Cloning a Hard Drive Questions

[GamerKingFaiz]

No, no, no. I'm not messing with any imaging, partitions, or the like. I'm simply going to clone the drive exactly over to the RMA'd drive, meaning it WILL have the OS on launch, right?

 

[Phone Man]

Yes if the cloning works properly (and it should) you will have an exact copy with OS and everything in place. Just keep everything on your old drive for a while until you are sure the new drive is OK.

Jim

 

[Night Hawk]

I wouldn't even bother trying to use the 80gb for a storage but set it aside and grab a summer deal on a larger capacity drive for long storage. The prices on drives have come down considerably over the last few years now seeing 2tb drives for under $200 and smaller 500-650gb models for less then half that.

The 160gb will provide a larger OS drive while packing the 80 for a consideration on increasing storage capacity for the external is something to consider as well.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

I do understand that, but at the moment I am actually putting my money towards my first PC custom build.

So I'm just going to use the 160 GB for internal storage and the 80 GB as external storage on my laptop, and just leave my laptop alone. And focus more on my future PC.

 

[Night Hawk]

Agreed!

Once you get into a desktop you will find that even far more interesting for a variety of reasons as far and including options for increasing storage.

For the time being you may still want to keep the present working copy of Windows on the 80gb intact in case the replacement runs into more problems for some reason. At least you still will have a working drive and an OS to work with.

If the cloning succeeds you may still want to create a backup with the Window Easy Transfer tool to store on a second partition if you do end up splitting the 160gb just in case you end up needing to perform a clean install at some point. Removable media of course is another option to back things up just in case.

 

[JonM33]

Hey guys, I have a 160 GB Samsung external HDD that I sent into RMA, and I was thinking when I got it back I'd replace it with my notebook's 80 GB Seagate HDD.

My question is, can I simply use the enclosure (which connects via USB) and some cloning software (such as Seagate's DiscWizard software) to transfer over all the data (files, applications, OS, etc.) to the external HDD and then simply put the external inside the laptop, and use the old HDD as an external?

Is this possible, and if there are any better options (such as better cloning programs), please let me know.

Yes, Seagate's DiscWizard is an OEM version of Acronis TrueImage. You can use it to clone your Samsung to your Seagate drive.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

The only thing I'm worried about is that I'm going to be going from a Seagate to a Samsung.

Meaning a Samsung drive is the destination drive instead of a Seagate, that wouldn't pose any problems, right?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I've wondered about that type of thing myself.

At one time, I thought the requirement was that the destination drive had to be a Seagate.

Now, I think the only requirement is that you have at least one Seagate drive installed--whether source or destination.

If you had no Seagate drives at all, I think the application would not install or would not start.

 

[drum4life2death]

Sorry to but into this guys. I just got done doing all that transfer/merge/copy the partitions on my notebook after wiping vista clean off everything. I started getting in a hurry and put my Windows 7 on the wrong hard drive. Which made my D: a C:...it was all backwards. And the drive is only a 30gig logical just for all the back up from my main 260gb drive. Anyway...This is the tool that kicks
**S for anything you'll ever want or need in ur tool for the job. I bought the pro version just to support the makers, but the free one is the exactly same except a couple things. Use it. Here is the link. And it's called "Partition Wizard." You'll thank me later........BEST FREE Partition Manager Software for Windows supports all 32-bit & 64 bit Windows No-server OS.........no more worries mate.

 

[Night Hawk]

I've wondered about that type of thing myself.

At one time, I thought the requirement was that the destination drive had to be a Seagate.

Now, I think the only requirement is that you have at least one Seagate drive installed--whether source or destination.

If you had no Seagate drives at all, I think the application would not install or would not start.

The problems would more likely be trying to create an image from a drive made by a different manufacturer if that's the case with the 80gb drive not being Seagate. The image or backup created is later restored to the same brand of drive at least following the rule of thumb there.

Images and backups from and restoration to would be how that works since their verson of Acronis is suited only for that brand of drive while images and backups made can be stored on other brands. The same as what is seen with one brand's drive diagostics tools intended for that brand only.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The original poster has no current intention of doing any imaging or backup or storing of anything.

He intends to clone, as he has said many times in this thread.

Does anyone reading this have first hand I say first hand experience with CLONING with the Seagate version of Acronis when the source drive was not Seagate?

Does anyone reading this have first hand I say first hand experience with CLONING with the Seagate version of Acronis when the destination drive was not Seagate?

 

[Night Hawk]

He intends to clone, as he has said many times in this thread.

We're already all aware of that.

We're already all aware of that.

Should I go on?

or smply mention the options were simply being pointed out since Acronis is an imaging and backup not cloning software to begin with! The program familiar to most by this time would be Norton Ghost.

 

[Phone Man]

On Seagate site the Disc Wizard software states at least one Seagate or Maxtor disk is required. It also shows CLONING to a USB drive so I think the OP should have no trouble with his system. It has the option to erase the source disk or to leave it as is and as I have said it is better to leave it so at least for a while he will have a backup.

Jim

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

It has the option to erase the source disk or to leave it as is and as I have said it is better to leave it so at least for a while he will have a backup.

Jim

Yeah, I plan on keeping the source drive as is for a week or two (maybe more), and see how the RMA'd drive works before I format the old drive, hopefully it doesn't die right after I format the old drive, hehe...

*knock on wood*

 

[Night Hawk]

That will certainly you there! For running any drive externally you may still want to consider a few of the other external enclosures particularly having better cooling to keep the drive temps down. One of the original complaints seen when the usb external HDs were first out was overheated drives failing on people.

As far as what Seagate is providing as far as what features you'll notice they use their own brand name on what they have there. The WD download is named Acronis not WD anything besides the WD version of Acronis.

 

[drum4life2death]

Disk Wizard should work fine for him. I used it on my old laptop to clone onto my self-installed seagate. I finally caughed up the $20 to get the pro features. I have yet to find something it cant do, or doesn't have a "wizard-tool" for. I wasn't intending on throwing him (you) any app, I just heard about. I have experience with this stuff.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

So I got the drive back in the mail today, and it still isn't being recognized in the enclosure. I decided to just pop it in the laptop and try installing Windows 7 on it (through DVD), and lo and behold, the installer did recognize the drive.

SO, I think this whole time the problem was the enclosure...
So I wasted the $5 bucks on shipping where I could've just spent the money and gotten an enclosure...
>_<

*sigh*

Is there anyway to clone the drive without an enclosure? Or maybe even resorting to imaging, if necessary?

 

[Computerguys]

Why not????

What if you use casper latest edition, select

1) Auto
2) 80 as your primary
3) 160 as your target
4) Don't touch the auto partition
5) Ready to go

Whatz d problem??

Is this what you mean:

You get the 160 back from RMA and put it back in the enclosure.

You then clone directly from the 80 notebook internal to the 160 as it sits in the enclosure.

And then remove the 80 from the notebook and replace it with the 160 from the enclosure.

And then put the 80 into the enclosure.

If that's what you mean, the only hangup I can think of is that maybe you can't clone to an external drive. That's quite possible. You can image to one of course, but cloning is a different operation.

Worst case scenario--you try it and fail.

 

[Phone Man]

So I got the drive back in the mail today, and it still isn't being recognized in the enclosure. I decided to just pop it in the laptop and try installing Windows 7 on it (through DVD), and lo and behold, the installer did recognize the drive.

SO, I think this whole time the problem was the enclosure...
So I wasted the $5 bucks on shipping where I could've just spent the money and gotten an enclosure...
>_<

*sigh*

Is there anyway to clone the drive without an enclosure? Or maybe even resorting to imaging, if necessary?

Thats a bummer. First I would try the external in a different USB port if you have one. Or take it to a friend and plug it into his system and see what you get. That way you will know for sure. The other way is to put both drives in another computer (desktop) that has extra internal ports and then clone between the two. If you do this, do NOT boot from your drives. Threat them like extra drives.

Jim

 

[Night Hawk]

If you did go out and buy a separate enclosure rather using the ones you get with the drive itself you can find some that are worth the effort. Then you can take away the problematic enclosure you have at the moment and not worry about having something better.