Transfer my O.S / programs etc to new drive

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PrimerPlus

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Apr 27, 2014
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Hello, so I am in the process of ordering my new hdd
is this a good one? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B4QESVQ/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1HVK77EVRX3AF3A3V6MC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

I want it to be fast. I don't want to pay for a 1tb SSD too much money.
I may add a 128gb ssd in the future.

So anyways, since the hdd in my laptop is failing I need to transfer its contents and O.S over to my new hdd.

Questions
1) Will transferring it over cause it copy or imitate the bad sectors on the failing drive?
Or do i need to even copy / clone my drive?

2) I have a 1TB external USB drive that i was wanting to know if I can use to clone my current drive to transfer back to the drive?

3) My Laptop came with some disks, but I do not see a disk labeled for Windows 7. I do have a windows key on the bottom of my laptop. How will I get my software to run my HP laptop from the disks that came with my laptop onto the new hard drive? Do i just pop the disks into the drive with the new drive installed and remove the old drive?

I can still use the laptop currently and it has Recovery (D:) 2.49Gb free of 22.6GB

I am not worried about the personal files, games etc. I can reinstall fresh if need be. I don't want to get a corrupted hard drive because of those bad sectors.

However I am worried about not being able to have my windows 7 os, as well as the hp software that came with the computer. Like I said I do have disks that came with my laptop.

Thanks for the help.


If that drive listed is not good or there is a better one that I should get instead let me know.

Product Name: HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC
Product Number: PJ123PA#ABA
Memory 6GB
Windows 7 Home Premium
64BIT OS
Intel Core i7 Q720 1.60GHz 1.60GHz
 

orlbuckeye

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Well the easiest way and I've done it 3 times successfully is to purchase a SSD kit. The kit comes with a USB external drive case and Acronis True Image cloning software. I did this with a new laptop. I installed my apps and then cloned by putting the new SSD in the external case. I cloned the 750 HD with about 70GB to the 120 Gb SSD. I then moved the HD into the second bay and both worked with the SSD as C drive and the HD became E. The next time I purchased a bigger SSD 240 gb and I did the same thing and poped the 240 in an it booted up correctly. The last time I purchased a 1TB hd to replace the HD and I cloned it but when I did it only created a 750 gb partitian. I had to download a free partian manager and I extend the partitian size to 1 TB and all is well.
 

PrimerPlus

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Apr 27, 2014
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I am not buying a SSD right now.
I have a brand new 1tb hdd.
How do I put windows 7 on it without an actual windows 7 install disc? I have the windows 7 key on bottom of my laptop.
I have some discs that came with my laptop.
I have a recovery partition on my current hard drive.
 

orlbuckeye

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Well you can create the restore disks which are typically created using a function key (depending on the computer make). It doesn't matter if you have a SSD or HD they both use a SATA interface. If you use the restore disk it won't copy the programs it will only put windows on the new drive the way the laptop was done in the factory. If you want OS and program you need to do what i typed in the last post (use imaging software).
 

Ipaqman

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May 5, 2014
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I recently moved the operating system from a HD to an SSD using the free Macrium Reflect backup software. I imaged my older HD to an image file. I created a USB Reflect rescue USB boot drive. I booted from the Reflect rescue drive and restored the image from an external drive to the SSD drive. On my Yoga 2 13 notebook, I kept both drives in the notebook and set the BIOS to boot from the new drive.

The tricky part is to expand your Windows drive now if you have a recovery partition that is positioned after the Windows drive.
 

orlbuckeye

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I didn't have to mess with BIOS. I put the new SSD in bay 1 which automatically C and moved the HD (Old c) to the second bay and it gave the drive the letter E. So after I cloned the drive the SSD had C (boot drive) D (recovery partition) E HD F was the CD/DVD. The system uses G for my external drive. I have a Micro SD card in the printer so that shows up also.
 

pcmagic

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Apr 16, 2013
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Kinda late to jump in on this but incase anyone else reads this, I wanted to make sure every knows you can get the recovery disk set from the manufacturer.

If the manufacturer doesnt have it, you can easily order it from a third party. When customers bring us computers like this with no discs to install the operating system and drivers we order them from recovery-disks.com

The HP Pavilion dv7 recovery disk is very popular actually. HP sold thousands of those computers and we work on them regularly in our shop. They're good computers too if you take care of them. if you need to buy a set and HP doesnt have them, http://www.recovery-disks.com/hp-pavilion-dv7-entertainment-notebook-pc.html and you can place your order for the set.
 
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