How do I image a system disk to a USB HD?

Hello.

I have a friend with a laptop that has a failing hard drive. It will boot, but only after about an hour or so. I plan to replace the drive, but she's lost her recovery disks.

I was going to pick up a new drive and put it into a USB drive enclosure and then image her HD over to it. Is this even possible? What software would I use for this if it is?

I can always stick the drives into a PC and do it that way, but that's a lot of work. If I can image to an external USB drive, that would be much better. If anyone knows how to do this, I would be grateful to know how.

Thanks.

Imaging to a USB drive is actually extremely straightforward, and the preferred path.

I would recommend you use the FREE version of Macrium Reflect. Its very highly regarded here, and very easy to use.

Use this tutorial as a guide:
Imaging with free Macrium

Macrium is my preferred solution also. You can do it with Windows built in imaging if you prefer. Just connect the USB HDD and it should appear as an option in the backup configuration.

Thanks everybody. I'll try Macrium. Will it result in a bootable drive?

No. Macrium creates image files on the target drive. You will need a recovery disk to restore them. You can either create one yourself or there is a link to a pre-built one in the tutorial in post 2 that you just need to burn to DVD.

You have a way with words milady.

Something like that.