Windows 7: Replacing hard drive and restoring everything

I have a 4 month old HP laptop whose hd is failing. The good news: they are sending me a new hd. The bad news, it is a blank hard drive. So I need to restore everything on it, including the system. Time is of the essence because I have 3 days after it arrives to return the defective drive to HP or they will charge me for a new HD.

My OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

1. I have an external USB HD which I use for backups. I normally use Paragon 10.2 free version of their backup for my backups, but I just created their "Rescue CD" which does boot up successfully on the laptop but after booting leaves me with an empty blue screen. So that will not help me restore to the new HD. (I have a support question to them about this but their knowledge base is not clear so I am not sure if they will resolve my question in time).



2. I also made a Windows backup image to the external HD but when I put in the new HD I will have no way to access the external HD to restore from it.

3. Will the "windowsImageBackup" restore system and data well? Including partitions I created?

4. Is there some way I can create a boot CD that will let me access
a) the external HD
b) Windows restore capability to restore "windowsImageBackup"
c) Paragon's software to restore its backups

5. Does anyone have a Paragon backup CD iso (or any other boot cd) that will successfully bootup to Windows 7 64 bit and allow me to restore from my external HD?

Thank you for any help and advice. This is nerve-wracking.

Hi, I believe what you are looking to accomplish can be done by creating a system image (Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup) which just clones your entire HDD including personal settings etc.

You can restore the image to your PC using the tutorial at System Image Recovery.

I hope this helps but It's always worth backing up your documents folder etc manually as well just to be safe.

If the paragon Backup CD won't boot then it probably never will, so I'd stick with the System Image.

Oli

I suggest cloning the old drive to the new one using CloneZilla.

Thank you both. I can create the windows backup image and have done so. But how do I boot up the laptop with the new blank HD so I can restore the image? That is what has me worried.

> You can restore the image to your PC using the tutorial at System Image Recovery.

This tells you how to do it
1) From Backup and Restore in the Control Panel
2) From the System Recovery Options Screen

That tutorial assumes you have a working OS to go to. I will not when I put in the blank hard drive, and therefore not be able to go to neither the Control Panel nor the System Recovery Options Screen. Hence my concern.

How do I create a boot CD that will let me get to my backups on an external USB hd?

Use a Windows 7 DVD or Repair Disc. Here is a tutorial for creating a repair disc: System Repair Disc - Create

You cannot count on Windows 7 Backup image utility to reimage a new HD in every case.

If you want to have the operation be failsafe then since you have time to prepare I suggest you make another besides Windows image.

I would use free Macrium Reflect to save another backup image which you can apply if necessary using a Linux bootdisk which Macrium will make for you.

Thank you. I will install Macrium reflect and do as you say. Better safe than sorry.

This may help: Imaging with free Macrium