What is the easiest/fastest way to replicate an existing Primary C: drive to a replacement drive (that will become the new C: drive)? (IDE, not SATA) Going from an older (dying) drive to a new (larger) one. I know I can do it the long way, but if there's another (better?) way, I'd like to know it. Thanks!!!
Use the native backup program to make an image and restore the image to the new drive, or use a third party application such as Macrium Reflect Free edition to create the image. Couple of tips for making an image. You must save the image to a different drive than the one being backed up. The image can't be located on the partition of the new drive that you intend on restoring to. The size of the source drive (old) must be the same exact size or smaller than the new drive (new drive is usually bigger so rarely a problem. I suggest the following, Connect the new drive, create partitions, create image of source drive and save it on the second partition of the new drive. Shut down, remove the old drive, reconnect the new drive as desired. then reboot to the restoration cd, tell the restore program where to find the image (second partition of the new drive) and restore windows. If you have any startup issues or problems with the new drive, you can reconnect the original drive temporarily until you get things ironed out. Good luck Edd.
Sounds like a plan - is there any real preference between the native & something like Macrium Reflect?
You can also try Paragon Partition Manager Boot Disk too dude? I used it when my old HDD was starting to fail and it created an exact copy of my old one to my new one and the nice thing is that I did not have to go though the backup and then restore. It was copy for copy. It even saved all the special boot files needed to load windows. That is what I would do cause it worked well for me but it is your own decision.
Whatever you decide, please post back and let us know what you used and how it worked out. I have used ASR in XP, and the disk imaging from Vista and Macrium. They all worked but for some reason I prefer Macrium, even paid for it.
agreed. Personally I do not use the native backup/restore program but I use Ghost 15 and never had a problem like that before.
I use Ghost 15 the only time it is a problem is on a clean drive get 100 meg part wrong so I get seven disc out and install seven and use ghost to bring it back again on the new drive
I have never had a problem with an image that wasn't caused by a hardware change. The trick is to use an imaging program that lets you mount the image so you can retrieve your files if the image has become invalid due to some kind of hardware tragedy. Just don't delete the image because you cant restore it.
More software choices to consider There are several software options for cloning, if your a command line geek like me then clonezilla live is great for HD to HD transfers. One warning, you must, must know what you are doing before running this program. Make sure you know the size name and maker of you primary (orginal) hard drive. The clone drive must be the same size or larger. Best of all it is free. Acronis Boot CD off TPB will work also. It is GUI based and just pick drive to drive transfer or clone drive (if I remember correctly). Now, make sure you have a clean working primary drive; I always run a checkdisk /f or fix to check you original drive first. Do not defrag it because if it is already tired, a defrag will really screw it beyond repair. Good luck and my choices are not the best but, I just wanted to offer some more choices. Paragon is a German company that has some great software too.