Cloning current HDD to larger HDD

[alfa147x]

Cloning might be the wrong term but this is what I want to do:
I have a 250 GB HDD right now and I just bought a 1 TB and another 250 GB
What I want to do is take the data (2 OS's) from the 250 and copy it 1:1 to the 1 TB except I don't want to have a 250 GB partition on the 1 TB HDD

I just want to upgrade my 250 GB to 1 TB


Thanks guys!
Alfa147x

 

[Jeff7]

Use something like Acronis TrueImage. It can create a bootable CD, or possibly a USB device. Then boot from that, and clone the drive over.
Make VERY sure you've got the source and destination right, otherwise it'll likely just go ahead and clone the "nothing" that is present on the new 1TB drive right over your data.

And it'll be able to make the full-size partition (1TB); TI might also have the ability to create separate partitions if you want, or else at least size up the cloned partition.

 

[alfa147x]

Sweet thanks a lot. I really don't have anything on there that isn't backup so this is just a convenience factor

 

[Modelworks]

Cloning is when you copy a partition or drive exactly as it is to another drive or partition.
Normally what these applications do to move a small partition to a larger space is they clone the data to the new partition , which makes the new partition the same size as old, then they resize the new partition.

I would not use TrueImage 2010 for the task. It is the buggiest software they have ever produced. Try to use an earlier version.

 

[FishAk]

It's not nessisary to clone the whole drive- just the OS/program partition, along with that little 100MB system partition some people let W7 install. All your data should be in another partition, and it simply gets copied.

I personally don't like Acronis. I like Macrium Reflect, and it's free. Additionally, Macrium will retain alignment, if the partition you clone is aligned.

 

[mv2devnull]

Any Linux Live distro, dd, gparted ...

Blunt instruments, but they just "do it".

 

[alfa147x]

Also would it matter if the drive has two OS's with their partitions formated different (Win7 @ NTFS and OS X @ HFS+)

 

[FishAk]

No, the OS's would each be in their own partition, so you just take a picture of each one. I'm running a RAID array, that isn't recognised by any of the bootable disks I've tried, except for the Windows CD. So, I installed XP in a 3Gb partition of one of my BU drives. If I boot to that drive, I can work on the array's partitions, and restore images to it. I can use the boot DC to restore images to the single drive with XP on it.

My W7 install is about 30Gb in a 40Gb partition, with all my programs, and the pagefile on a seperate partition that I don't image. The Images I keep for the W7 partition are just under 10Gb.

The important thing to remember about image files, is that they are relatively fragile. To be reliable, they must be originals, not moved, and not defragged. I keep a 50Gb partition on the inside edge of my disks, solely for the purpose of storing a few versions of my OSs, where they won't be disturbed.

 

[alfa147x]

I tried Acronis TrueImage boot image but it won't let me choose my older drive as the source I used OS X disk utility and it keeps screwing up the Win7 partition Today I'll try Clonezilla