)

I've have a bit of a play around before I commit to using it.

Anyone think of anything to look out for ?

So seems that you can do it with just the native bits and bobs.

Jim.

 

[the wharf rat]

Ideally I want the backup to restore onto the new drive but using the
entire disk.

Ok, try this:

Install the sata drive on your motherboard, don't bother putting it
in the case. Format it the way you want. Now *copy* c: to whatever drive
letter windows assigns.

Turn it off, remove the current C drive and properly install the
new sata drive. Boot the windows cd and repair your installation.

If windows can't see the sata drive then you need to load sata
drivers which will be available from your motherboard vendor.

 

[Cameron Snyder]

Is there a reason you didn't merely attach your new drive, then copy *.* old
drive to new drive, then remove old drive and boot from the new drive?

 

[jdr.smith]

Is there a reason you didn't merely attach your new drive, then copy *.* old
drive to new drive, then remove old drive and boot from the new drive?

Wanna run that one past me Cameron ?...how is that gonna work then..

Jim.

 

[jdr.smith]

        Ok, try this:

        Install the sata drive on your motherboard, don't bother putting it
in the case.  Format it the way you want.  Now *copy* c: to whatever drive
letter windows assigns.

Am I missing a trick or two here with you guys...what happens to the
literally hundreds of files that are going to come up with access
denied when you are doing this.

I take it you've tried this yourself ?

Jim

 

[Not Me]

Does this.
Top posting.
No sense.
It really makes.
When you bottom post , its like reading a book from the beginning.
When you top post, its good for reading one liners...but you lose the
"jist" of the conversation.

NoStop top post....DON'T BE A COMMIE !

And I thought only Liberals & Democrats top posted...wait, they ARE
Commies...and then there is Frank....

 

[Not Me]

He wants a bootable 'clone' without reinstalling.
Copying the files from one drive to another (then sys'ing the drive) hasn't
worked in a long time.
I had a batch file that I could use in W95/98/ME for that, but it hasn't
worked in XP ever.