Windows 7: New HD installation

Hello, I installed a new 1 TB HD in my system. I would like to use this as my primary drive. My old drive is only 320 GBs. Should I clone the C: drive to the new one? Or reinstall Windows 7 on the new drive, after disconnecting my C: drive then hook up original C: drive as external to then reinstall all my programs. Is a Windows backup the way I should go? I could not create a Windows backup image. The error messages were 0x81000037 0x8007000D and 0x8000ffff. I am at present trying to create a backup image with an Acronis trial program. (Acronis has failed to do a back up 4 times now as well) Thanks for any advice, James

I would do the clone/image method if I knew the 320GB OS/apps were already all set up and updated the way I like. An fresh install onto the 1TB drive would require going through that whole process all over again.

I would check the health of that 320GB drive. Cloning/imaging apps can have problems doing their job if they have a hard time reading the original.

jatz,

1. make a SYSTEM IMAGE backup of your old drive to an external USB drive using WINDOWS BACKUP AND RESTORE.
2. make a SYSTEM REPAIR DISC which is NOT a recovery disc or anything else. Use the procedure I give to create the System Repair Disc.
3. Insert the System Repair Disc into the DVD/CD drive.
4. Power off
5. Physically remove the old hard disk.
6. Physically connect the new hard disk.
7. Physically connect the external USB disk
8. Boot up your system to the DVD/CD unit.
9. Restore the image you created from the external to your new hard drive.
10. Remove CD.
11. Power OFF
12. Boot up your drive.

Now here is some info on those steps.

Be sure to ask if you have any questions.

Simply saying backup and restore is totally inadequate if you haven't done this several times.

Tutorial for point 1: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Procedure for point 2:
=========================================================
CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC

START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button

Procedure for point 9:
USING YOUR SYSTEM REPAIR DISC

Insert Win 7 SYSTEM REPAIR DISC into the optical reader.

Shutdown your computer.
Power up your computer.

A dialog window will appear:
Select your Language Preference | NEXT button

Select desired operating system if more than 1 shown |
Use recovery tools... Radio button | NEXT button

Select the desired repair option
Startup Repair
System Restore
System Image Recovery
Windows Memory Diagnostic
Command Prompt

===============================
===============================
For Startup Repair
1) Click on System Repair and run system repair
2) Reboot
3) Repeat this sequence 3 times



===============================
===============================
For System Restore
Choose a different restore point radio button | NEXT
Show more restore points checkbox (lower left) |
Highlight the desired restore point |
Scan for affected programs (lower right) |
When you find a usable restore point, then CLOSE | NEXT |
YES | Your computer will restart to finish the restore |
After the computer has restarted, FINISH


===============================
===============================
To restore your computer using an image you created using Win 7 Backup
Click on System Image Recovery

===============================
===============================
NOTE:
You may need to tell your computer to boot from the optical drive.
Power Up your computer.
Immediately start hitting the F12 key
Choose CD/DVD from the menu

If your computer doesn’t offer this capability, try tapping the F2 key to get to the BIOS to change the boot order.
===============================
===============================


Be sure to ask if you have questions,


karl