Clone HDD - How

bigfreddiel

I am going to replace the hdd in my desktop pc with a 1TB drive, now I could just re-install windows,and then all the programs I use, updates, and so on = tedious but possible.

So I thought why not just clone the disk?

There is one step I'm not sure about which is how do I get the new image onto the new hdd?

The steps are as far as I can tell:

1 select cloning sw - preferably freeware

2 take an image of the c drive to a usb drive - its been dfragged and ccleaned

3 replace hdd so desktop pc has 1TB drive

4 boot up hdd (how? hdd hs no os as its new!)

5 restore image to new hdd

The question is how do i do step 4 beacause the new hdd has no os so i cannot boot the machine?

thanks in advance

fj

closed

with a boot disc from the imaging software - if you are lucky it will detect your usb drive

What you described is imaging and restoring, cloning is a one step process with both disks attached.

most hd manufacturers have a tool available to do it free

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3333202

Atom

Check out acronis - i used that a few times to clone a drive then use the boot disk to load the OS onto a new HD without any problems.

macman

Install the new drive in the desktop as a slave. Clone the original drive to it. Remove old drive. Set new drive as the master and boot from it. Job done.
Another vote for Acronis.
One tip-don't ever wipe the old drive until you have tested the new one and made sure that everything is there and working as it should.
Or you can leave the old drive in place as a slave and use it as backup or additional storage.

John_Gray

More straightforward would be to buy an external USB caddy for the hard disk, and then use something like the 30-day trial of Macrium Reflect and the "Win-PE Recovery CD" to do the cloning. Then replace the old disk in the PC by the larger one. It's not quite as simple as I make out, but I did it for a laptop a couple of weeks ago.

Even better, see if you can mount the second drive in your PC, and you won't need the external caddy!

Linbox

John_Gray wrote: »

... then use something like the 30-day trial of Macrium Reflect and the "Win-PE Recovery CD" to do the cloning. Then replace the old disk in the PC by the larger one. It's not quite as simple as I make out, but I did it for a laptop a couple of weeks ago.

Macrium Reflect Free But I would download Hirens Boot CD which has Macrum Reflect Free on there along with a lot of other software that is very handy, a complete solution for most things on 1 cd.

macman wrote: »

One tip-don't ever wipe the old drive until you have tested the new one and made sure that everything is there and working as it should.

Excellent Tip

patman99

The best one by far that I have found (through extensive testing) was the free version of HDClone.

John_Gray

I can't see any option in the HDclone Free edition to resize partitions when doing the cloning (since it only clones the entire drive). Presumably the OP would like to increase the partition sizes?

Pikeyp

... nvm ...

Linbox

Look at this. BTW all the tools you require are on Hirens Boot CD

jayme1

installing the 1TB drive as a storage drive is an option, all you will likely need is a single SATA cable and your PSU should have a spare SATA power connector already, it's as simple as connecting the 2 cables starting up the computer and formatting the drive to NTFS using 'Disk Management' and your done.

therefore the drive you have now would be your boot drive with windows on it also to install programs and the 1TB drive holds all your data like pictures, music and videos. plus for very important files you can keep a copy on both drives so if one fails you don't loose your data.

alternatively if you just want one drive in the computer, then using either a windows disc or the restore discs that came with your computer to install the OS onto the new HDD then just installing any programs and copying your data back on, is better IMO than cloning the old HDD to the new one because it would be a fresh install as opposed to copying the fragmented mess that is most likely your old HDD.

(but personally I would go with my option 1)