good HDD copying software?

[Nate Nagel]

Hi,

was given an old laptop by my fiancee and I suspect a bad HDD. I
purchased a new HDD on closeout (it's EIDE, looks like they won't be
available much longer...) and would like to try it with some flavor of
Linux just to see if I can. Now that I get it home I'm thinking that
this one should go in *my* laptop and I should try my old HDD in hers -
this one is actually larger. Problem is the new drive did not come with
the usual drive-copying software to allow it to exactly replace an old
one - I guess manufacturers figure that it's OK for end users to mess
with desktops but laptops should be serviced by professionals only? So
anyway is there some good free utility that I can download that will
allow me to do this?

thanks

nate

 

[who?]

Hi,

was given an old laptop by my fiancee and I suspect a bad HDD. I
purchased a new HDD on closeout (it's EIDE, looks like they won't be
available much longer...) and would like to try it with some flavor of
Linux just to see if I can. Now that I get it home I'm thinking that this
one should go in *my* laptop and I should try my old HDD in hers - this
one is actually larger. Problem is the new drive did not come with the
usual drive-copying software to allow it to exactly replace an old one - I
guess manufacturers figure that it's OK for end users to mess with
desktops but laptops should be serviced by professionals only? So anyway
is there some good free utility that I can download that will allow me to
do this?

thanks

nate

free and open source: http://www.clonezilla.org/