I’m going to be changing out a failing hard drive on a Windows 7 computer. The hard drive manufacturer for the new drive has a cloning software program (Acronis True Image) to simplify the process. I’ve used these programs before, with mixed results. This process works quite seamlessly when you clone exactly the same size hard drive but when you go from a 360 GB (original) to a 500 GB (new), you can end up with larger than desired partitions. (I cloned a laptop drive once and ended up with a huge 23 GB recovery partition out of the 120 GB drive) This particular drive has 160 GB (approx 44%) & 200 GB (56%) partitions and the recovery. I would like the keep the % of drive space the same for the C & D partitions, but want to keep the recovery partition the same actual size. I’m not sure if this cloning process will be much of an issue as it is a custom-built PC that doesn’t have any additional ‘bloat ware’ on it. Can someone shed some light on this process, instructions, and/or experiences? The program comes with some auto features where you don’t have to do anything but press “clone” or there are some advanced options to allow greater control of the sizing of partitions. I find the instructions in this section a bit confusing to understand and want to get it right the first time.
