win 7 hard drive failure

Hello ,I have just been informed by my pc running win 7 that my C drive is about to fail and I need to back up and change the hard drive,I have never been able to get the backup to work from day one error 0x81000031 keeps popping up and it will not work ,anyway I do have a new 160gb sata HD available to replace the faulty? one ,so does anybody know of a way I can fit the new drive into bay two and transfer the info from C to D ,so that I can remove the old C drive and use the new drive in its place ,sorry if this is not clear but i need to make a new C drive any help will be greatly received,I just hope I can solve it before the bloody thing packs up,It will take me god knows how long to reload everything so any help will be greatfully received many thanks peter

Hi Peter,

The sooner the better.

Attach your new HD , make a couple of partitions - the first big one for 7 , the second to store the image you are about to make.


D/L Macrium free - install it - run off the Linux based boot disc - boot it to make sure it works ok.

Make an image of your current HD and store it on the second partition on the new HD.

Boot the macrium cd - restore the image from the 2nd partition to the first on the new HD.

I suggest Macrium as it is the quickest and installs fast without a reboot.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download


[ I assume it is the 125gb drive containing your o/s that is causing the trouble?

If you don't have another drive bay/sata lead , take out the other HD ( I assume the 500gb one ) and put the 160gb drive in it's place - then do the above. ]

Good luck.

Go to the web site of the new drive manufacturer and download their disk utility. They all have a free version of Acronis True Image (tailored to their drives) these days that wil allow you to tranfer the old drive to the new.

http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...19&wdc_lang=en

Hello just a line to say thank you to those that replied ,used Acronis which worked fine many thanks peter