Need To Clone C: Drive To A New HDD

T

Tovas

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Joined

Aug 13, 2003

Location

Nashville TN

• May 3, 2012

• #1

Anyone have recommendations on the best *perfer* free software to use, on a Windows 7 machine? Don't want to simply make an image to restore to later but move everything to a new drive.

Thanks for reading.

 

johan851

Insatiably Malcontent, Senior Member

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Joined

Jul 24, 2002

Location

Seattle, WA

• May 3, 2012

• #2

I use Macrium Reflect for this sort of thing. I has a freeware version that works well for drive-to-drive.

 

mjw21a

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Joined

Sep 29, 2004

• May 4, 2012

• #3

I'm still using good ol Symantec Ghost.... DriveImage XML is alright with a PE Environment also

 

SF101

The Printer Guru

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Joined

Feb 9, 2002

• May 4, 2012

• #4

heirens boot disk will also work

 

redduc900

Inactive Moderator

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Dec 17, 2000

Location

Portland, OR

• May 4, 2012

• #5

... or just use the software available for free from the manufacturer of the new HDD.

 

OP

T

Tovas

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Joined

Aug 13, 2003

Location

Nashville TN

• May 4, 2012

• Thread Starter
• #6

johan851 said:

I use Macrium Reflect for this sort of thing. I has a freeware version that works well for drive-to-drive.

Click to expand...

Worked like a champ Johan Thanks a lot.

 

OP

T

Tovas

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Joined

Aug 13, 2003

Location

Nashville TN

• May 4, 2012

• Thread Starter
• #7

redduc900 said:

... or just use the software available for free from the manufacturer of the new HDD.

Click to expand...

Put a year old OEM 1.5 TB HDD into the Wifes machine that use to be in my machine.

Sadly I havent seen software come with a hard drive since my old Maxtors came with a floppy.

 

M

Metlcub

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Joined

Apr 26, 2011

• May 4, 2012

• #8

Yea I think HDD stopped coming with those disk img software years ago. Unless you get a external drive, and still no disk it's on the drive it self.

 

aphellyon

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Joined

Jun 20, 2009

• May 4, 2012

• #9

Metlcub said:

Yea I think HDD stopped coming with those disk img software years ago. Unless you get a external drive, and still no disk it's on the drive it self.

Click to expand...

WD offers a free version of Acronis on their site for anyone using their drives.

 

johan851

Insatiably Malcontent, Senior Member

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Joined

Jul 24, 2002

Location

Seattle, WA

• May 4, 2012

• #10

aphellyon said:

WD offers a free version of Acronis on their site for anyone using their drives.

Click to expand...

It only works if it detects a Western Digital hard drive installed on the system. It wouldn't work for me on some stuff because the WD drive was on an external adapter and wasn't detected properly.

 

wagex

Chapstick Eating Premium Member

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Joined

Jan 14, 2011

• May 4, 2012

• #11

i use easus todo free works great can even copy it while your in windows.

 

aphellyon

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Joined

Jun 20, 2009

• May 4, 2012

• #12

johan851 said:

It only works if it detects a Western Digital hard drive installed on the system. It wouldn't work for me on some stuff because the WD drive was on an external adapter and wasn't detected properly.

Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, it only needs to detect a WD drive during the install... after that, no WD drive is needed. This "detection" process seems to be a bit finicky. It didn't recognize my two raptors because they were RAIDed... so I ended up digging out an ancient 40Gb drive and connecting it via legacy IDE port. Post install, I was able to clone a SSD array to a samsung drive without the old WD drive having to be attached. I suppose it's possible that post install, the software was finally able to recognize the WD drives in my secondary raptor array. I'll test tonight and see if WD Acronis will run with my raptors disconnected as well.

 

Last edited: May 4, 2012

D

Dermen

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Joined

Dec 23, 2001

Location

Florida

• May 4, 2012

• #13

I've been using gparted when I just need to copy a partition to a new drive. Most cloning software will only do the entire drive, and creating a backup then restoring requires a 3rd drive.

 

SF101

The Printer Guru

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Joined

Feb 9, 2002

• May 4, 2012

• #14

i think hirens is free .. comes with acronis full use.

i think they had to remove Symantec ghost on the normal version tho due to legal.

 

mjw21a

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Joined

Sep 29, 2004

• May 4, 2012

• #15

DriveImage XML will do the partition.... Not actually sure whether it will do a whole drive.... For a whole drive I still use trusty old Ghost.

 

OP

T

Tovas

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Joined

Aug 13, 2003

Location

Nashville TN

• May 5, 2012

• Thread Starter
• #16

Sounds like there's a lot of good programs out there that everyone likes. I had an old copy of Norton Ghost laying around from 2003, but I didn't even bother with it because it was so old. I was sure that there had to be something more up to date and easy to use.

The program Johan recommended "Macrium Reflect" was great took 5 seconds to download 5 seconds to install and took 1:09:32 to clone an entire 360 gig drive. Very happy with it. I'll definately use it again.