Windows 7: How to copy data from old hard disk to new one

OS: Dual-boot Windows XP Professional x32, Windows 7 Ultimate x64. (Windows XP earlier OS)
CPU: AMD Athlon 7750 x2
RAM: 4GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 9500gt
HDD: Seagate 500GB

Hi guys. For the last two days whenever I am starting my PC, just after the MB logo, I am shown a black screen where at the bottom it is written 4th Master Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD. On searching the net, I found that it indicates my HDD is dying. I am going to buy a new one. How do I transfer the data from the old one to the new HDD? I am not concerned about installed programs, only things like data files, images, songs and such things.
Thanks in advance.

After you get the new hard drive and Windows installed. Either install the old drive as a second hard drive or put it in an external USB enclosure and you can copy off what you want to the new drive.

If the data you want isn't that much you could also copy it to a flash drive (USB key) or even burn CD/DVD's.

Which brings up an important point. Your user data, at a minimum should be periodically backed up to some external media or one of the on-line backup services (I like my own media better). If the drive is failing and falied completely all your data would be lost, if not backed up. Backups are not for IF they are needed but for WHEN they are needed.

Hi Firebird. Thanks for the reply. Is there any way to copy over the data without needing to use my old HDD at all once I have installed my new HDD? I do not have any flash storage device that is big enough to contain all the data I need to copy.

Most times when you buy a new HD it comes with (or downloadable) free cloning software.

For instance if it's a Seagate drive like you and I have, then they give you Free their rebranded (earlier version of) acronis true image and call it Seagate Disc Wizard, and it lets you Clone your old HD to your new HD all in one step, when you're done you unplug your old and put the new one in its place and boot it up normally; the new HD layout is identical to the old. I've used it and other HD cloners/imagers literally hundreds of times. If it's a Maxtor drive then that company does the same thing, etc.

Going forward for Backup Protection then you can start using Disc Wizard to make backup partition images of your OS partition as well, which you will find an invaluable tool.

There are also dozens of programs out there that Clone one HD to another, and there's hundreds of opinions of which one is better than the other too, and so ymmv.

Can I use these back up tools to back up only those things that I want to? I don't want to map my entire HDD. I have dual boot set up and with this new HDD, I plan to do away with Windows XP.

Partition imager/HD Clone programs let you create an image of a single partition, or all partitions, or exact clone of entire HD's one to the other. They do not backup just one single file per-sey, but they will let you restore individual files though yes. If you just want to backup single files or folders then just copy them to a USB stick ..flash drive or something.

Most importantly and imminent actually, if your HD is going bad though, then naturally you want to back it up ASAP in whatever way pleases you, while you still have the chance!

Thanks Endeavor. So after I have created the clone of my entire HDD, I can just restore the things I want to without the OS that is installed in it causing any problem, right? What will be the approximate size of the cloned image? The HDD I am using now has around 375-400 GB data. And more importantly, where do I save that image? I do not have any flash drive or external drive that is this big.

The cloned image will be about 60% of the actual size. I bought a 500 GB drive for only backups. One partition is for the OS/Programs and one partition is for the data. They are not that expensive these days. You might consider that.

If your boot sector or mft is corrupted, a cloned image will also be corrupted. I had a bad sector error nuke the mft on my old hard drive, and I was able to get my data back (but not restore the disk to bootable condition) using TestDisk, and a bootable copy of gparted
TestDisk - CGSecurity
GParted -- About

My boot sector got corrupted and would boot to a plain blue screen with no icons (other than the mouse pointer), no drivers, and no desktop. I installed windows to a second hard drive and hooked the bad drive up as a slave- the main partiton showed up as "raw" rather than NTFS meaning the MFT had gotten nuked. With Testdisk, I was able to find some of the folders off the old drive and drag them onto the new one. I then booted with the gparted cd and repaired the file system. After repairing the file system a second time with windows, I was able to see all the files under windows.

Strangely, my second drive (which had previously held my movie collection) developed a ton of bad sectors (Constant BSODs and SMART indicated bad sectors) in about a week. Turns out I had a bad power supply. Brand new HD and power supply are running strong.

I have a question. Is there any way to force windows and SMART to re-check the bad sectors on my two old drives. I have a feeling the drives may be physically good, but the sectors were marked bad due to garbled writes. Right now the old drives are sitting in a Blacx enclosure.

To your first question the answer is yes, but it's wording reading it again I'm not exactly sure what you're really asking since it could be taken a number of ways.

The second question as bigmck has said the compression ratio is about 60% at the default recommended compression settings. However I don't mean to be picky but the exact wording of your question has me wondering what you are asking when you say Cloned; iow, when you create a backup image of your OS partition which is predominately (but not always) C:\, or even if you created a backup of your other file storage partitions like D:\ E:\ ...etc, then it is these individual backup images that are compressed 60%. On the other hand when the term Cloned is used 'within' a software program, generally it's always talking about Cloning from one HD to another HD, and so in that case it's not compressed and it's one-to-one since it's cloning an exact copy from one HD to another. Yes though, you can create a Cloned imaged of all partitions your entire HD and save it to another medium and that image file will be compressed as well, but, doing it that way is not necessarily the best or norm, and takes much much longer but then to use it you would have to re-image that compressed image back to a HD to use it... ...and so it's much more practical if you are going to create a cloned image of your 'entire' HD you would clone it to an identical HD and save that HD aside, if/when it's needed, you unplug the old, plug in the new, and it's immediately available to boot.

You mention your HD has 400 GB of data, but you didn't say how many partitions you have on it which will determine my answer to your question. For instance my HD is 2 TB, and it's divided up into 8 partitions, three of which are OS partitions, and the others for specific things of category, like one is labeled Backup, another is Music, another is Storage, another is Movies, and so on. The Backup one is where I save my backup image .tib's for my first 3 OS partitions and is where I (second level convenience) store and backup my partition image backup files... ...Now Naturally!!! for a foolproof backup scenario you would not fully depend on storing your backup images to the same HD for obvious reasons, but it's used only as a second level but quick convenience since 99% ! of the time that is where you will draw from, but for proper first level nearly 100% foolproof backups, here is where you Always Always Always (and here's the word used in it's true sense) Clone that HD to an exact identical HD, and that secondary HD when you're done you do not leave connected in your machine but you put it somewhere safe, so that, if/when your main HD fails which they sometimes do, you simply remove it and go get your identically cloned HD, plug it in, and you are good to go...this is the ultimate backup scenario and what I and many other avid imagers do.
On the simple side of things (depending on what image program you use) yes you can easily browse your backup image files and copy/paste out of or restore to the original location individual or groups of files/folders from that image, without restoring the entire image, if that's what you were asking?

It's a big subject to talk about in a few paragraphs and I've already too many words for a simple reply, but it's sometimes not that simple.

It's best to partition up your HD yes, and that requires software and knowing how to use it too, but no matter what or which way you do it though, you will need to buy another storage medium for backup. You can use USB drives, etc for basic backup... but along side that or alone, preferably you'd buy an identical HD to the one you have in there (or even larger) for the ultimate backup % scenario.