New Hard Drive Help

[Fluffy]

My current HDD is failing, the temps are running in the 50's Celsius. The drive is at least 6 years old.

Ok now my question, how do I clone my current drive to a new one without having to reinstall everything?

 

[brummyfan]

Either of these two will clone your HD.
Macrium Reflect Free - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com
Acronis Migrate Easy - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

 

[Fluffy]

Thanks, am I right in thinking 50+ degrees C is too high?

 

[Bill2]

There are several ways to clone your hdd in addition to Macrium and Acronis. See this page.

5 Ways To Clone & Copy Your Hard Drive

Yes, 50+ centigrade is quite high unless you are sitting in the Gobi desert. Most hdds are rated only upto 55 degrees operating temperature. At normal loads and average ambient temps, it shouldnt go up more than say 45 degrees.

 

[brummyfan]

You could also check the Health status of your HD using these programs,
HD Tune website (Free Trial)
or
Ashampoo® HDD Control (Free Trial)

 

[Fluffy]

Got my new drive but transferring the system files is proving tedious

 

[Bill2]

It takes a while. Thats why i always prefer to do a fresh windows install after backing up my data to an external hdd.

 

[Fluffy]

It takes a while. Thats why i always prefer to do a fresh windows install after backing up my data to an external hdd.

Thats what I ended up doing. This new drive is mega fast compared to my old 120 gig IDE drive

 

[neo101]

For future reference >>>>

Western Digital/Seagate etc all have their own mini software progs that do this all for you.

ie test disk/read S.M.A.R.T., re/format, disk image old hard drive etc

Look up their 'download' sections

 

[Fluffy]

It wasn't too bad at the end of it all, it was just painfully slow with the old drive being best part of 6 years old and running very hot.