[Help] in Cloning C drive .

fleng

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Mar 24, 2007
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18,510
Hi guys, I need some help on cloning my C drive. I have a 500gb new HD and I wanna clone the O/s and progs in my old C drive which is an 80 gig.

Question is, what is the best freeware cloning software I can use and should I do it using an external HD casing for the 500gb in cloning since my tower is already having 2 hd (and can only fit 2 hd) or whatever is the proper way in my situation.

Thanks alot for the help in advance!
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
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If you just got a new HD, check the manufacturer's website first. Some have free downloadable software for just this purpose. But often it will only work on a destination drive made by that company. So, for example, Seagate will let you download a software package that does all kinds of good stuff, including completely cloning your old drive to your new one and setting it ready to take over as the Boot Drive in your system, but only if your new drive is made by them.

Be aware of an important trick for such a large drive. You can only use a drive over 137 GB as a SINGLE volume or partition (if that's what you want) IF both your HDD controller and your Operating System support 48-bit LBA. Now, most recent Ultra ATA controllers, and ALL SATA controllers give you the hardware support needed. On the OS side, Windows XP original did not, but Service Pack 1 and 2 both do. For Win 2000 I think it became available with SP4. If you don't have the Service Pack installed to give you 48-bit LBA support, download and update you OS first.

THEN you need this trick. For Seagate's software (and I suspect many others), if you run the software from a removable drive like a floppy or CD-ROM, the software has no knowledge of your OS's capabilities. In that scenario it will (to protect you) refuse to partition over 137 GB. You can always make several partitions, of course. BUT if you INSTALL the software on your existing system first it can determine the OS's ability. You run it from there, and it will be happy to partition a new drive to any size up to max.

You may have to look around a little in the menus, but this kind of software will partition the drive for you to the size you specify, then format it, then copy EVERYTHING from your old drive to your new one, making the new one bootable in the process. It does not matter that the drives' sizes are different, and it does not matter who made the original drive - it only cares whose destination drive it is working with. At the end, all you need do is install the new drive in the machine in its final location and set your BIOS to boot from there.

Since your tower can handle only 2 drives at once, I suggest you temporarily remove the one you do NOT boot from now. Install the new drive in its place. Make sure the OS is updated, download and install the software from the manufacturer's website, then run it and clone from C: to new D:. When done, replace the old 80 GB C: drive with your new 500 GB one, then decide which of your original 2 drives you want to install as the new D:.