Creating System Image (Backup) on the non-Windows Hard Drive

[youngfrankUMD]

I really don't know the best way to phrase this situation but here goes... the QUESTION part should have been last but in case you don't want to read the background (or don't need to) I put it first.

QUESTION:

How can I make a System Image of a secondary hard drive? I.e. one that is not currently running Windows and is instead connected as an additional local disk (so, for example, have Windows running off of the C drive but make a System Image of the D drive, which also has a Windows partition).

Background:

One of my desktop's hard drives failed last week. It can't load windows, but it can appear as another local disk when plugged into another desktop (via SATA cable) AND I can still access the files on the failed hard drive this way. I was able to transfer my essential files (documents, schoolwork, music, etc...) but I know that when I get a new hard drive, install Windows, and transfer my stuff back, I'll still be missing a lot of "program files" type of stuff. (Again, don't know how to say this... I mean like system-specific runtime files and registry entries, maybe?)

One example of this a DJ software that makes playlist files with music and integrated transitions, effects, etc... however the software must have access to the music index/path to manipulate the songs within the program and playlist files. The playlist files are proprietary to the system on which they were first created (in this case on the now-failed hard drive), so when I tried to copy those playlist files to my laptop--which had the EXACT same music library (and at the same path) as the failed hard drive did--they were still unable to load. I had tried this months ago, but I have since then gotten a new laptop and have yet to rebuild its library, but I am pretty sure I still won't be able to salvage those playlist files on another system. Other examples include shutdown/sleep timers and system calendar events I've programmed in from a long time ago to keep recurring (yeah I'm really nerdy like that.....)

It is for reasons like this that I want to create a system image of this drive instead of just copying the files. If there is another option (like copying the registry or something like that) I would be willing to do that also. I just don't want to lose the system-specific attributes from the failed hard drive.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[mjf]

You might want to give this great program a go:
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
Once you make an image you can mount it and extract what you want. If your old HDD has corruptions and in particular file system corruptions you may have problems but it's worth a go.
This tutorial may help
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

 

[youngfrankUMD]

I just did a little more research and it seems like a lot of threads discussing backups recommend this program. I'll give it a try, thanks for posting the tutorial too!