Easiest way to transfer full OS on laptop

[ascendant]

Ok, so I'm upgrading a hard drive in a laptop, want to transfer all the data from the old hard drive onto the new hard drive. However, it has Windows 7 on it and I do not have the installation CD for the OS. Is there a way to back up the OS from the old drive, swap the drives out, and install the OS on the new HD without a Windows installation CD?

 

[VirtualLarry]

You're looking for "Disk Cloning Software". Plenty of SSDs include some that can be downloaded and used with their brand of SSD.

Can also get a "Cloning kit" from Apricorn, that comes with a "SATA USB Wire" and cloning software. BestBuy carries it in their stores. Regular price around $30, sometimes you can find it for $15.

 

[ascendant]

You're looking for "Disk Cloning Software". Plenty of SSDs include some that can be downloaded and used with their brand of SSD.

Can also get a "Cloning kit" from Apricorn, that comes with a "SATA USB Wire" and cloning software. BestBuy carries it in their stores. Regular price around $30, sometimes you can find it for $15.

Perfect. That's exactly what I need. Thank you so much.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Perfect. That's exactly what I need. Thank you so much.

Just to anticipate possibilities, I had been led to believe that the cloning software bundled with SSDs didn't allow for partition or volume resizing. So you're target disk might have to be bigger or equal to the old storage volume.

Acronis True-Image retail can run between $50 and $80, but I thought I'd seen it offered in "special deals" for half as much. Another utility that will do "secure-erase," cloning and other operations is Parted Magic. Last time I needed to do a secure-erase, I bought it and the price was $5.

 

[John Connor]

I use AOMEI Backuper. It works without the bloat of other software. I even use it to clone a netbook to a USB thumbdrive. http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html