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Thread: Cloning Hard Drive

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    Cloning Hard Drive

    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,

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    Email problem daveob's Avatar
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    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.
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    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    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.
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    Gold Member Martinco's Avatar
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    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.
    Martin Coetzee
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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Why not just use the MS "create repair disk" option?

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    Gold Member Martinco's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave A View Post
    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 ?
    Martin Coetzee
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    We solve your fastening problems.
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    You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    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.
    Last edited by Dave A; 27-Sep-10 at 09:33 PM.

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    Diamond Member tec0's Avatar
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    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...
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    Gold Member twinscythe12332's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tec0 View Post
    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 =)
    Last edited by twinscythe12332; 01-Oct-10 at 02:01 PM. Reason: messed up some spelling

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    Gold Member Martinco's Avatar
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    JFMI Was this an external or internal drive and what make ?
    Martin Coetzee
    Supplier of Stainless Steel Band and Buckle and various fastening systems. Steel, Plastic, Galvanized, PET and Poly woven.
    We solve your fastening problems.
    www.straptite.com

    You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

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