Making an image of a notebook Hard Drive

[Geoffw]

Any tips on transferring (rather than re-installing) my Vista OS to a new (larger) hard drive via USB connection (I have access to a USB drive caddy).

All I want to do is copy an image of my C Drive to a new hard drive and then physically swap them.

[SpaceAgent]

Connect notebook drive to a PC using a drive caddy
Copy drive to an image file on PC using Paragon Hard Disk Manager or similar. Then connect new notebook drive to PC and use Hard Disk Manager to copy the image to the new drive, expanding as it does.

The notebook should then boot on the new drive.

[Geoffw]

......using Paragon Hard Disk Manager or similar..
Cheers Alastair, but is there a free utility or a Vista feature I've not come across, that would do the copying - I'm such a mean bu$$er! :lol

[silver]

some free ones were listed in http://www.net4nowtforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=280846#post280846

[Geoffw]

some free ones were listed in http://www.net4nowtforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=280846#post280846
Thanks Sil, The drive is due to arrive Friday, so I have time to browse and consider! I'm toying with idea of formatting the new drive and making a clean installation, but I'm not sure whether this could become complicated as the version of Vista i have is one of those 'upgrade' (from XP) discs that manufacturers were touting the Christmas before Vistawas released.. it had to be claimed with a voucher and had to be installed over the XP already on the machine.

[Doctor Snuggles]

Thanks Sil, The drive is due to arrive Friday, so I have time to browse and consider! I'm toying with idea of formatting the new drive and making a clean installation, but I'm not sure whether this could become complicated as the version of Vista i have is one of those 'upgrade' (from XP) discs that manufacturers were touting the Christmas before Vistawas released.. it had to be claimed with a voucher and had to be installed over the XP already on the machine.

You would have to install xp from an oem disk and activate it first, as you will have to use the coa thats on the back of laptop, which will be a branded oem coa, you will not be able to activate it over the net or via the automated freephone number. You will have to speak to microsoft to get an activation code, and explain what you have done.

The vista upgrade disc may not work either.

You will need to use software that makes an EXACT clone of your HD, including the volume id info, otherwise on bootup you will be denied access to vista until you activate it, which you will not be able to do online and will have to follow procedure above.

Most cloning software works in dos or in their own enviroments, you may also have problems accessing a drive over usb.

I have to clone disks regularly, the easiest method imho is to put both disks in a desktop system and boot it using the dos based Norton ghost disc then clone disk to disk, takes about 20 mins for a 300gb disk. This method will make an exact copy of the disk and automatically resize the partition to fit the larger drive. You will not have to reactivate vista using this method.

Are the drives PATA or SATA?

[Geoffw]

Are the drives PATA or SATA?
Thanks DS, for your really useful breakdown of possible scenarios for me. I think, for the sake of convenience I will try one of the cloning applications Silver pointed me to. If it doesn't work I'll move on to the issue of a fresh installation.

It is an Acer Notebook, and when I took delivery of it I followed the manufacturers advice and backed the whole system up onto a DVD. I am hoping I can use that backup DVD to install the OS partition on the replacement drive, and then reinstall Vista from the disk they provided.

The drives are PATA

[Doctor Snuggles]

Thanks DS, for your really useful breakdown of possible scenarios for me. I think, for the sake of convenience I will try one of the cloning applications Silver pointed me to. If it doesn't work I'll move on to the issue of a fresh installation.

It is an Acer Notebook, and when I took delivery of it I followed the manufacturers advice and backed the whole system up onto a DVD. I am hoping I can use that backup DVD to install the OS partition on the replacement drive, and then reinstall Vista from the disk they provided.

The drives are PATA

You may have a problem with the above if the dvd relies on a partition on the hard drive to restore your o/s, a new hard drive wont have it.

See PM

[Geoffw]

You may have a problem with the above if the dvd relies on a partition on the hard drive to restore your o/s, a new hard drive wont have it.

See PM
thanks for the PM. As for partitions on the new hard drive. I'm assuming I can create them using a USB caddy for the new drive and than set it up on my XP desktop using Partition Magic or with the Notebook using Vista's Computer/Manage/Disk Management

[Doctor Snuggles]

thanks for the PM. As for partitions on the new hard drive. I'm assuming I can create them using a USB caddy for the new drive and than set it up on my XP desktop using Partition Magic.

Sorry did not make the last post clear, the partition I was referring to is the restore partition manufacturers put on their drive so you can restore your o/s from it, the dvd's you create normally contain a backup of your apps and a method to access the restore partition, if this is the case you cannot restore your o/s to a blank drive.

If your cloning a drive you do not need to partition or format your new drive.

Best advice is make sure you have a way of restoring your o/s BEFORE you start in case it goes wrong, I once cloned the blank disk over the original, felt rather foolish that day lol :lol

[Geoffw]

Best advice is make sure you have a way of restoring your o/s BEFORE you start in case it goes wrong, I once cloned the blank disk over the original, felt rather foolish that day lol :lol
Yes, Dave, however I tackle it I'll leave the original hard drive untouched until I can be sure I've succeeded. I'm lucky in one sense -I've got the 'blind' faith of an amateur to take me through the whole process. :lol

..... plus you very sensible advice as well of course!

[Geoffw]

The drive isn't due till Friday, but I had a response from Acer Support, which appears to suggest a 'new' installation of Vista on the new drive will not be such a problem:

"You could either install vista direct and then install any additional drivers you would need or install xp then run the upgrade disk again."

So I've a couple of days to decide whether to attempt to clone my current drive, or go for a fresh intallation.

[Gina]

I would be inclined to try cloning first - that sounds simpler and quicker to me. If that doesn't work you could try the XP to Vista route. I would think you'd need a full copy of Vista to install directly and that would cost money. You should be able to reinstall XP - MS allow upgrading/replacing the hard drive I believe.

Good luck :):)

[Doctor Snuggles]

The drive isn't due till Friday, but I had a response from Acer Support, which appears to suggest a 'new' installation of Vista on the new drive will not be such a problem:

"You could either install vista direct and then install any additional drivers you would need or install xp then run the upgrade disk again."

So I've a couple of days to decide whether to attempt to clone my current drive, or go for a fresh intallation.

Never come accross an "upgrade disc" that will do a full install without the original o/s being present either on drive or disc. So i'm inclined to think you have been misinformed.

The thing to do would be to see exactly what is on the rescue discs you created. Also check if you have a restore partition on your laptop, it will either show up in my computer as a D: drive or in disk management as a partition without a drive letter assigned.

If you go down the re-install path you will need to go to acers site and download all the drivers for your laptop before you start and burn them to disc or put them on a usb stick.

I do these type of hard drive upgrades while people wait on desktops and laptops, 30 mins tops.

Reinstalling an o/s, drivers, programs and updates takes hours not minutes.

The only thing you are going to lose in not trying to clone your drive is time, hours of it. :lol

[Geoffw]

Thanks for the further comments, Dave, all this to double the size of my hard drive ......... and if it's anything like putting up cupboards in the kitchen for the wife - they just get filled up and she's asking for more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Geoffw]

Well the drive turned up today (two days early!), and I've jumped in with both feet!!

As I find it is so easy to swap the drives in my notebook I've decided on the following approach.

Done so far:
1: Put the new drive in a USB Caddy and used Computer/Manage/ Disc Management to partition the drive, format and set the primary partition as active.
2: Checked the boot-up sequence was set to CD/DVD first (had to change this)
3: Removed the drive from the caddy and swapped it with the current drive.
4: Placed the Acer Vista installation disc in the drive and switched on. The Vista installation went through without any problem. The Notebook now boots up with Vista running fine on the new drive.

To do:
5: I now have to install all of the acer software, utilities and drivers, but this time I will be able to leave out all of the 'bloat' as I know just what I really need.

I'm now back to the original drive and I will continue to use it till I have re-installed all the essential software and data. on the new drive. Taking my time to get everything right.

thanks for all the advice and inputs, especial from Dave!

Cheers all.........................

[Doctor Snuggles]

Pleased you managed ok geoff.

Not sure why you bothered with the caddy using this approach as you could have just put drive in laptop and booted from installation cd, which will overwrite any formatting you do regardless, as its an image, Which is why I said find out whats on the disc you had beforehand.

Thankyou for the thanks!
Best wishes,
your welcome.

[Geoffw]

Pleased you managed ok geoff.

Not sure why you bothered with the caddy using this approach as you could have just put drive in laptop and booted from installation cd.......
I thought that might be the case.... but as I had the caddy handy (to put the discarded DH into as an external drive) I tried it first.

Cheers all!