I have a new hard drive for my lap top but don't know how to clone the information to it so I can merely swap

Question

I have clone software and an external hard drive. Can I use the clone software to send all the data to the external. Then swap the hard drive with the new one and reinstall from the exteranl hard drive? If you have another way let me know?

Answer 1

I would use a cloning application like Symantec Ghost or Clonezilla. I've linked to both of them below. This should give you the ability to clone the entire hard drive and also give you an easy way to restore the cloned image.



Symantec Ghost includes a 15-day free trial. Clonezilla is Open Source and free, period.



Good luck!

Answer 2

This may get a bit long winded, but here we go anyway. I'm going to assume that the cloning software you have is Ghost? If it's not, the software you have should still be able to do what I'm going to describe. I'm going to also assume you know what Ghost or your cloning software does right? It takes a bit by bit copy of your hard drive and zips it up into one file. You then can either browse this file by using Ghost Explorer (or whatever other tool you have if you aren't using Ghost) or you can extract that file onto another hard drive, thus having all of your settings the exact same way as it was on the previous one. From your question, it sounds like you are just changing hard drives right? No motherboard or CPU changes right? Okay, well you have a few options.



1. The easiest and quickest way to get your new hard drive up and running with all of your info is to do a disk to disk copy. Ghost has an option for this, and it's quick and simple. The only problem is that you need to have a setting in which you can have both laptop hard drives connected to another PC at the same time. Simple solution, yes, but not extremely easy for a person that's not a bit experienced with computer hardware and connecting / reconnecting hard drives. Nevertheless, if you do have the hardware, you will need a special connector for those hard drives so they can be connected to a normal desktop computer. I won't go through the step by step of doing all of this, but if you either have a friend that understands what I just typed, have him/her help you do it.



2. You could Ghost your current hard drive onto the external drive, then install the new hard drive, and extract the Ghost file from your old hard drive onto the new one. This is pretty much the same thing I just typed in my first suggestion, but it's two steps, and it wouldn't require you hooking both laptop hard drives up to another PC. So yes Ghost or whatever cloning software should allow you to do this, and it should work for your needs.



3. Don't use Ghost or any cloning software, and just copy over your important files. Then rebuild the new hard drive from scratch. I would personally recommend this one, because you're then getting a clean build, and all the junk from your other hard drive (cookies, temp files, spyware, etc.) won't be coming with you onto the new one. Again, call a friend that knows one or two things about a computer, connect the external HD (which I assume is USB?) and just move your files. Also, if you happen to be changing your motherboard or CPU, you shouldn't even attempt the first two suggestions I gave. Just do this one.



Hope this helps a little bit - it can be a bit of a pain. I recommend having a friend do it that knows his way around hardware.

Answer 3

You should be able to do so, depending upon the software you are using. You should be able to create an image of your existing drive on the external drive, swap out your hard drives, and then image the new frive with the image of your old drive.



You will probably need a boot floppy or bootable CD with the imaging software, as well as any drivers needed for the laptop to see the external drive in DOS.

Answer 4

True cloning can only be done using a RAID1 Mirror Array or a cloning machine. (But this requires that Both Hard Drives be the same size)...preferably the same model hard drive too. You can use a smaller drive, but the larger hard drive (as far as the RAID1 Mirror Array goes), will be truncated or reduced to the size of the smaller original hard drive.



I have not tried it, so I don't know what the results would be:



Since both XP and Vista have the capabilities of after installing an OS, to re-partition a hard drive w/out (in theory at least), destroying data or the OS or the NT Boot Loader, using the smaller say 40GB original hard drive...adding say a 250GB drive (that 250GB would be truncated or reduced to 40GB usable of course if used in the array), in a RAID1 Mirror Array, copying the contents of the smaller drive to the larger drive.



Then taking the larger new drive out of the array, using the in OS partitioning program to re-partition the drive to use the whole 250GB. I don't see why it wouldn't work. But, my theory is yet untested, by me at least since I'd just as soon do a fresh install since that drive really needs to have updated hardware drivers installed anyway.



Anyway, to answer your question....



You really should do a clean install on that new drive, whether from a full install CD/DVD depending on if you have XP or Vista, or the System Restore Disk Set that "may have come w/ your computer...(if not, go back to the manufacturer and get them as you are entitled to either free or low cost)", and get an external USB hard drive enclosure like the one at the link below and a laptop hard drive to 3.5" hard drive adapter like the one at the link below that, to mount your laptop drive in externally...Add all your programs and AV back in, update drivers and the OS, then use the settings and transfer wizard to transfer your data on that old smaller drive to the larger drive. You see, in my opinion, cloning software is really sort of a nightmare to the uninitiated user.



http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=3.5%22+External+Hard+Drive+Enclosures&category0=

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=unknown&sbrftog=1&dfsp=1&from=R10&_trksid=m37&satitle=3.5%22+to+Laptop+Hard+Drive+Adapter&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=86401&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&fgtp=



Good Luck.



PS: In the post right above mine, in #1....As soon as you install those 2 hard drives into another desktop computer, the hardware drivers will all be changed as required automatically via XP or Vista to the hardware drivers needed by the OS just to operate and boot to the required installed OS and interact properly w/ that desktop's installed hardware...(not really a big thing and have done it in the past the way you speak of), so it will not be a true cloning as done in a Hard Drive Copy machine like say Gateway or Dell does to prepare hard drives...same hardware drivers/same hardware/same hardware/drivers remember.



When that cloned drive goes back into the laptop, it will need to go back through almost an entire hardware drivers change again...Then some serious manual updating of hardware drivers anyway is really required if you want true performance from that hardware....I have done it and it does work...Had virus problems w/ laptops that I couldn't cure while the drive was in that laptop for reasons too long to go into here both hardware/software related. That is why I suggest a "clean install" above.