[help] Drive cloning recommendations

[d-shade]

well my 80 gig hd just died out one me so im using my old 40 gig as a temp till i get my new 80 gig.

but i was thinking about reinstalling windows on my 40gig and then use one of those drive cloning softwares to clone it to my 80 gig.

would i be able to do this without any problems?

will the cloning software spit up my 80gig into two partiions?

Anyone know any good ones that is low cost or free?

i just want to make sure before i spend my time and money trying to get this to work and then finding out that i have to partition my hd into two partions because they weren't the same size.

[druiddk]

No problem at all, at least if you use Ghost, just tell it to resize the new drive to make the old partition fill out the new drive.

Works like a charm

[d-shade]

So norton ghost can accomplish this then?

if thats the case then i guess ill format this drive.

also is there some freeware drive cloning soft that can do this

i really don't want to get a cloning soft just for this one time..

[DigeratiPrime]

Acronis True Image is much better than Norton Ghost (imo).

As for freeware i only know of this:

Dubaron DiskImage

http://www.dubaron.com/diskimage/

Edited February 18, 2006 by DigeratiPrime

[LLXX]

Ghost is quite good... I'd say it's the only decent software that Norton make.

[jaclaz]

A few more alternatives (besides du-baron):

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15809&hl=

Another one:

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/index.htm

though I don't think that "resizing" of the partition is handled by the above utilities, but there is one that is FREE and should have this feature:

http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html

Free Edition

The Free Edition of HDClone offers all necessary abilities to copy a complete hard disk onto another, larger hard disk.

Another one that I am not sure about:

http://www.pcinspector.de/clone-maxx/uk/welcome.htm

Here is anice review/comparison of commercial ones:

http://disk-imaging-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

jaclaz

[Andromeda43]

STOP!

Let's just take a good look at this process.

You're going to go from a 40 gig drive to a new 80 gig drive.

Leaving that new drive in just one huge partition is the most

inefficient and wastefull way to run a drive.

When you get it, partition it into two partitions. The first one for your

OS and programs and the second one for "Storage". I'd probably go with 20-60.

Once that's done, you can run Ghost 2003 (last ver. not corrupted by Symantec)

and make a Partition to Image file and store the Image on the second partition

of the new drive. Then remove your 40 gig drive and make the new one the Master.

Boot up with your Ghost boot disk and do an Image to Partition Restore, to the C:

partition.

Now you've got a bootable C: drive and a perfect image of it on D: as a compressed Ghost Image File.

NOW for the ultimate Restore disk, make another Image file with Ghost and burn it directly to a CD or DVD.

When it asks you if you want to use the boot disk for the boot sector of the CD, say yes.

You've now got the perfect Restore CD.

I do this stuff every week for my customers and it just works so very good.

The entire Ghost 2003 package is available over the internet for about $7usd.

d-shade, do you have a floppy drive on that PC?

if YES, I may have some more help for you. Let me know, please.

Andromeda43

Edited February 20, 2006 by Andromeda43

[d-shade]

Yes i do have a floppy.

also i had a 80 gig as a master and that died on me im using my 40 gig as a temp drive till i get sent a new one.

i also already have a slave thats 160gig

i really don't need another partition

im only trying to do this so i don't have to spend my time to format and reinstall windows when i get my hd. and plus ill have an easy way to restore my comp when i have to format again.

[visaversa]

Best tool ever used, not so expensief at all http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

[Anusha]

If you're to clone disks/partitions, then I think Acronis Trueimage does a hellava job.