Hard Drive Clone

Hello, is it possible to make a bootable clone of my existing hard drive and replace my existing hardrive with the clone. I have Vista SP2 32 BIT and the hardrive is making a low buzzing noise so I think it's on it's way out. I saw a product online Disk Clone Wizzard kit 3.0 that claims you can clone your hardrive and just replace the old with the new. Would this be a good to use for what I need to do?

thanks,
again

 

Hello and welcome to MajorGeeks!

Yes, it is possible and easy to clone hard drives. There are even free products that do it!

One I would recommend is:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/EASEUS_Todo_Backup_Free_Edition_d6195.html

This program is free and has been widely used by members here so we can provide help if you need it.

 

Hello Collins and thanks for the info. So after I pick up the new hard drive all the info to clone and replace the hardrive is in the program you recommended?

Thanks,
Again

 

Yes, everything you need will be there to clone the hard drive.

Easus have created a tutorial video to guide you through this. It is found on their site here: http://www.todo-backup.com/backup-resource/copy-and-clone-hard-drive.htm

 

ok thanks, so how would I connect the new hardrive to my computer to use as the destination for the clone. In other words can I just connect the new hardrive, send the info to it and than just swap out the old hard drive for the new one? sorry I've never done this before.

Thanks,
Again

 

It depends on the type of drive you buy and what connectors you have available in the computer.

Can you please post the make and model of the PC?

Also, have you purchased a drive yet? If not, have you thought about which type you need/what size you want?

 

yes I have a dell inspiron 530 it has a WD SATA 500 GIG HARD DRIVE with VISTA SP2 32 BIT OS, I have a new WD 1 TB hard drive good to go. Now I have the case open I see the buzz noise is coming of a small fan located on the video card (I think its the video card it's right where the monitor plugs into the back) and it needs to be cleaned. Still I would like to proceed with the clone this way if it dies I can replace it fast, quick and in a hurry.

 

OK, so all you need to do is to turn off the computer and plug in the new hard drive to another SATA port with a second SATA cable, and into the power.

Be careful when you clean the fan, as there is thermal paste underneath it which creates a seal that should not be broken. So if possible do not remove the fan. By the way, if the fan is like the one in the picture it is covering the CPU not the graphics card.

http://en.community.dell.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3515/2604.Inspiron-530.jpg

The graphics card is the card with the black edge at the bottom of this photo.

 

Also the hardrive 5 wire connector has an empty connector paralleled off it

 

If you mean the larger flat connector with one yellow wire and two red wires and two black wires that is the power wire. The data (SATA) cable is the thinner red one.

 

ok thanks again, so i need a second sata cable that connects to the new hard drive and should be plugged into the empty 8 pin socket on the existing hard drive and plug the plug thats paralleled off the existing hard drive plug for power.

ALSO the fan is a small one on the horizontal pc board under the heat sink thats under the large fan. th fan is facing down toward toward the bottom of the box. I usually use a straw connected to a vaccum to clean the dust out of the fans than use a q-tip to clean the thin layer of dust thats left on the fan blades.

see attached photo

 

ok so I need to get another SATA cable plug it to the new hard drive and where do I plug the other end? into the empty 8 pin slot on the existing hard drive?

thanks

did you get picture i attached with last post?

 

picture

 

now when I wanted an identical replica of my HDD for back-up purposes I did use an EASUS program for this purpose. I had the advantage of using a notebook which meant that I could set the boot drive to an external USB drive. I replicated my internal HD to a USB drive of identical nominal capacity, checked my notebook would boot from that replica, and stowed the replica away in safe place. No messing about with the internals of my PC.
(I assume the terms replica, clone and image are synomous in this context)

Aren't there USB external drives which if you remove the caddy they are SATA inside which having made your clone you replace inside your PC where the old drive used to sit ? (if necessary)

Anyway, it seems to me you have this part of the issue solved. A word of warning about WD HDD drives...mine (another hdd entirely) came with software on it that you won't need and before I knew it it had installed this software on my PC.

Dumb_Question
17.April.2013
as from HP Pavilion dm4 1050ea - windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit - 8GB RA

 

Hello and thanks for the info. My problem is I read the Easus clone tutorial and I'm still lost. Also I think I have one bad sector on my hard drive. Doesn't seem to affect the operation of my computer. SO

When using Easus how to I get the copy of my hard drive to the new one?

Where do I connect the new hard drive so I can use it as the destination disk

Will the new hardrive contain the bad sector?

There is only one hard drive yet I have C: drive for OS and D: for recovery, does that mean they are both on the same hardrive and the hard drive is partioned?

Do I choose clone by sector option?

Will Easus copy both C: and D: in one run or do I clone C: and D: seperatly?

Do I choose disk clone or partion clone?

WHAT is optimize for SSD and do I need to check that box?

Sorry but again I have never done this before and the Easus website is no longer offering support for the free version and their tutorial is geared toward people who know what their doing. For me the instructions are vague. I'm in the alarm business and programing an alarm panel is childs play compared to this stuff.

Thanks,
Again

 

I can only some of your questions, as I can't remember lots of what I did. I can (mostly) speak only from my own experience, and I will do my best for you. I purchased a disk identical in size (capacity) to the intended source disk, even though it would have been cheaper to get a larger one. Also it was formatted in the same format (NTFS) though I'm not sure how necessary that is. When I did this procedure many years ago on my old desktop I created partitions identical in size to the C: and D: drives, calling them J: and K: I used a different cloning program, written by a German to copy the virtual C and D to J and K in two separate operations. I've never had to use J or K and they're still there the same as when I copied them (unless AVG thought it detected a virus on one of them and modified it). When I did that the recovery section was hidden so I'm not sure I got that using that method. That external disk also two other virtual drives, L: and M:, which I use. That PC does not have the ability to boot from a USB interface.

Hopefully others will be able to answer the bits I can't, or correct the bits where I have got something wrong..

Run the Easus program, tell it which is the target disk (disc to be copied TO) and which is the source (disc to be copied FROM). !! Be very careful here !! As I remember you fill in boxes. Also I think you have select what type of operation you wish to carry out from a list (drop down ?? I don't remember). I may not (probably wasn't) have been the same EASUS program, I chose what appeared to be the simplest, I don't think it was the TODS version, I think I made a CD or DVD and put it on that. I don't remember any tutorial, I remember that I stopped after a bit the first time, and started again for some reason, the copying process (320GB) took a few hours.

I just connected the external USB disk to my PC via a USB cable to a USB port on my computer. I guess you could connect a disk any place it works, eg a spare internal bay in your computer by a SATA interface as you were discussing. I found more straightfoward to go the USB route. My idea was to make an image of the copy to new internal disc in case of failure of the old internal disc.

I don't know. The sector won't contain useful information, but it shouldn't be physically "bad". You should run chkdsk on your old disk before copying if possible (/f)

If you make a whole (physical) disk image all the partitions should be there. I wanted to make a bit for bit copy of my original, and that was I seemed to get. I think this is one of the options.

I don't think I did, but I can't remember. I chose the lowest level of copy: I wanted a bit for bit copy (which probably wasn't an option)

When I performed this procedure it made copies of C: and D: in one go. Remember, I asked it to make a copy of the physical disk.

I think what I would do should be clear by now : disk clone.

I can't answer that I'm afraid



I didn't much look at the EASUS website, except to download the program. I might look out the optical disk I seem to remember haaving made, but don't hold your breath.

I hope my answers have been of some help, but I fear I was using an older version of the program which was maybe simpler to operate.

Dumb_Question
18.April.2013
HP Pavilion dm4 1050ea - windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit - 8GB RAM

 

thanks for attempting to help me . I will try to search the internet for step by step instructions to do it other wise i will just take it to best buy and pay the geeksquad to do it.

Thanks Again

 

ok, I looked out my EASEUS CD (easier than I thought)

I made the CD (which means that it is less than 760MB, probably much less) back in July/August 2012. It's EASUS ver 2.3.1. The CD is bootable, I think you have to boot from the CD, not from your normal disk, and this ernables you to treat source and target on an equal footing and have access to all areas of your normal HD. I attach a screenshot of what is on the CD, not that I've ever looked prefore, I just booted from it straight ito the EASEUS program.

Dumb_Question
19.April.2013
HP Pavilion dm4 1050ea - windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit - 8GB RAM

 

I'm amazed no one has mentioned the software tool you can get from WD to clone your old drive to a new one. WD provides an Acronis True Image WD Edition to help buyers of WD drives clone their old drive to a new one. I used this a few years ago to install a new and larger hard drive in my laptop. I bought an external enclosure at the same time I bought the hard drive. Then, I downloaded WD's software tool and installed it, installed the new hard drive in the external enclosure, connected the external enclosure to the laptop via USB port, cloned the old drive to the new one, removed the new hard drive from the external enclosure, removed the old hard drive from the laptop, installed the new hard drive in the laptop, and the laptop was ready to run with the new hard drive.

In my case, the old drive was 80GB and the new one was 320GB. At the beginning of the cloning procedure, Acronis True Image WD Edition gave me the option to have the software create partitions on the new drive of the same size as the partitions on the old drive or to revise partition sizes. Of course, if I elected to leave partitions the same size, the new drive would have unused/unpartitioned space which could later be designated to additional partitions or used in resizing existing partitions.

Since you're working with a desktop system which has space for a second internal drive, I'm sure you could connect your new drive internally, as other posts have mentioned, and then use Acronis True Image WD Edition to do your cloning. Or, you could use a USB external enclosure, as I did.

 

usafveteran yours has been the best advice so far.. I have followed this thread throughout and various advisers have succeeded in making the task impossible. The beauty of Acronis is that it allows you to copy an image to another disk of a different size.

Macrium free Edition is another good one although it only allows you to copy to a disk of the same size .

 

Thanks again Dumb_Question, (I have a lot of those). thanks usafveteran, so than what I need to do is download Acronis, then connect power to the new hard drive than I can use another Sata cable to go from the new hard drive to one of my 4 external USB ports and use the Acronis to use that USB port as the destination disk. Is this correct?

Thanks,
Again

 

I'm having a little difficulty understanding your post; I'll respond based on my understanding of it. If you use an external enclosure, one which connects to a USB port, you would install the new hard drive in the external enclosure. It then becomes your destination drive as you proceed with the cloning by using the WD version of Acronis. Using this approach to cloning, you would not need another SATA cable to do the cloning. Once the cloning is done, you would need another SATA cable IF you were going to then have both the old and new hard drive installed in your computer at the same time. If you intend to remove the old hard drive and replace it with the new drive, then you would not need another SATA cable.

If the old drive seems to be still usable, you could put it in the external enclosure and use it as an external hard drive. When shopping for an external enclosure, make sure you get one that is for the size (3.5" or 2.5") and type (IDE/PATA or SATA) of drive. Here's an enclosure for a 3.5" SATA drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182155