Computer experts?

[ponyfool]

I have my laptop which is about to die (loud clicking from hard drive for last couple months). I have my sensitive data backed up, so no worries there when she blows. My question is, I bought a new hard drive for it, but it's bigger than the old one. Is it possible to get all of my data, including all of the OEM programs, etc to copy over to the new replacement drive without having to use the factory all in one disk that takes it back to delivery condition?

If so, how?

 

[HaulinAshe]

Ghost - Should be able to pick it up at Best Buy etc. for around $40.

Norton Ghost 10.0

Hurry and make a Ghost image before your old HD lives up to it's initials!

 

[boogahboogah]

No easy way I know of to copy directly from one laptop disk drive to another because you can't have them both running at the same time (unlike a regular PC, which usually has space & connections for a second disk drive).

Might I recommend a USB disk drive, something like 80-100 GB, they're cheap cheap nowadays at Best Buy/Circuit City. Plugin the USB drive to the laptop, then copy entire laptop drive over to the big USB disk drive. Most of them come with backup/restore software (Seagate/Maxtore have labels on the box about backup software included), check on their web site to see if the software supports disaster recovery, which is what you're looking for.

Norton Ghost will allow you to accomplish the same thing, but you really need to get a copy of the hard drive onto something like a USB drive (so Ghost will have something to work with)...

If not, then you have to do the "fresh install/install all software/put back all user data files/look for screwups/fix screwups" that is the heritage of Windoze systems...

 

[Claymore]

+1 on Ghost - have been using it on 5000 hosts forever and it is the goods....

 

[jwilly]

If you were closer I would do it for you in an instant. Check out the program called Ghost from Symantec. If you have an external hard drive you can run the program and it will make a copy of the drive. You then install the new hard drive and restore the image onto it.

It seems easy to me because I deal with this everyday. It can be a little tricky. There are a few other programs out there that are a little cheaper but Symantec makes a great product.

Shoot me a PM if I can be of further assistance.

Good Luck

-jwilly

 

[OhioFJR1300]

If you use Ghost, does it put Windows on the new hard drive as it was on the old drive? Meaning that it may have some corruption and run as slow as it does on the old drive, not the same as a fresh install so that it runs "as new" . I have a 3 yr old Dell that I need to do a clean install on to speed it up some, but I can not find the Dell drivers disk and therefore I'm not sure I want to try a clean install.

 

[grendell]

It makes an exact image of what is on the source drive/partition. So, yes it would copy any problems you have from an old install such as orphaned programs and registry issues. If the corruption is at the hardware level then it wouldn't copy that type of corruption. If it is time for a clean install then Ghost wouldn't be of much help in that case.

If you use Ghost, does it put Windows on the new hard drive as it was on the old drive? Meaning that it may have some corruption and run as slow as it does on the old drive, not the same as a fresh install so that it runs "as new" . I have a 3 yr old Dell that I need to do a clean install on to speed it up some, but I can not find the Dell drivers disk and therefore I'm not sure I want to try a clean install.

 

[Ignacio]

It used to be that one could usually get away with copying files over and OS and programs would work. Not so much these days. They're so integrated into the OS and keyed to the hardware these days it's almost not worth the effort.

Ghost, of course, helps with that. It's usually pretty helpful.

But, there's something nice about a freshly imaged computer. You get to start clean, get to fully rid your computer of that piece-of-crap software from last year.....and then can install completely new piece-of-crap software on your virgin machine

We have a saying at our help desk when users have choices of having their old machines transferred to new machines. "Friends don't let friends do OS upload/download. They do the vanilla install."

 

[Windjammer]

The HD on my Dell laptop crapped itself when the machine was only one year old. Problem was pure hardware. Got a new hard drive from Dell, and ordered a product called EZ Bus, made by Apricorn (this was Dell's recommended product solution for my machine model). The EZ Bus external USB HD came with its own imaging software, so I didn't need to buy Ghost.

Worked like a charm, although it took several hours to transfer all the data around. 2 years later, the laptop is still running like a champ.

It's worth noting that I had taken some care to avoid screwing up the OS (and still do). Many times the OS is screwed up by constantly installing/uninstalling freeware and that sort of thing. I generally stick with name brand software, load it up and leave it alone. This seems to keep the OS a bit more stable and makes it easier to migrate later, if needed.

YMMV

 

[V GER]

Acronis TruImage

Similar to Ghost, arguably more user friendly.

I have used this for many years, along with an external USB hard disk of the same size, to image my system on a weekly basis.

It has already saved my bacon once.

It is also a great way to share files with another system that is not networked.

 

[ponyfool]

Does it matter that the new hard drive is about double the size of the old one? Or will it break my new drive into two partitions, one the size of the old drive, and the second partition everything that's left over?

 

[V GER]

Does it matter that the new hard drive is about double the size of the old one? Or will it break my new drive into two partitions, one the size of the old drive, and the second partition everything that's left over?

TruImage will re-create the image on a larger disk, automatically resizing the partition to span the entire available space.

I would imagine Ghost has a similar function.

 

[bramfrank]

Ghost will work - the difference in the partition sizes will be dealt with by the program, though you may have to reactivate Windows if you push the configuration changes past the limits that Windows imposes on changes.

Plugging in is another issue. most laptops can't handle multiple dtrives.

If your drives are IDE (note that newer laptops use SATA drives) you can buy 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapters for about $10 and plug both drives into a desktop to do the copying.

You'll have the same setup/history/functionality afterward except that you'll either have a larger drive - or you'll have 2 logical drives, reflecting the increased capacity of the replacement unit.

 

[FatNakedGuy]

Pop the new hard drive into your laptop and then use the recovery CD that came with your PC (you've probably got a Dell laptop because those ***** hard drives are dropping like flies everywhere) and do a new install.

Reinstall all of your pirated software and then download a pirate copy of GHOST and make a complete image of the new hard drive and save it for the next time your hard drive blows up.

Next, buy one of those $10 usb cables and plug your old hard drive in and copy over any illicit photographs, the gigs and gigs of pirated .mp3 files, and personal email data to your new hard drive and you'll be good to go!

p.s. The videos on your website are awesome! That magician thing blows my mind!

 

[ponyfool]

I haven't updated my site in almost a year...it's so neglected. Glad you enjoyed them!