How to copy system harddrive to other harddrive!!!

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GamerOC

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Ultimate Geek

#62860 16-Jun-2010 09:18

Good morning,

I just wondering if anyone here would have knowlege on copying harddrive to another harddrive.

Couldl you please help me, I would like to know if is possible to make an identical copy of the system harddrive and the programs intalled into another harddrive and if the new harddrive would it boot.

what software should i use if possible?

cheers,

Andy

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#342205 16-Jun-2010 09:37

If you are just changing HDD's and nothing else (say upgrading from a 80GB HDD to a 500GB drive) then cloning software should do the job without any problems. Something along the lines of Ghost or Acronis True Image (my preference) will do it. Acronis has a 30 day trial so should give you plenty of time :)

But always backup your valuable data (ie: photos, documents) when performing this sort of task as there is always a risk of it failing or (and I have seen it) people accidentally cloning their new empty drive onto the original drive and losing everything :)

XPD / Gavin

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Gordy7

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#342212 16-Jun-2010 10:17

HD Clone is really easy.
Free for whole HD cloning.
Graphical interface.

Cheers

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

GamerOC

439 posts

Ultimate Geek

#342252 16-Jun-2010 11:27

thanks guys,

so xpd and gordy7 are you guys saying that i can make a identical copy of my old hard drive windows 7 and programs not data to my new hard drive and it will boot to win7 without need to reinstall?

cheers,

Andy

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#342264 16-Jun-2010 11:41

xpd: If you are just changing HDD's and nothing else (say upgrading from a 80GB HDD to a 500GB drive)

will it boot?

GBristow

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#342272 16-Jun-2010 11:55

Just make sure any clone program you use copies the boot sector across as well. Then, on your first boot, double check the boot order in BIOS (if you're going to be using both hard drives still).

timbosan

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#342276 16-Jun-2010 12:03

GamerOC: thanks guys,

so xpd and gordy7 are you guys saying that i can make a identical copy of my old hard drive windows 7 and programs not data to my new hard drive and it will boot to win7 without need to reinstall?

cheers,

Andy

I did this recently on my Windows Home Server boot drive - changed from a Segate HDD to a WD, and I used CloneZilla which is totally free, boots off a CD and lets you clone HDD to HDD, or even HDD to image.

And yes, the resulting disk was bootable.

On a 1TB drive it did take a few hours, but it was worth it.

Just make REALLY REALLY sure you copy from the right drive otherwise you will overwrite your data with blanks from the new drive!

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xpd

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#342282 16-Jun-2010 12:18

GamerOC: thanks guys,

so xpd and gordy7 are you guys saying that i can make a identical copy of my old hard drive windows 7 and programs not data to my new hard drive and it will boot to win7 without need to reinstall?

cheers,

Andy

It will make an exact clone of whatever you currently have :)

XPD / Gavin

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xpd

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#342283 16-Jun-2010 12:19

joker97:
xpd: If you are just changing HDD's and nothing else (say upgrading from a 80GB HDD to a 500GB drive)

will it boot?

ALways has for me :)
Have read some people say their drive dosent boot, but usually a quick mbr fix sorts that :)

XPD / Gavin

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keewee01

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#342289 16-Jun-2010 12:36

I agree with the comment about backing up important files first!!

I re-partitioned one of my users HD's last week and the software (very reputable software which has worked many, many times before) had an issue AFTER it had done the re-partitioning. Suspect that in reality there was an issue with the disk, but anyway data on the disk was stuffed afterwards. Luckily user keeps almost all work data on the server.

Gordy7

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#342294 16-Jun-2010 13:14

so xpd and gordy7 are you guys saying that i can make a identical copy of my old hard drive windows 7 and programs not data to my new hard drive and it will boot to win7 without need to reinstall?

With HD Clone you can make an identical copy.
HD size must be the same or larger than the original.
If the new drive is larger you can make the clone partition the same size as the original or larger up to the new hard drive size.

Yes, it will boot as if it was the original.

Cheers

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

GamerOC

439 posts

Ultimate Geek

#342339 16-Jun-2010 15:10

Great to see all your relplies and thank you,

last question which one is better for a copy image from ata drive to scsi drive, and can i make image and install it to other drive while using windows or i have to go DOS?

cheers,

Andy

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wellygary

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#342350 16-Jun-2010 15:27

Make sure Windows can see the SCSI drive before you try to clone the OS from the ATA, otherwise it might refuse to boot from it once it is made the master drive.

timbosan

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#342357 16-Jun-2010 16:09

GamerOC: Great to see all your relplies and thank you,

last question which one is better for a copy image from ata drive to scsi drive, and can i make image and install it to other drive while using windows or i have to go DOS?

cheers,

Andy

I would be carefull here, SCSI and ATA (and S-ATA) use different drivers in Windows - which means the system may not boot if there is no driver for the SCSI controller.

GamerOC

439 posts

Ultimate Geek

#342458 16-Jun-2010 21:39

Hi there and thanks for replies,

I install it the drivers for the drive and i can use it in windows 7 as a second drive (SCSI)
but when i used the Acronis 2010 it sees the drive and let me select the first drive copy from and when go next step to select drive destination both drives are visible but does not let me select. on their site it states that it is SCSI compatible.. is there another software that can handle SCSI.

cheers,

Andy

timbosan

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#342537 17-Jun-2010 08:33

GamerOC: Hi there and thanks for replies,

I install it the drivers for the drive and i can use it in windows 7 as a second drive (SCSI)
but when i used the Acronis 2010 it sees the drive and let me select the first drive copy from and when go next step to select drive destination both drives are visible but does not let me select. on their site it states that it is SCSI compatible.. is there another software that can handle SCSI.

cheers,

Andy

I just had a look on CloneZilla's site, and they state it is SCSI (and RAID) compatible, plus being free there is no cost or 'demo' only version. You could try that.

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