Any way to do a complete copy of a HD?

hearld500 · Post by **hearld500** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:12 am

I need to make a full copy of one harddrive onto another. This would include XP, boot records, etc. Is there anyway I could go about doing this, or would i be better off just installing XP on the new drive and transfering the files?

butters · Post by **butters** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:15 am

Just pop both of them in and move the files over.

AgentGreen · Post by **AgentGreen** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:20 am

I used this once with no problems.

http://www.download.com/Casper-XP/3000- ... ag=lst-0-5

Vchat20 · Post by **Vchat20** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:37 am

I have always heard good reviews on Acronis TrueImage. It will make an actual disc image which you can load back on the new drive.

Although I would generally recommend a fresh xp install on the new drive and transferring the necessary files over afterwards.

Skynet · Post by **Skynet** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 5:20 am

I have always heard good reviews on Acronis TrueImage. It will make an actual disc image which you can load back on the new drive.

I have a backup used with Acronis TrueImage and it worked pretty quickly. After a format the reinstallation of windows, drivers, software, etc. was a matter of minutes. Great product IMO. You get a 15 day trial or something. Just install the program and make the backup image. Once you have the image you don't need the software as it is fully bootable and will install itself when you boot from the CD drive.

SomberStrekking · Post by **SomberStrekking** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:30 am

hearld500 wrote:I need to make a full copy of one harddrive onto another. This would include XP, boot records, etc. Is there anyway I could go about doing this, or would i be better off just installing XP on the new drive and transfering the files?

learn how to ghost easiest way to do it...

Post by **pixel** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:57 am

I did this for my work computer. My home computer was just the way I liked everything and my work computer was almost the same specs as my cube, so I just did an exact copy of everything.

Rand Linden · Post by **Rand Linden** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:21 am

I've also heard that "ghost" is the easiest and most reliable way to do it.

Apparently a bunch of the mass-market (ie. Dell, etc.) use it to image their drives.

Rand.

Skynet · Post by **Skynet** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 5:02 pm

I know that acer used to do it Rand. My gf has a prebuilt system from a few years back that uses it for hdd restoration.

Sir Savant · Post by **Sir Savant** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:20 pm

driveimage xml. The only problem is that you need to run it from within windows to restore the partition, which can be dumb if you have a windows install you back up and want to put back on the same drive.

In that case, you can make a BartPE disk and put the driveimage xml plugin on it as well as the actual image, and you can place it back on.

But ghost or Trueimage might be simpler.

Any way to do a complete copy of a HD?

Any way to do a complete copy of a HD?

Re: Any way to do a complete copy of a HD?