Hard Drive Cloning (Laptop) - HELP!!!!

GWC Community Off-Topic/Other
#1

So my laptop is running out of storage. It’s got a 256 GB hard drive in it. I’d like to upgrade it to 1 TB to do what I need to do with it until I get a new laptop in a year or two. Can someone run by a step by step way to clone the hard drive so I don’t have to load it all from scratch? I have other computers so I do not have a problem using those desktops for the cloning process if I can’t do it while the laptop is running. I’ve heard that there are issues with a “hot” cloned drive. I’ve also heard that Clonezilla is a good freeware package to do the cloning, but is there something better? Even though I’m tech savvy please treat your response like I don’t know anything. I don;t want to screw anything up during the process.

Thanks much in advance!

~Shooter Out

#2

Depends how legit you would like to go. For cloning purposes you can use ghost or imagex
that way you can define a partition of your original size on the new laptop hdd and just bump the fresh image on to it. If you are running windows seven you can then extend the drive in to the unpartitioned space.

Imagex will create the clone of the hard drive for you over a network if required and you can then remove the original and pop your new one in. Use a memoryvstick to boot laptop with new hdd installed and deploy image.

Its a first look at the problem but contact me with questions if you need clarification
Alan

#3

if you are using linux, then in commandline:

#Find out what the harddrives are called:
mount

#say old drive on sda, and new drive on sdb

#use dd to copy drive:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

you are done…

there’s also rsync, first mount both drives, and

rsync -rltvhHpog --progress /dev/disk/path_to_disk_a /dev/disk/path_to_disk_a

something like that.

#4

The Laptop is running Windows 7.

#5

I have used DriveImageXML for backups, and you should be able to use it for what you describe. I don’t know if I can give you the step by step because I have not done it myself, but Lifehacker has a pretty good write up:
http://lifehacker.com/326086/hot-image-your-pcs-hard-drive-with-driveimage-xml

#6

imagex is free, there’s a technet article here describing what to do

#7

i have had great success using clonezilla. I followed their instructions and made a bootable usb drive, and made the image to it. i then restored that image (changing the computer name) to three other computers, so i have my fully configured windows 7 media center available in my living room, Kitchen, bedroom and basement.
Clonezilla is free and not very cumbersome. on large drives i always use multiple partitions, so if something happens to the OS, i can sort it out or even reinstall it with danger to the “data”.

I have two four TB Network attached storage devices that are RAID one (mirrored) for redundant four TB of Storage for all my media etc… and the laptops all auto backup to them as well.

Using clonezilla i can restore the image in less then half an hour, using this method. your mileage may vary.

hope this helps.

#8

Hi all,

I don’t know if this counts as a related thread, but here goes:

my laptop has served me well for 4 years, butI’m thinking of getting a new one. The harddisk has been buggy for some time - lately I can’t get program’s to load ( or update, in the case of iTunes). Something to do with broken registrys (even Norton 360 couldn’t fix that - and Norton itself is one of the program’s I can’t get to load!)

Anyways, I was wondering, if I were to get a new laptop, how do I bring over all the downloaded crap from the old to the new laptop? Do I go to the file manager (or whatever windows 7 is calling it these days) and copy & paste everything over to the new laptop?

#9

It sounds like that (old) hard drive has malware or a virus. If i were you, i would get RKill http://download.cnet.com/RKill/3000-8022_4-75221743.html It will stop all running malware.

then i would get, CCleaner http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER and run the cleaning tool, then the registry optimizer.

then i would get a live CD http://www.techmixer.com/free-bootable-antivirus-rescue-cds-download-list/ and get a good updated scan done to clean the hard drive.

After all that, you will be in a much better place to decide if you need a new laptop or not, and if you get one, at least you know you are not moving a virus over to it.

to move the DATA. - I use a SATA/IDE to USB adaptor. http://www.amazon.com/USB-2-0-SATA-5-25-Adapter/dp/B000J2GUS0 to move data between computers. It does require taking the hard drive out of the old computer, but that is not a hard as it seems. i am sure there is a youtube vid for your make and model.

hope this helps.

#10

Thanks for all the tips! Now I’m wondering what good my anti-virus was for? Right now I’m using Microsoft security essentials - which is free - in lieu of my regular anti-virus which I’m paying $100 yearly subscription for. DOH!

#11

regarding anti virus, some good tips up there, i use a combo on the very few windows machines i run of Avast (also free) spybot search and destroy and malware bytes. try those programs first.
Alan

#12

Clonezilla is a good choice, and linux :stuck_out_tongue: