Ghosting a notebook drive

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kiddissh

16 posts

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#34886 31-May-2009 16:23

Hi ,

I currently have a larger 2.5inch drive for my notebook ( as I wish to upgrade my current one ) disk space obviously .

I have a few questions around ghosting etc

Do I just use a programe ( freeware or other recomendations please ) to create an image file

** note the image file , do i need to say create this to an external hard drive ? ..

the main question is once i have inserted my new hdd , how is the drive goiing to boot or do i need to create
a bootable image .iso ?? if so what compression should i use to fit this onto a dvd or will it require splitting the image file ?

is it posible to create a bootable image .iso and run it via usb drive ?

thanks

sbiddle

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#220164 31-May-2009 17:10

The simplest way is to mount the drive as an external USB drive (you'll obviously need a 2.5" enclosure) and then use either the HDD manufacturers software or something such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost to copy all the data across.

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dontpanic42

1574 posts

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#220166 31-May-2009 17:24

I assume what you are trying to do is take an image of your current installation on your current smaller drive, and place that same image on the newer bigger drive.

You can do this by using a program call Macrium Reflect. There is a free version ( link ) that will pretty much do anything you will need.

You can run this program from within your current Windows installation and tell it to create an image file of your current smaller drive, to an External HDD.

You can then create a bootable cd to boot the Macrium Reflect program after you have created your image, and after you have installed your new HDD. Using this boot cd you can choose your image file from your external HDD and then tell the program to restrore that image to the newer drive. You can also tell it to restore the Master Boot Record so that it will boot into windows immediately.

There are different compression options that you can use, and you can also tell it to only copy the used sectors of the drive, therefor saving more space. You can split the files into specified sized chunks, but I am unsure if you directly write them to a dvd.

You can also mount the image of your drive to a virtual drive in windows and explore like a normal drive.

If you are noticing that your current windows install is slow, I would recommend a complete re-install, and then use the image of your old drive as a virtual drive to "pick and choose" what you want to put back onto your new install. It is always a good opportunity to do a "clean" install when you have the chance, or time.
Note: If your notebook has a recovery partition, make sure you create some recovery DVDs before you get rid of your old drive, or do the same thing and create an image of your recovery partition to put onto your new drive.
If you are not confident with the "clean" install method, then a complete image copy will work fine.

Post again if you have anymore questions

Ragnor

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#220260 1-Jun-2009 01:01

+1 for Macrium Reflect great program

rphenix

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#221964 5-Jun-2009 12:46

or the OSS way is to use a bootable clonezilla cd it works with NTFS and most other popular partitions just fine you can compress to a USB drive and later make a customised recovery DVD if you want.

I tend to use this for all new pc's I build for friends/family saves time when they trash the OS :)

Pskonejott

24 posts

Geek

#222129 6-Jun-2009 03:48

Symantec Ghost works fine too, and you would just image one drive directly to the other skipping actially creating an image file that needs to be restored. You will need to do a full disk ghost, which should automatically copy the boot sector info over. If you ghost a single partition (even the one you are booting off), Ghost will not copy the boot sector data and the drive will not be bootable.

kiddissh

16 posts

Geek

#222246 6-Jun-2009 15:32

Okay so I'm still having trouble ,

Have used Macrium to create an image file and copied to this the disk using a portable 2.5 device which i slipped the drive into ..

So now the image file is on the new desired 2.5 inch drive / I have also used used Macrium to create a disc as others above mentioned

the disc boots into dos mode and contains the following file from Macrium

Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\PEBuilder\Macrium\Files

The only .exe I copied onto the bootable disc is ReflectPE.exe

Like I say this works and opens dos command line table ...

Okay forgive me , I not a DOS guru and google offered no soloutions but now how the heck do I load / boot into the image file so that XP and the image file just loads moving forward ..??

Hope the above makes sense , appreciate the help this far

Cheers

dontpanic42

1574 posts

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#222254 6-Jun-2009 15:50

I don't think you have done it right.

From within the Macrium Reflect program while you are in WinXP, you have to go to "Other Tasks --> Create Rescue CD".

This will bring up a prompt window which will guide you throught the process of creating a bootable Macrium Reflect "rescue CD". This CD will then allow you to boot from the CD, and then you can select the image file that you have created of your old installation. You can then write that image file to your new drive using this rescue CD

Choose the Linux rescue CD option, and then on the second screen within the "rescue CD" wizard click on the advanced button to tick the 'compatibility mode' and 'debug mode' boxes.

To boot from the rescue CD you may have to keep pressing the one of the "F" keys on the keyboard so you can choose to boot from the CD. If you are unsure about what "F" key to press, it should say on the screen as soon as you start your computer up. It is usually "F12" or "F10".