how to clone a hard drive

devizes18193

Hi I'm getting a bigger drive for christmas . whats the best free software to clone my old drive , thanks

sharkie

http://clonezilla.org/ is one of a few free ones,

sisnce space seems to be an issue, why not make it a secondary drive?

free4440273

Trueimage is easy to use /not free though/

Ghost is another one /not free/

googler

Why won't a simple copy/paste work?

letsbehonest

To Clone a disk you need to copy everything including it's operating system as the disk is actually running at the time of the process. You need specialized software to do this, I use True Image by Acronis (not Free)

davetrousers

Why not do a fresh OS install on the new hard drive?

Mr23

There are free ways to do this but not easy if you are not an advanced user. You can clone a drive with the use of Clonezilla and then once copied to the new drive you would need to use GParted to increase the size of your old partition to utilise all of the space. They are both bootable CDs and pretty tricky to work with if you don't know what you are doing.

The best thing to do is to reinstall the operating system & programs from scratch. As for your files.. coping them to a external drive and moving them back over would work good.

closed

The hard disk manufacturer probably has a free utility to do it, the best answer depends on the brand, and operating system

googler

davetrousers wrote: »

Why not do a fresh OS install on the new hard drive?

and install the current drive as a secondary (assuming we're working on a desktop machine)?

devizes18193

sharkie wrote: »

http://clonezilla.org/ is one of a few free ones,

sisnce space seems to be an issue, why not make it a secondary drive?

Its on a laptop but I'll give it a clonezilla a try. I know I could reinstall windows etc but was looking for a way that was automatic in nature as im feeling lazy .

jayme1

ok here is a quick rundown of how to clean install an OS I wrote a bit ago:

• copy everything (all your files/music ect.) off your computer to an external hard drive
• deactivate itunes or any other similar software.
• put in win7 disc
• start up the pc
• follow the onscreen prompts to begin the instalation of the OS (choose advanced not upgrade and then delete all hard drive partitions until there is just one empty hard drive, select that hard drive)
• click next reading what comes up write in the product key when asked
• wait for a while (have a cuppa) but be near
• come back and you will be greated by the standard start up screens follow thoes prompts to set up a user account
• install some antivirus such as the free microsoft security essentials
• connect it to the internet either through wire or wireless
• 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) (you can even use the automatic backup option built into windows 7

or if it a factory installed OS
replace with these steps:

• 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)