Windows 7 image and restore to a new HDD

karlsnooks said:

Due to questions in my mind, I'm going to pull out.

windows 7 ultimate of course ... I smell a fish...

What? You think that my Windows 7 is illegal? I got it from my university so it's not, if that's what worries you?

Refer to my original response to the OP!
If software companies allowed what was wanted to happen they would go out of business.
I stick to the EULA and expect the software Company to do the same.
However, I think it is quite fair to be able to replace your HDD when it fails by cloning or imaging without jumping through hoops.
If you upgrade your complete system then most software vendors will allow this through deactivation / reactivation.

So if I try to make the HDD image transfer I may need to reactivate Windows 7?

exactly

I would remove the Product Key before reimaging as it can cause problems having new hardware. Open an elevated command prompt to type: slmgr -upk Then after reimaging, install new Product Key at Control Panel>System link. You may need to do robocall to update hardware signature.

Using Acronis you can select an adaptive restore which removes all of the old drivers during reimaging so that it will start up easier on the new hardware. You can also change partition sizes during reimaging.

So reimage the 100mb SysReserved and Win7 partitions to the new HD selecting same drive letters, then reimage the data partition separately to its own HD as you wish.

another way is to download the trial version of Norton Ghost, which you can then use one time to make a complete, bootable copy of your HDD to another HDD

I thought he has Acronis. If not, you can download a free version to clone/image when you have WD HD's: WD Support

I doubt the free WD version has adaptive restore, though. Win7 will start up on new hardware about half the time. Sometimes it requires booting into Safe Mode to install chipset or display drivers, other time Startup Repair run from the DVD.