Easiest way to migrate a laptop hard drive

[bruceb]

I have an old Toshiba Laptop with a 20GB drive that is almost full.
What is the least expensive way of imaging the old drive to a new one ?

Also what would be the best drive in terms of Cost & Performance ?
I would like to be able to do this for under $80 - $90 if possible and
putting the old drive in my main pc is too big a hassle.

It is a Toshiba Satellite 1415-S105 laptop.

Thanks

 

[daveybrat]

Only 2 ways of doing it.

1) Buy Acronis True Image 11 or an older version of Norton Ghost and clone the hard drive from the 20GB to a larger one using 2.5" to 3.5" ide adapters in your main computer.

2) Buy an external usb hard drive and use Acronis 11 to make a backup .tib file of your 20gb drive to the external and then restore the image back onto the new hard drive you put in your notebook.


Can't think of any other ways off hand.

 

[mruffin75]

I'd suggest getting a Seagate hard drive for your laptop and using their diskwizard software to copy the drive across to the new one. You'd also need to purchase a USB adaptor for the hard drive to attach it to your laptop. Don't know prices on all this, but since you're not willing to put the old drive in a desktop PC, this is pretty much your only option.

PS. Seagate Diskwizard is "Powered by Acronis".. so if you buy a Seagate Hard drive, there's no need to buy software..

 

[bruceb]

I have Ghost from Norton System Works 2003 Pro so that part is not an issue.
My main concern was which external USB IDE enclosure was best and for
a reasonable cost. Also as to what size / speed drive to buy to replace the 20GB
unit. Again best value as to cost vs performance / size

I could put the old / new drives into my main computer, but all 4 IDE ports are
in use. Two for the 2 hard drives, and the other 2 for the 2 CD/DVD drives. If I
disconnect one of the CD drives what would happen ? ?
Would XP screw up the drive letters, especially after I put the CD drives back on ?
Also to swap drives, each time you need to power down, right ? ?

 

[corkyg]

The drive letters will not get screwed up. Cloning does exactly that - it creates a perfect duplicate drive ready to boot. You can then keep the old one as a "reserve" drive.

I do this regularly with my laptop. Some can take a 2nd drive. That makes it easy. Since my old HP dv1000 had a Firewire port, I used that for attaching the external. FW is a little faster for that type of operation than USB. But - USB works.

I always use Acronis TrueImage, and I always use the bootable Rescue Disk to do it so that the laptop's own OS never gets involved.

 

[bruceb]

What I meant was if the Drive Letters on my main computer would get messed up if
I was to use the built in IDE ports of the existing CD drives to move the data off the
old drive and on the new one.

On a related vein what is your opinion of these items ? ? ?

Ultra USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable Adapter

Item Number: ULT40112
Availability: In Stock
Price: $19.99

At Tiger Direct
www.tigerdirect.com


TOSHIBA 80GB 2.5" ATA-6 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM

* 80GB
* 5400 RPM 8MB Cache
* ATA-6

$54.99 at Newegg.com

 

[Old Hippie]

Get a 2.5" case, and plug that into a USB port. No muss, no fuss, and you can use the external for storage.
You can even do your image operation by putting the new drive in the case, do the image, swap drives.