Changing to a larger drive, but vista won't let me restore.

[Hayabusa Rider]

Here's the situation.

I have Vista Ultimate 64 on C:
Since it's an upgrade I put XP on D: so if I had to do a reinstall I already had a copy of windows on the system.

So...
Drive D: starts to show signs of failing. This is a Seagate 750 GB. The replacement is a WD 1TB Caviar Black.

So it won't boot. I wanted to make the new drive the new boot drive, but nada.

When I try to do a complete restore, Vista says "not enough disks". I've learned that the restore won't work because the size of the new drive doesn't match the old. Great.

Anyway, the old drive still works, so I can put it back if I need to.

So what I want to do is make the new drive "C:" and have that be the new boot disk and put all old data on that as well.

I want to restore "D:" to one of the other three 750 gig drives.

I'm using a e-sata 1TB drive which has the back up on it.

If Vista backup isn't good for this, what about other software like Acronis?

This doesn't seem like it should be an impossible task. Suggestions?

 

[RebateMonger]

To start, Try Microsoft's "Windows and Windows Server Backup" Forum for some direct assistance from Microsoft.

 

[corkyg]

Acronis TrueImage will do the job. Use the bootable "Rescue CD" that the software prepares, and simply clone the old drive to the new drive. Your OS is not involved and no restoration is needed.

 

[KGB]

Actually, all HDD manufacturers utilities (MaxBlast, SeaTools, etc.) have a function for cloning. FREE!

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Got it fixed. Used Acronis, then unplugged all drives except for the new one. Wouldn't boot, so I used the Vista install disk and did a repair, and it's fine now. Put the other drives in. The 1TB Caviar Black is pretty zippy

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Got it fixed. Used Acronis, then unplugged all drives except for the new one. Wouldn't boot, so I used the Vista install disk and did a repair, and it's fine now. Put the other drives in. The 1TB Caviar Black is pretty zippy

I was hoping you'd fix the "Vista Complete PC Backup". Glad you got it fixed, though.

Strong support for the Complete PC Backup program is hard to find, since it's relatively new. Most of the answers on the Microsoft forums are not coming from first-hand experience, since most folks don't have NEARLY the experience with it as with the older NTBackup program.