Replacing my hdd... some questions.

karlsnooks said:

DaRonRon,

I'm late in to this, but is cloning a reasonable approach for your situation:

CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISK

START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disk button

CREATE AND RESTORE A SYSTEM IMAGE

CREATE A SYSTEM IMAGE BACKUP
· START | type Backup your computer | Enter key
· In left-hand pane, select Create a System Image
· select where you want to save the backup | Next
· Select the drives you want to backup | Next
· Start Backup button
· Finish button after completion


RESTORE A SYSTEM IMAGE BACKUP
· Boot from the System Repair CD you created.
· Connect the external drive with the backup image
· NEXT button (change language if desired)
· Restore your computer using a system image
that you created earlier radio button
· NEXT button
· Use the latest available system image radio button
· NEXT button
· Format and repartition disks checkbox
· NEXT button
· FINISH button
· YES button

CLONE A DISK

Yes, you can use the Create & Restore steps listed above when you want to replace your hard disk with one of same or larger size.

Dont worry you're not late :P

That seems a good option, but my worry is how much space would a system image use? I dont actually have an external hard drive, i have another pc with some space though, maybe 100 gig free.

ok ignore my post, i found out it will take 279 GB which is more space than i have available. I might have to go and buy an external hdd now

It is doubtful that a system image backup would takeup that much space.

Did you run Windows Backup and Restore and select the system image option?

Although you will definitely want to buy an external usb drive to use for backup purposes. I have one of about 120 GB and another of about 180 GB and I always have plenty of space left.

I use one forr backing up my netbook and the other for backing up my laptop.

I have several backups on both.

Performing a backup to the very drive you are backing up is rather futile if you ever have a hard drive failure.

external usb drives are very reasonably priced and well worth the investment.

i was wondering, since i have 2 partitions currently, if i tried to clone my current setup, when i restore it on the new hdd, will that set up both partitions or should i go and create both partitions before restoring the clone backup?

You say you have 2 partitions. I didn't read this entire thread, but I assume they are something like System C and Data D.

In that case, I would make separate images of each and store them separately on a backup drive. You might make a new system image every 2 months, but make a new data image every week. Whatever---you have more control and less confusion if they are separate.

Then you can restore each separately as needed with little confusion. You might want to restore data only, system only, or maybe both.

I think the best procedure is to let the imaging program take control as much as possible, rather than making partitions manually in advance.

but if i dont make the partitions myself, then wont both images be restored onto one partition?

DaRonRon said:

but if i dont make the partitions myself, then wont both images be restored onto one partition?

Simply make sure that all partitions that you desire to backup are included in the System Image backup that you make using Windows Backup & Restore.

When you restore, then those partitions which you selected will be restored.

You can't go wrong.

DaRonRon said:

but if i dont make the partitions myself, then wont both images be restored onto one partition?

If you make separate images of each partition, you can deliberately choose to restore just one partition. Each partition would have its own image. You would have to manually choose which image you are restoring. If you wanted to restore both, you would do it in 2 separate operations.

If you have 2 partitions in a single image, you could probably also restore just a single partition from that image. You should be able to select ONLY 1 of the 2 partitions in the image during the restore process.

But, as I said, I would make separate images of each partition so I didn't have that layer of confusion/complexity.

Whatever you do, you should get yourself familiar with exactly what options you are presented with during the restore process. You DON'T want any confusion about what is going to happen when the chips are down and you have to restore for real.

karlsnooks said:

DaRonRon said:

but if i dont make the partitions myself, then wont both images be restored onto one partition?

Simply make sure that all partitions that you desire to backup are included in the System Image backup that you make using Windows Backup & Restore.

When you restore, then those partitions which you selected will be restored.

You can't go wrong.

This seems simplest to me if im being honest.

One more question though, my C drive right now is 60 GB with 10 GB free, and my E (Data) Drive is 247 GB with 2 GB free. So if i restore the system image to a new 1 TB hdd, how will the hdd space be spread? Like will my C drive remain 60GB and the rest of the hdd be assigned to the Data Drive?

I also just noticed, i actually have a third partition named "System Reserved". I think it came with the Windows 7 install. Would that affect anything with the backup or should i just include that too in the image.