How do you make a copy of your hard drive ?

How can i make a copy or clone of my hard drive ?
Can any one help me ?

 

There are plenty of Drive Imaging softwares available to duplicate an entire drive, or you could copy selected files to media (cd or dvd), or you could copy your whole hard drive to another hard drive...it really depends on what you want to preserve. If you want a "snapshot" to revert to at any time, you may want to investigate drive imaging, like Ghost. A Google or BBS search will give you a good start in your alternatives.

Johanna

 

I use Norton's Ghost for imaging and copying.

Dwaine

 

cloning vs. imaging

If you need to *clone* your hard drive (say moving everything from an old hard drive to a new replacement), programs such as Acronis TruImage on Symantec Ghost or DriveImage (now owned by Symantec) all have a clone disk option which works well for this kind of transfer. Many hard drive manufacturers also include drive copy programs to help you set up your new hard drive. *Image* programs on the other hand are generally designed to restore data to the same drive the image was made from.

B

 

Just some food for thought. I use Ghost for my imaging and I always select "Partition to Image" weather its one huge partition on the primary drive or several. That option allows you to restore to any drive with adequate size for the data. If your 80 gig drive locks you may want to replace it with a 250 gig and not be bound by the limitations of the original drive.

 

This thread helps me a little but I have a further questions. I will get a new PC tomorrow with XP Microsoft Media Center Edition, which I think is just XP Home with some whistles and bells. Today I got an External Hard Drive that came with backup software to include a Clone program.

The new PC will be formatted . My present PC is XP Home. I would like to put all of it into the new machine. So I have made a Clone and also a full backup of the present PC.

So what kind of problems am I going to run into trying to move this to the new PC? Do you think the Clone would be best or just restore the backup to the new PC, if I can?

I've not any type of expert on this type thing. First I have ever tried to Clone or restore from a backup. I sure would save a lot of trouble if one of the two programs I listed above could be used.

Also, have never used the program in Win XP to transfer files from one PC to another. Would that be a better way?

Lot of questions that I can't answer. Hopefully someone will offer guidance for me.

They are, old and new, Dell PCs. Maybe that will make the proess go batter.

 

Mudd,

The *cloned* hard drive probably will not work in the new computer because of the differences in hardware (motherboard, etc.). However your data files (pictures, documents, etc) can be moved to the new machine. If there are any programs you *installed* on the old pc that you want on the new pc... they will have to be *installed* on the new pc.
And you were correct about Windows Media Center Edition, it is WinXP with some added features for digital media and television. As far as the WinXP 'file transfer program', I have never used it so I can't offer much help... hopefully someone else will offer some information.

B

 

Hey Mr.B

Dear Mr. B I hope that I didn't cause you any trouble with my latest 'Post' I just wanted to say Thank you for helping me out with my problem. You found the fix for me. Again, many thanks,, The Post was "Silly Question I Know"
Pauldep
(Paul)
City of Champions
Red Sox
Pats

 

Mr B

Thanks for the information. I was thinking that would be the case. I have most of the programs and things backed up on CDRs and can get it back that way. Now I'm wondering if the Roxio program I used will work with the new machine because it doesn't have Roxio! Well I'll know soon as I'm making the change now.

 

Mudd,

If the CD-Rs you are using were burned as *data* CDs you shouldn't have a problem... but if you used Roxio's DirectCD and drag n' dropped the files on to the CDR then you'll need Roxio on the new machine to read those CDs.

B

 

Thanks again. I think maybe I should quit asking you questions. Seems your answers are not the one "s I'm looking for!!

This is my last action until I unplug, pack this one to send to me son. Then in with the New!~!!

 

There are possibly many answers in that Link! Unfortunately I didn't find a single one. English is a struggle for me so this language is beyond my comprehension.

I have made the crossover and am up and running. Only took most of one day to get it all back to the new PC.

 

Mudd,

Glad to hear you're up and running.
I wonder what ever happened to NorthAmerican???

B

 

Was wondering, with all the questions you asked, and none seemed to satisfy you. What method did you follow? Just curious. I have been a computer programer/operator for many years. And have never found a problem with transfering files from one computer to a new one. Regardless of difference in computers. So tell us, what method did you use?

 

P.S. If the English language is a problem for you. Why not say so right off?
It will help all envolved. I personaly can speak 4 languages..German, Spanish, Russian and Chinise. (er.. didn't include English.) The point is, there are thousands of us that can do the same. Just chose your language of comfort!

 

Goshawk,Just to fill you in... there was another post that Mudd is referring to that was removed from the thread. Aside from the content being questionable, it was also in Polish. That's why things seem a little incongruent.

B

 

copy of HD

I am very satisfied with Acronis True Image, which includes a startup diskette or -disk, to use when Windows (XP) crashed; after startup with these emergency-diskettes, you can restore the OS using the Acronis-image (stored on another partition or on CD)

 

Goshawk

Sir: Glad you have all the talents you have. Please re-read Mr B post again and hopefully you will realize you were/are missing something.

Maybe you missed the humor I intended while posting. That I won't do again as it seems now to be understood by some.

You might also notice that I am identified as a "Beginner" and you should understand that most of us in that category ask questions that might seem unnecessary and very elementary to you Professionals!

 

I'm glad we got that straightened out since I recalled seeing that Polish text post but couldn't find it upon review later. I thought I was hallucinating (again).

I caught the humor in your post Mudd but then I'm not wound too tight.

Best regards.

 

I do not know if this will work in all cases but;

I bought an 80gig Western Digital drive. Using the floppy that came with it I copied a WD 40gig to it.

It took quite awhile to do but when it was done I just set the jumper properly, plugged it ( the 80gig ) in and it was just like it had always been there. Partitions C: thru H:

Ran it as was for a couple of days and then dumped XP Pro on top and things NEVER skipped a beat.

But what may or may not come into play here is the fact that the 40gig had Win98SE on it. If it would be different with XP I do not know.

BillyBob