Need A New Hdd For Laptop. What's The Best Procedure

[markg]

I have an Acer laptop.

I'm assuming it has one hard drive, that is partitioned into a C and a D drive.

I run Windows XP

All my applications are loaded onto the C drive and all my other data, photo's, work stuff etc is on the D drive.

The D drive is now pretty full and i think it's really about time that i replaced the whole HDD for one that is substantially bigger.

I have an external HDD which i use for back-ups - so i can easily copy the data content from my D drive to my external HDD drive - however the problem is the apps on the C drive.

The last time i had to wipe my C drive, it took me 4 days to reinstall all my applications because they then constantly look on the internet for the latest updates/patches etc

I'm busy at work just now and i dont want to spend another 4 days doing it.

Any quick way of copying the C drive content to a new HDD so that everything will work as it does now on the new bigger HDD drive?

Thanks in advance.

[Guest Reimar]

I have an Acer laptop.

I'm assuming it has one hard drive, that is partitioned into a C and a D drive.

I run Windows XP

All my applications are loaded onto the C drive and all my other data, photo's, work stuff etc is on the D drive.

The D drive is now pretty full and i think it's really about time that i replaced the whole HDD for one that is substantially bigger.

I have an external HDD which i use for back-ups - so i can easily copy the data content from my D drive to my external HDD drive - however the problem is the apps on the C drive.

The last time i had to wipe my C drive, it took me 4 days to reinstall all my applications because they then constantly look on the internet for the latest updates/patches etc

I'm busy at work just now and i dont want to spend another 4 days doing it.

Any quick way of copying the C drive content to a new HDD so that everything will work as it does now on the new bigger HDD drive?

Thanks in advance.

The easiest way is to cloning the old HDD to a new one and after that resizing the partitions to get the full space of the new HDD to work.

The best software IMHO is HDDClone which is also able to use external USB or Firewire HDD for cloning. I don't suggest Norton Ghost or others.

Cheers.

[markg]

Thank you Reimer.

How does cloning work?

I dont have this software myself.

This is all sounding like a trip to a PC Doctor is needed, which i was trying to avoid !

[Guest Reimar]

Thank you Reimer.

How does cloning work?

I dont have this software myself.

This is all sounding like a trip to a PC Doctor is needed, which i was trying to avoid !

No, no, it's quite easy.

Cloning works to have 2 or more HDD's connected, booting with the cloning software and producing an "mirror" of the original HDD to an other one.

I'll create an ISO Image to use to create an bootable CD for to start the cloning process. Take a look later this evening at the Download TV the ISO Image will be there.

All you need is an Burning software like Nero for to burn the ISO Image to an CD.

Cheers.

[wpcoe]

All you need is an Burning software like Nero for to burn the ISO Image to an CD.

Or, in the absence of Nero or other large commercial package, there is a very small, but quick bit of freeware (PayPal donations welcomed, but not required) that burns ISO images: ISORecorder, with different versions for WinXP and Vista

[Guest Reimar]

All you need is an Burning software like Nero for to burn the ISO Image to an CD.

Or, in the absence of Nero or other large commercial package, there is a very small, but quick bit of freeware (PayPal donations welcomed, but not required) that burns ISO images: ISORecorder, with different versions for WinXP and Vista

But that program didn't do cloning (create a mirror from one HDD to an other)! And that's what the OP wants.

Cheers.

[whimsy]

If one of either the old or new disks is a Seagate or Maxtor drive then you can use the free DiscWizard or Maxblast software to clone one disk to the other. These programs can be downloaded here: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/

DiscWizard is a Seagate customised version of Acronis Migrate Easy. Maxblast is probably the same, but I have not personally used that one.

[bkk_mike]

Personally, I take hard drive replacement as an excuse for a clean install.

i.e. Put in the new hard drive, and the recovery disks to reinstall the OS. I then reinstall applications, then copy the data off the old drive. (using an external 2.5" USB drive adapter.)

The main thing to be careful of is redoing Windows Update, etc. can take a while, and you need to ensure you've got any drivers you use.