Clone old HD to bigger new one?

[OliverS]

XP Pro SP2

I have a notebook, and want to replace the hard drive with a bigger HD.

Is there a reliable way to clone the HD so I don't have to reinstall
everything? I've heard about Acronis True Image 8.0. Any news on that, or
any other?

Thanks.
Ken

I just did that with a desktop computer. I replaced the 40 GB Maxtor
drive, which was whining, with an 80 GB Samsung drive. I first used
Norton Ghost 9 with Win XP Pro SP2 to backup the C drive to an external
Maxtor OneTouch drive. I then checked the system settings to make sure
that the system would boot from a CD. After replacing the hard drive, I
booted with the Norton Ghost Recovery Disk (actually, the Install disk
doubling as an RD). I then went through the advanced recovery options
to restore the C:\ drive from the backup. It is important to read the
instructions concerning the restore options. There are certain options
which must be checked to make the new HD bootable.

I have had only one problem. Only 40 GB of the new drive is allocated.
Apparently there is an option to maximize the new drive to fill the
entire space, but as I recall that option was whited out.

Norton Ghost is about $70 retail, with a possible $20 rebate if you have
another Symantec Product. You may be able to download Ghost at the
discounted rate, if you have a Symantec product installed. If you do
this be sure you are ordering Ghost only and not the support package as
well.

Ghost can also be used to make periodic backups.
--
Cheers! OliverS
When replying personally, remove "_nospam_"

"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of
the human race." HG Wells

 

[Ken]

XP Pro SP2

I have a notebook, and want to replace the hard drive with a bigger HD.

Is there a reliable way to clone the HD so I don't have to reinstall
everything? I've heard about Acronis True Image 8.0. Any news on that, or
any other?

Thanks.
Ken

 

[george]

XP Pro SP2

I have a notebook, and want to replace the hard drive with a bigger HD.

Is there a reliable way to clone the HD so I don't have to reinstall
everything? I've heard about Acronis True Image 8.0. Any news on that,
or any other?

Thanks.
Ken

Acronis TrueImage does a fine job. Used it myself on several occasions.
Partition Magic (www.symantec.com) does too.
Unfortunately those are $$$-ware programs.
There may be free-ware ones around, but I've never bothered to find out.

george

 

[Ken]

The programs you talk about clone the operating system also?

Oh, and another thing -- if I'm replacing the notebook's hard drive, how is
the old (or the new, or whichever drive is "outside the box") operated???)

Thanks.
Ken

 

[george]

Cloning is the commonly referred to as the process of taking an exact
(binary) copy of the disk onto another disk.
The programs I mentioned allow you to 'resize' (from small disk onto large
disk) in the process.
So whatever is on your disk (OS, Apps, files, games, you name it) will end
up on your new disk.
I'd suggest when you've 'cloned' onto the new disk that you put your new
disk on the flat-cable connector your old disk was on.
That way you will avoid problems with the OS addressing the wrong disk.
You can put your new disk into the system as an additional disk, either with
its own cable or as a second disk on the existing cable your new disk is on.

I'm not sure what you mean by your other remark.
Am I to infer that you are talking about an externally cased disk?
If that is the case, your OS won't work, because Windows does not boot its
OS from a removable disk.
Kind'o stands to reason.
If it needs to address the external disk it has to have a means of doing so,
which is an operational OS.
Chicken and Egg problem.

hth

george

 

[george]

Ken, you might want to read this
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=418&page=2 (if you haven't
already).
There are freeware cloning programs around as you'll see, but they all seem
to have the limitation of NOT being able to resize in the process.

george

 

[MoiMeme]

One remark :
- Partition Magic dose not clone , nor make / restore images
It is used to create and manager partitions
- Symantec Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image allow to make / restore
partition images.
Acronis is very good, reliable.
New version of Ghost is very similar, but I have never used it

Make image of old drive
Install new one
Partition it first, with one partition set as active, bootable one
Restore the image to that partition

Regarding access to old one : only possible if you build it in an extranl HD
case ( USB 2 for example)
If you only have one slot for a HD ( don't have a notebook, but imagine you
cant build two drives in one ? ), you might need to save the image to a
network drive, boot using the Acronis CD.
It will allow to restore the image from the network.

Good luck

 

[Ken]

I'll explain my "other remark," but I think I may have figure it out:

If I remove the old HD (which I want to copy) from my notebook, and install
the new HD, how would I be able to make a copy of the old one -- I won't be
installed in, or connected to, a computer.

Would I be able to first copy it to an external drive (before I take it
out), and then copy it from the external drive to the new one?

Thanks.
Ken

 

[george]

You're correct.
My bad.
I meant, of course, Ghost, but that meaning doesn't come accross if you name
the wrong product, right? :-((
Thanks for catching it.

george

 

[george]

Ken,

Rather then first *not copying* but ghosting (cloning) it to an external
drive, why not do this:
-hook the new drive up to the machine on the second IDE controller with a
flat cable
-clone it
-switch drives on the ide controller (new to location of old)

If you want to have fall-back copy, put that one on the external drive
before cloning to the new

george

And sorry for the bad Partition Magic advice . Should have said Ghost. (Same
vendor)

 

[MoiMeme]

Right. Same vendor ... now since Symantec have acquired PowerQuest with
their DriveImage ( new Ghost is more a driveimage "clone" than a ghost
update) , and Partition Magic ( which hasn't really changed from that new
"owner"). Hope "Symantec"-ization of these two good products will not
transform them into heavy resource hogs ..