[Question] Cloning Hard Drive

[AmithS]

Hi All,

So say i get a new laptop & i want to save the original installation as is in case something happens.

What is the best way to clone the original hard drive so that i would be easy to reinstall the entire clone onto the same hard drive but with the original software if i want a fresh start on the laptop (i.e. basic setup)

Regards,

[daveob]

Personally I have used Norton Ghost for that.

Can't say it is the best, it's just all I have used.

Did the OS install, all drivers, office, net setups, etc, then made the copy.

Only ever used it once to reset my PC, but that one time it was a BIG time saver.

[AndyD]

You can try clonezilla, it's freeware available from here. http://www.clonezilla.org/

Also I think GParted will do a restore partition, also freeware here. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php

Acronis True Image is another alternative which you will pay for but I think they have trial versions if you want to test drive it first.

[Martinco]

I stand to be corrected but you would need the following:
Norton Ghost with USB support and then a USB to SATA hardware interface with a power adapter to do a clone via USB because the laptop does not have facility for another internal drive, so you cannot simply plug the clone drive into the laptop, you have to go USB.
These interfaces are available at computer shops and are not expensive.

[Dave A]

Why not just use the MS "create repair disk" option?

[Martinco]

Why not just use the MS "create repair disk" option?

Are you sure ? On a laptop you have all sorts of drivers for pad, monitor etc. etc. Will the repair disc copy the drivers as well ?

[Dave A]

As I recall, it creates a full mirror of the drive.

Obviously when it comes to maintaining the current status of a drive in a backup, ghosting the drive is the answer. But if you're looking for a copy of that early clean install before any bugs crawl in, the repair disk creation tool might just be the answer you're looking for.

Best done on an external hard drive though - even with the high capacity of DVD disks nowadays, you'll be looking at quite a few disks to get the job done.

[tec0]

daveob > You are right, Ghost works.

Depending on your version, ghost will give you the ability to clone your drive onto another drive and or make an image that you can cut do disk “provided it is small enough� and you can reuse it over and over again “until the disk is unusable or corrupted�

From my personal experience I can say Ghost is stable and will do the job. But I am sure there will be people that will tell you that ghost sucks and that I am stupid...

[twinscythe12332]

daveob > You are right, Ghost works.

Depending on your version, ghost will give you the ability to clone your drive onto another drive and or make an image that you can cut do disk “provided it is small enough” and you can reuse it over and over again “until the disk is unusable or corrupted”

From my personal experience I can say Ghost is stable and will do the job. But I am sure there will be people that will tell you that ghost sucks and that I am stupid...

hehehe, my friend made a ghost of his main hard drive onto a 1TB drive... this promptly turned it from a 1TB drive to a 32MB drive. formatting did not revert, neither did looking at any of the disc managers. Matrix is still puzzling about how it happened, and has given him a new 1TB. Ghost is good, but when it messes up, it takes hardware with it.

as for the original question, I would say you can safely use the windows backup facility. It has worked well for me, and is already included in the package (depending, of course, on which windows you have. I am assuming either vista or windows 7).
Should using a microsoft product on your current windows installation (theories go that using a microsoft product on more than two tiers will cause a black hole in your machine, and destroy your data irrepairably) not ease your mind, the above solutions will also work =)

[Martinco]

JFMI Was this an external or internal drive and what make ?

[tec0]

If it is from Matrix it is probably a Samsung... and yes I do have one and I do use it... So not happy about the possibility of a 1Tb turning into a 32Mb but it is worth testing. But I am really surprised that Matrix swapped out anything because it normally takes about 120 days for them to do anything or so is my experience with them.

[Martinco]

External or internal ?
The externals I have seen comes preloaded with backup software and I wonder if it has something to do with the partitioning ?

[tec0]

I do know that the Matrix store in our aria only sell the HDD and external chassis and you do the assembly yourself. But I have been wrong before. It is really scary to think that any software can actually destroy a storage device to start with.

But we will have to see if it was indeed a preassembled external HDD or not.

[greasemonkey]

What laptop is it? It might pay you to check the manufacturers site, my laptop has a bios function where you press a combination of keys on bootup and you get an option to make a complete mirror of your drive(many dvd's) or a manufacturers install disc(complete with drivers but no user data only 1 dvd) My laptop is an Acer 5310

[AmithS]

i havent purchased 1 yet. i am looking for 1 and just want to know how to have a good backup system ready so i can make 1 before fiddeling with the laptop.

Thanks guys for all the repsoneses.