Windows 7: copy whole os to new hardrive??

im looking to get new harddrive and was wondering isit possible to copy whole os to new hdd?
meaning like copy whole os to new hdd so i dont have to reinstall all my programs because im going to use my current hdd as external storage using caddy and my new hdd as my sole drive
ive been told theres some program called ghost something that does it,,is this true or even possible

5 Free Apps to Clone Your Hard Drive

Hope this helps.

hello again gilly,

you want to look at disk imaging software. the program you mention is norton ghost - however there are other alternatives.

have a look at these threads.

Free drive image program from Easeus - TODO

HDD clone software

Best software for partition cloning?

Personally I use Acronis True Image Home 2010... It does exactly what you are describing...

Gilly

Its possible. Using Ghost (symantec) or Acronis True image . But the new HD may need a different Driver than the current one, and you might have to do some boot menu editing.

Microsoft and most of us recommend a clean install. Its best.

hope this helps

Ken

ok thanks for ure input guys

Just to add my two cents worth: I agree with the other on this particular subject. Acronis True Image Home is the best choice here, because it is very easy to use.

But as for requiring other drivers for the new hard drive, that may not be necessary. If you are cloning from a SATA drive to another SATA drive (or IDE to IDE), then after the clone is completed, you won't notice any difference at all in the operation of your PC, with the one exception that you will now suddenly have more free space than before.

If you are cloning from IDE to SATA (or SATA to IDE), additional drivers also shouldn't be needed afterwards, providing of course that all your driver are up to date from the word go before you do the clone.

I was recommended Clonezilla by someone on this forum. I forget who, but it is excellent and easy to use. It uses a live Linux boot from cd.

Another user of Acronis TIH (2010) here. I make weekly clones with it as part of my normal backup routine. Just pop em in place of the original drive and it's like nothing has changed. If any drivers are needed, windows will install them automatically if/when the drive is attached to the system while still within the Windows environment, which is the way I start my cloning anyway with Acronis. I highly recommend this application, not just for cloning, which it makes very easy, but also for other types of back ups and recovery options and its file destroying/wiping utitlity is also very useful from time to time.

Why not use the built-in windows complete PC backup tool? (if you have an external drive you can back up too)

Or you can capture the volume using WinPE and ImageX, which is free.