Clone Hdd's

[Combat Wombat]

Hi Guys,

I have just put together my new rig... but because of the floods in Thailand I haven't received my hdd yet... So I put a spare 320Gb into my new unit and installed windows, completed updates, and applied all my licensed software.. My question is, can I use Norton Ghost to image the hdd somehow and transfer it to my bigger hdd when it gets here without worrying about the Windows licence ect.

 

[crewton]

You should be able to create an image and then restore that image onto the new hard drive.

 

[Combat Wombat]

Not sure how it works tho.. how do you boot it do the blank hdd...? Do do you have to have an OS loaded into the bigger hdd before you can restore it..?

 

[crewton]

You create and image and then there should be an option in your windows installation disk to either install windows, restore image, and other stuffs. Select the restore image and load the image onto the new drive.

 

[Combat Wombat]

Ohhk, Sooo,

>Clone Hdd
>Insert Win7 Disc (With Both Hdd's connected..?)
>Have the bigger Hdd one as the priority
>Boot of cd (Into new hdd)
>Select custom install and select "Recover Image"
>Select ISO form old Hdd
>Win? >.<

 

[Outlander_04]

If you dont have GHOST you can download a free 30 day trial of Acronis Migrate Easy

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/migrateeasy/index.html

brilliant . Actually better than Ghost , and as I said b4 . 30 days free

 

[crewton]

I'd set your priority to boot from cd/dvd drive, but yes you have the idea

 

[Combat Wombat]

Sure windows will recover an image of another hdd that is connected..?

 

[Outlander_04]

If you use the Acronis program I suggested you just install it on your boot drive as you would any other program , and tell it the destination drive .
All done

 

[Combat Wombat]

Ohhk, Thanks guys, if anything is missing feel free to let me know.. but I think I got this now.
Chow

 

[Combat Wombat]

Best answer selected by combat wombat.

 

[cadder]

I've used the WD version of Acronis to clone a C: drive. In this case the D: drive was already installed and functioning as a D: drive, partitioned and with data on it. We cranked up the Acronis, told it we wanted to clone C: to D:, it rebooted the computer and booted into its own cloning program, and cloned the drive. We turned off the computer, unplugged the C: drive, turned it back on and it booted into the new drive.

I used Ghost to clone my laptop hard drive to a new SSD. I installed Ghost on C:, connected the new SSD using an external USB enclosure, told Ghost to copy C: to the new drive (without giving the new drive a drive letter). I told Ghost to make the new drive a bootable system disk. Then I removed the original C: drive, put the SSD in its place, turned the computer back on and it booted into the new SSD. Ghost didn't require rebooting the computer into its own cloning program to do the cloning.

In my research I read recommendations to use Ghost to copy an image of C: to an external drive, put the new drive in my computer, boot to the Ghost CD, and let it restore the image to the new C: drive.

In this process I learned that different cloning programs work differently, so you should research the one that you want to use prior to using it. And if your partitions and booting configuration are more than just a simple setup with one OS, you may need more steps for the cloning.