Shenan Stanley said:
Search using Google!
http://www.google.com/
(How-to:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html )
Searching for "What is a Disk Imaging Utility" comes back with:
(For example)
http://www.pcanswers.co.uk/tutorial...leid=11179&subsectionid=607&subsubsectionid=0
Which says:
-----
All disk imaging tools work from the same principle. Instead of copying
data from a drive one file at a time, an imaging utility will create a
binary image of a partition by copying data from the drive sector by
sector. In other words, whatever is on the drive at the time it is imaged
will be stored in an image file in the same manner. When an image is
restored to a partition, the contents of the image file are returned to
the partition one sector at a time. In this way, disk imaging is almost
like taking a picture of the physical partition and storing the
information as one large file.
-----
Some examples of well known/well tested imaging utilities:
-----
Symantec/Norton Ghost
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/
Acronis True Image
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage
BootItT NG
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html
-----
Those are - by no means - the only drive imaging utilities. If you had
been replacing a desktop hard drive - I wold have said to use the utility
that comes with the retail boxed hard drive you would likely be buying. I
cannot say the same utility comes with the 2.5" laptop drives.. However -
it can probably be downloaded from the corresponding manufacturer and used
to transfer the operating system and all files to the new drive.
As for the "smart" comment - it was/is not directed at you - it is part of
my signature - in every post/reply I make on the Microsoft newsgroups.
parlins:
Let me supplement Shenan's comments with some additional comments which I
trust will be of some help to you...
I would agree that for your objective a disk imaging program (such as the
Acronis program that Shenan mentioned) would probably be the best course of
action for you. You would use that program to "clone" the contents of your
present 30 GB HD to another larger HD and then replace the present HD with
the new one. The cloned HD would be, for all practical purposes, an exact
duplicate of the source disk, including the operating system, all of the
installed programs and created data, in short - everything that's on your
present HD. The cloning process itself is reasonably simple &
straightforward to undertake.
Perhaps the most practical way for you to achieve all this is to purchase a
USB external HD enclosure designed to contain laptop (2 1/2") hard drives.
Then you would install the the new HD in the enclosure and use the disk
cloning software to undertake the disk cloning process. Following that you
would uninstall the new HD from its enclosure and install it in your laptop
replacing the original HD. Then install the old HD in the USB enclosure and
use it as a backup device with your disk cloning software. The HD
install/uninstall process involving the USB enclosure is relatively simple
and should pose no problem for you.
There are USB adapters on the market that allow you to use a 2 1/2" HD as a
USB device. They're basically simple devices and cheaper than a USB
enclosure but in our experience can be erratic in operation. And they do not
provide any physical security for the drive as does a USB enclosure.
See
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...k=all&N=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=15&Go.y=28
re these USB devices.
Don't worry about "empty" space on your new larger HD. If, for example, you
clone the contents of your present 30 GB HD (let's say there's 20 GB of
data) to a 60 GB HD, the process simply clones (copies) the 20 GB over to
the new HD's 60 GB partition. No new partition is created although some disk
imaging programs have the capability to create partitions should the user
desire such.
Anna
