Help. Replacing Laptop Hard Drive


  1. Posts : 2
    Windows 7
       #1

    Help. Replacing Laptop Hard Drive


    I'm getting a bigger hard drive for christmas and i'm unsure how I'm going to go about cloning my current hard drive and putting it onto the new one.

    First question; what program do I use to clone my Win 7 OS to the new Bigger hard drive?

    Second question; when cloning the hardrive do I copy the hard drive to a portable hardrive then fit the new hard drive and restore? (using software from a bootable CD)

    Third and final question; By cloning my laptop hard drive and putting it onto the new bigger hard drive and using on the same laptop, will single license copy of windows 7 become invalid as it's on two hard drives?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 231
    Win7
       #2
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Wasn't a full looking answer that I was looking for but thanks for the link to hard drive cloning software.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 231
    Win7
       #4

    JunkBox said:
    Wasn't a full looking answer that I was looking for but thanks for the link to hard drive cloning software.

    How about this? IF the only hardware u change is the harddrive, you should no have trouble with the validation. Obviously, you can't take put the old HDD into another PC and expect it to be validated...
      My Computer


  5. aem
    Posts : 2,698
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
       #5

    JunkBox said:

    First question; what program do I use to clone my Win 7 OS to the new Bigger hard drive?

    Second question; when cloning the hardrive do I copy the hard drive to a portable hardrive then fit the new hard drive and restore? (using software from a bootable CD)

    Third and final question; By cloning my laptop hard drive and putting it onto the new bigger hard drive and using on the same laptop, will single license copy of windows 7 become invalid as it's on two hard drives?

    First answer: Norton Ghost 11.

    Second question: Would help if you dump the ghost image onto an extern USB HDD first.

    Third question: Nothing talking to MS can't fix...well almost nothing.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 71
    64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate (Free from Windows 7 Launch Event)
       #6

    Windows 7 Ultimate Clones Hard Drives


    I don't know if the other versions of Windows 7 also clone hard drives but Ultimate does, I've used it, here's the directions to it:

    • Start
    • Control Panel
    • Back Up And Restore
    • Create a System Image

    I am now going to try something new, I am going to do a clean install on two drives, every time I decide that I like new software that I have installed on the hard drive that I have in my PC and am using I will swap the drive and install it on the other hard drive and swap the drives again.

    If I am having difficult software problems or the OS installation degradation level is where a clean install is warranted with the drive that I am using then I will install the other drive as a secondary drive and copy it like we do when upgrading a drive then remove it.

    I don't use the other drive except for to install new software, drivers, and to copy from.
      My Computer


  7. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #7

    aem said:
    JunkBox said:

    First question; what program do I use to clone my Win 7 OS to the new Bigger hard drive?

    Second question; when cloning the hardrive do I copy the hard drive to a portable hardrive then fit the new hard drive and restore? (using software from a bootable CD)

    Third and final question; By cloning my laptop hard drive and putting it onto the new bigger hard drive and using on the same laptop, will single license copy of windows 7 become invalid as it's on two hard drives?

    First answer: Norton Ghost 11.

    Second question: Would help if you dump the ghost image onto an extern USB HDD first.

    Third question: Nothing talking to MS can't fix...well almost nothing.
    If you use Norton Ghost, you have to use the COPY function, not the image function. That will make a true clone.
      My Computer


 

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