Acer Aspire 5720 - new (bigger) HDD

polybear

Hi,
I have an Aspire 5720 which only has an 80GB HDD, which isn't enough now.

It's fitted with a Hitachi Travelstar SATA 5400rpm 80GB HDD; I was thinking of fitting the following 250GB replacement:

[FONT=&quot]http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152071[/FONT]

Using one of these:

[FONT=&quot]http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158386[/FONT]

My question is: Are there any good free programs for cloning the old HDD (all of it, including the Vista OS) to the new HDD please, or would I be better off buying this:

[FONT=&quot]http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/acronis-true-image-home-2010-04001932-pdt.html?srcid=867&xtor=AL-78[/FONT]

I do have Acronis on my Desktop pc - could I use this via a USB to USB cable to connect laptop to desktop to clone the laptop HDD to either the desktop HDD or perhaps the external HDD I also have? This would save having to buy Acronis for my Laptop. Then I could transfer the clone to the new Laptop HDD.

Any pointers to any on-line idiots guides to cloning to a new HDD would be much appreciated...

Many thanks
Brian

xyz123

what do u want to do cloning for? do u want to avoid all re-install on new HDD or do u just want to transfer data.

if its former then i dont think there is anything that u can do to avoid reinstallation of windows. u may also need to contact microsoft to tell them that u r reinstalling the windows on new pc using same lincence.

if its later, u can use any CD burning programme to get an iso of data drive on pc. u can also copy data to an external hard drive and then transfer to new one later. or u can get an IDE or PATA to USB converter kit which would basically mean u can use the old hard drive as external drive later on....

polybear

Thanks for the reply.

Basically I want everything on my old hdd to be on my new bigger hdd, so I can run the laptop exactly as before but with more storage space. Maybe cloning is the wrong term?
Brian

closed

most hard drive manufacturers have a free tool on their website to clone or create a disk image, some are based on acronis (eg maxblast for seagate/maxtor drives is acronis trueimage v10, and western digital have a free cut down version too).

I suggest you replace with either a seagate or western digital drive, rather than hitachi

Easiest way to do it is to backup using maxblast to external usb hard disk caddy, then swap new drive in, then boot from maxblast bootable linux cd, and restore the image to the new disk - the only slight complication is that not all usb cards work under linux - if you hit that problem, come back for a solution.

You could also use the bootable cd from your existing installation to achieve the same result.

gavinp

I use GParted Boot CD to do this which is open source and free:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

This allows you to copy and paste partitions from one disk to another and works well.

You just connect up one disk using the USB caddy and boot from the CD - this loads a Linux graphical environment with GParted running - it is fairly intuitive.

Thanks

Gavin

goRt

http://clonezilla.org/ will also do what you ask

Rabbir1

Use your dektop with Acronis to save an image of your old laptop HD using a usb caddy, then write it back to new HD using the caddy. Replace HD.

jayme1

the best way to upgrade your drive is to

• copy everything off your computer to an external hard drive
• deactivate itunes or any other similar software.
• find your system restore discs you either got with your computer or burnt yourself in the first start up (if not find the utility and burn them now)
• open the pc and pull out the old hard drive and fix in the new one
• start up the pc and place in the factory restore disc
• turn off the computer and restart it
• follow the onscreen prompts to begin the reinstalation of the OS
• wait for a while (have a cuppa) but be near because it may need you to swap discs ect.
• come back and you will be greated by the standard start up screens you got when you first got the computer. (you will not even have to activate the computer)
• install some antivirus such as the free microsoft security essentials also a great time to uninstall the crapware that came with the computer (free trial of antivirus, toolbars, trial games ect.)
  
• run windows update and let it get on with that
• then start installing your programs (windows live essentials, itunes, office ect.)
• copy all your data off the external hard drive to the relevent folders.
• keep an upto date copy of all your data on the external hard drive as a backup (common sense)

if anything was to go wrong then all you have to do is swap the new HDD for the old one and it is exactly like nothing ever happened.

this way is better than cloning because it doesnt bring over the fragmentation of the old hard drive, but if it doesnt work or you cannot find the restore discs or they dont work then you can always do the clone method by replacing the old HDD in the laptop and placing the new one in a caddy.

but the most important thing is make sure you backup all your data before you start.

polybear

Thanks for all the replies.
Just one query - will Microsoft get upset and think I'm trying to fiddle them out of purchasing another Licence - can they tell that the HD has been changed for another? If so, what can I do about it, apart from purchasing a new licence? (no danger of that happening!).

Brian

closed

they can tell, but won't care, the coa belongs to the machine, not the hard disk

jayme1

polybear wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.
Just one query - will Microsoft get upset and think I'm trying to fiddle them out of purchasing another Licence - can they tell that the HD has been changed for another? If so, what can I do about it, apart from purchasing a new licence? (no danger of that happening!).

Brian

nope that only happens if you change the motherboard or CPU, the hard drive wont set it off.