Transfer Vista to Alternate Drive

[oblivion92]

Hey guys, so my primary 750GB hard drive (which Vista is booted off of) began making clicking noises so I quickly transferred all my data off onto an external drive assuming that a swift death was imminent. Now I have a dilemma... I have a 320GB HDD that is faster than my original and I would like to boot off of that drive. Since now I have my main drive backed up I'd like to start from scratch on the 320; however, I don't see a way around the fact that I would have a 750GB image with only a 320GB drive. I don't suppose there's a way to image only the important bits? Haha.

When I first bought the computer I made the recovery disks (3 DVDs) assuming that I would be able to boot off of them and install Windows on another HDD; however, when I select the disks in the boot menu, absolutely nothing happens. I'm assuming that I have to have a version of windows running in order to run the disks.

Along that train of thought, would it be possible to run a Hirens boot disk on the empty drive and run the recovery disk? I'm assuming here that the HP recovery disks really do have windows on it (I mean what the heck else would fit on 3 DVDs???)

I'm at a loss guys, any ideas?

Thanks for your help!
-Mark

 

[oblivion256]

Bump!

Sorry, I hate to be a pest, but any ideas guys?

-Mark

 

[nhasian]

use clonzilla!

 

[oblivion256]

I'm borrowing a buddies 750GB hard drive and the plan is to make an image of my main HD, execute it on the extra 750GB drive and then run the restore disks. Then finally image the restored 750GB drive and transfer it to my smaller 320GB drive.

Thanks for the tip though - clonzilla it is!

 

[nhasian]

great, if he issue is resolved, please mark the thread solved.