Cloning a HDD

[david1983]

Hi! I've ordered a new HDD and would like to clone, in it's entirety, from my old one to the new one. I have a copy of Norton Ghost and have been told that this would do the job.

Firstly, any experience of doing this? Secondly, is there a better / easier / simpler way od doing this?

I'm going to back up all of my data to my external HDD and de-frag my current HDD before starting the 'clone' and I will only format my old HDD once the new one has been up and running a few days.

Any htoughts, advice or guidance is very appreciated! Thanks, David

 

[RealBeast]

I use Ghost 15 to clone drives all the time. Just use the copy my drive feature. Are you also cloning the OS -- i.e. is it your boot drive? Which OS? Here are the steps for Windows 7 (and make a system repair disk first -- just type that into the start run box and use the wizard to make the CD):

First make the destination drive unallocated by deleting all drive partitions in
disc management (under system management, administrative management control panel)

Create the SPR partition first and then the C: partition with these options:

The Ghost options for SRP (system reserve partition) are

Set Drive Active (for booting OS)

Copy MBR

Destination partition type: Primary

Drive letter of None

The Ghost options for Win7 are

Destination partition type: Primary

Resize drive to fill unallocated space (ONLY if you want to)

Drive letter of None

Don't Disable SmartSector copying for either

 

[david1983]

Hi Realbeast - thank you for the detail of your reply! It is my boot drive, and my only drive, and the OS is Windows 7 (64-bit) that I'm looking to clone.

I take it by destination drive you mean the new one? How large would the SRP need to be and woudl I need to set it 'active' so my OS will boot from there when the current HDD is removed? Why would I want to resize drive to fill unallocated space? I'm going from a 500GB spindle drive to a 750GB hybrid drive.

Finally, I take it that the drive letter will be re-allocated as 'C' when I remove me existing HDD and run from teh new one alone? Sorry for so many questions, really don't want to stuff this up!

Thank you again, David

 

[RealBeast]

Ghost will create the correct SRP partition size -- 100mb. Yes the new drive is the destination drive. Yes, the SRP should be set active. If you don't resize the drive then your new drive will have 250GB of unallocated space. Yes, the OS partition on the drive will get labelled as the C drive when you boot from it.

Remember that you will still have the original drive until you reformat it later, so don't worry. It works fine, I've done it dozens of times without any problems. Just follow the copy of my cheat sheet from the first post and insure that you do it in that order. Also, make that system repair disk first -- sometimes you need it on the first boot with the clone to repair the drive name in the SRP.

 

[MattMiller]

W7 HD to SSD I spent 9 hrs before I figured out how easy it is. Using Ghost 15 select 'make bootable' and copy MBR .... and after its cooked, make sure to shut off!!!! And then: disconnect the source drive !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boot into Bios...make sure everything is correct and boot into Windows.
Then if you want to use your Source Drive as a Data Drive....you can reconnect it.......... 🙂)))
This procedure auto translated/swapped the OS drive letter with the Clone

 

[Sierradeux]

I have followed very carefully RealBeast's instructions

posted at http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/283612-

32-cloning in May of 2012 for cloning the active partitions

of a HDD to a SSD using Norton Ghost 15. Both steps

appeared to run smoothly and uneventfully. When the

clones were finished, I examined the drives with Win 7

disk manager, and both were healthy partitions. The only

difference beteween the originals and the clones was that

the description of the original System Resereved partition

was described as "active, healthy, crash dump, page file",

where as the clone on the SSD was described as "active,

healthy"

At that point I shut down, disconnected the HDD, and

attempted to boot from the SSD. Firstly I used the F8

key, and selected the SSD to boot from. I got a black dos

screen, with instructions to insert the system disk and

reboot. That brought up the system repair disk, but

nothing I did enabled the system to boot from the SSD.

I tried again, this time going into the bios, and changing

the disk boot sequence to CD then SSD. instead of CD

then HDD. Again, no boot, and no suggestion as to how to

get it started.

I am now back booting off of my HDD, with the SSD

disconnected. I am considering hooking it up via an

external USB setup, wiping the SSD partitions back to

"unallocated", and starting again, but perhaps someone

knows how to save this cloning effort.

Does it matter which SATA cable is used when trying to

boot the new drive? Should it be the same one as the HDD

was connected to? I have used separate cables, and have

been switching them "either or".

Thanks for any further details you can supply about steps

to be taken before/on/after first boot on the new drive.