Transfer harddrive + OS

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Shootz

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I want to transfer all my files to a new harddrive; including the OS. Would cloning and using an enclosure be the best method to do this or is there a simpler way?
 
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giantbucket
if you're cloning, you'd need the new drive (obviously), the application to do it (something like Acronis TrueImage), and some time. if your computer can accommodate both drives, then you don't need a separate enclosure - just stuff them both inside the PC and start the clone. if you're on a laptop then yeah you'd need an enclosure.

i think you'd need to make sure that both old and new hard drive have the same interface (both are IDE, or both are SATA), so that you can easily swap in the new drive once the clone is done.

we did stuff like this at work for a few old machines (migrated from HDD to SSD), and it's quite simple with the proper program (we used Ghost)
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Shootz

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I want to keep all my system settings/etc though, so I am guessing I am just left with the option of cloning.

So my question I guess then is regarding the process of doing this; I would need a new hard drive as well as an enclosure device to make that hard drive temporarily external to copy all my files over and do the cloning, then I just put my new hard drive where the old one was and hook it up to whatever SATA cable it was hooked up to and that should work?
 
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giantbucket

giantbucket

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if you're cloning, you'd need the new drive (obviously), the application to do it (something like Acronis TrueImage), and some time. if your computer can accommodate both drives, then you don't need a separate enclosure - just stuff them both inside the PC and start the clone. if you're on a laptop then yeah you'd need an enclosure.

i think you'd need to make sure that both old and new hard drive have the same interface (both are IDE, or both are SATA), so that you can easily swap in the new drive once the clone is done.

we did stuff like this at work for a few old machines (migrated from HDD to SSD), and it's quite simple with the proper program (we used Ghost)
 
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Shootz

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Ah okay that makes sense yeah it's a desktop so there should be an additional harddrive slot and sata cable to pop it into.

Then I would boot up on the old hard drive; and do the cloning with the cloning program to move the OS over and copy/pasting for the files themselves (not the windows files) to move the files? Or does cloning copy the OS and all the files? Also by Ghost are you talking about Norton ghost? I would imagine I can just use a shareware version of that to do the cloning?

 
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giantbucket

giantbucket

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if your current HDD is just one partition with OS and files, and your new HDD is at least the same size or larger, then a clone would basically replicate everything, whether it's Win OS files or some PDF you downloaded or a JPEG from your photo trip last year. it'll be like putting your HDD on a photocopier - it won't discriminate.

(yeah, Norton Ghost - there is likely a nice free/share alternative but i have no specific recommendations)
 
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