Hard drive failing - need to transfer

[msdarnell]

I know that there are many topics on similar issues already on the board, but frankly, I'm completely lost.

Is there a step-by-step guide on how to get everything from one laptop hard drive to another one?

How do you even get one connected so you can transfer things over?

Do you need to reinstall windows on the new hard drive?

In other words, I have no idea where to even begin. I'd really appreciate any help.

 

[bruceb]

You need two things to do this:

A copy of Norton Ghost or a copy of Acronis TruImage which will be used to CLONE your old drive to the new one.
You also need something like a Bytecc BT300 USB to IDE / SATA drive adapater .. This will allow you to connect
the new drive to adapter and the adapter to the laptop USB port to run the Clone operation. Shut down when done
then swap out the drive in the laptop .. it will boot right up with no issues.

All of this presumes the existing laptop is still functioning and the computer still operates properly. If it does not
then you may need to load everything piece by piece, like with a new build.

 

[mc866]

If you are going to purchase a new drive to replace the failing one some manufacturers include cloning software, I'm pretty sure Seagate drives come with a version of Acronis.

 

[bruceb]

That is usually true. But he will still need the adapter I mentioned or similar in order to make the clone as he is doing this on a laptop.
These only have 1 hard drive connection. Other way would be to install both drives in another pc or an external enclosure on another
pc and then run the clone operation from there.

 

[mc866]

Correct, I guess my point was don't run out and by Acronis 09 just yet, especially if you need to buy a new drive.

 

[corkyg]

I do that regularly just to rotate drives in my laptop. I use an external drive case - put the new drive in it, and clone it from the laptop main drive as source. USB is OK, eSATA is better.

When done, I simply swap the drives and move on.

I can put a second HDD in my laptop via the Thinkpad Ultrabay which replaces the optical drive. Then I have to use my Acronis prepared boot thumb drive to run the operation.

Based on many years of cloning, I always recommend not doing that from within Windows. Always from bootable media created by Acronis.

If the OS is Vista, only version 11, build 1853 will do an error free clone job with no startup repair needed.

 

[msdarnell]

Thanks. I'm waiting for the drive to arrive. It's a Seagate, so hopefully it has Acronis.