Cloning your hard drive

[crix1234]

How easy is it to clone your hard drive as apposed to wiping my existing hard drive. Is the process safe? Thanks

[VHG]

Not sure what you mean, you ask about cloning a hard drive, then about wiping a hard drive. Not sure what you are trying to achieve.

My GUESS is that you have bought a NEW hard drive, and you want to replace your EXISTING hard drive with the NEW one, so you want to copy everything (Windows etc) from the existing hardrive to the new one (if you explained clearly what you wanted to do in the first place we would not have to guess).

There are products that can clone hard drives, and one I have heard of is Paragon Drive Copy (but I have never used it). There are others.

Not sure what you mean by "is it safe" (what can be unsafe about it?) but I assume products like Paragon Drive Copy work fine.

If you can tell us what you are trying to achieve we may be able to give a more accurate answer.

[VHG]

btw I bought a copy of a magazine the other day called Computer Active - PC Maintenance and Upgrades (�5.99).

This contained a DVD with over 60 useful PC utilities, including a free copy of Paragon Drive Copy 9.0 (Personal Edition) as well as Acronis True Image and other useful software.

The magazine also had loads of useful articles about how to get hte best out of your PC.

More here

http://www.computeractive-direct.co.uk/index.c fm?p=16&itemid=2956

[crix1234]

Yes should have been a bit more precise. I would like to move everthing including the Windows XP to a much larger hard drive. I have been told you can clone the existing C drive rather than erasing it and starting again.
Ok i'm off to the newsagent tomorrow to buy copy of ComputerActive..... cheers

[VHG]

Note this is NOT the normal weekly edition of Computer Active.

This is one of their "Utlimate Guides" that you may not be able to get everywhere.

I bought mine in my local Sainsburys about 2 weeks ago.

You may still be able to get it in a large W H Smiths or similar store.

[crix1234]

Cheers. If i can't get it locally, i'll order from the web site you pointed to.

[VHG]

Thanks for the details, now I can give a more accurate answer.

Yes you can "clone" a hard disk, which makes an exact copy

It is important you use a proper product to do this rather than just typing "copy" as Windows has lots of hidden files and system files that WONT copy unless you use a "proper" program.

What you CANT do is run a program like this from inside Windows (while Windows is running). Because Windows will be using certain files they cannot be copied and you may not get a full working clone.

What you have to do is create a "bootable disk" (CD or DVD). Instructions for doing this will be in Paragon Drive Copy.

Once you have the bootable disk then you start your computer and "boot" from the CD or DVD.

This will take you into Paragon Drive Copy (which is on the CD or DVD) and you can do the clone from there.

more......

[VHG]

One important thing when doing a clone is the ability for the program like Paragon Drive Copy to "see" both hard drives.

You dont say if you are using a desktop or a laptop, so I am not sure where your second hard drive will actually be, but of course the second hard drive needs to be connected to the computer some how.

If the second hard drive is in an external drive bay it will be conected to the PC via the USB port.

When Paragon Drive Copy starts up (when you boot from CD or DVD) then it obviously needs to be able to "see" the USB port and the hard drive attached to it.

Assuming it can "see" the hard drive it will be able to do the clone. Never having used Paragon Drive Copy I am not sure if it can work with hard drives attached to the USB port.

If it is a desktop PC then you could put the second hard drive in the case and connect it up, Paragaon would then definately see the hard drive, but this is more difficult to do with a laptop.

more...

[VHG]

If you are doing this on a desktop one alternative is to put the second hard drive in the case and work with two hard drives.

In my desktop I have 2 hard drives.

My 40G hard dirve is my "bootable" drive and this has Windows on it. This is "C".

The other drive is 250G and I use this to store personal files like photos, music and so on. This is split into 2 partitions called "D" and "E.

So if you are using a desktop you could just add the second hard drive and leave the first one as it is.

Also I keep a copy of my Windows "C" drive (created with Acronis True Image) on my "D" drive, and if Windows becomes corrupt then I just overwrite it (using Acronis) with my "copy" from D.

This takes only about 10 minutes, so it that short time I can have a new, fresh copy of Windows.

[crix1234]

I have a Desktop PC 20GB bootable c drive and a further 200GB new internal HD. The new drive is connected up ok, so as you say Paragon should be able to see both drives ok. I want to clone the current C drive to the new drive then remove it, because its starting to creek with age. I will probable buy another yet larger internal HD for storage. But keeping a copy of your C drive on your D drive is an useful idea! Thanks...

[VHG]

Yes it probably makes sense to remove the 20Gb drive.

When you do remove it make sure you then set the 200Gb drive as the "master" drive so it becomes bootable (I guess it is IDE).

Easiest thing may be to unplug the IDE cable from the 20Gb and plug it into the 200Gb.

[rojash]

VHG, I've really got to hand it to you - the amount of effort you put into your replies!