OK, time for musical ... err, HDs... What's a good, FREE disk cloning utility?

[AnitaPeterson]

Hi,

I'm making changes in my computer system. My second computer has a 13 GB HD, and I want to get one that's at least 40 GB. But since we're an economical family , I'll give the old HD to my sister-in-law, who only has 7 GB on her K6-2 machine - and in turn, her old HD will end up in my aunt's old P166 (LOL, she's got 860 MB, barely enough for Windows!)

As you see, this moving around requires some ingenuity. And rather than reinstalling the OS and applications and God knows what else from one machine to another, I'd rather do a nice ghosting and simply transport everything to the larger drives.

So...

What's a good, free, HD cloning (ghosting) utility? I don't want to buy one like Norton, because this will be a one-time operation only.

Your help is much appreciated.
Cheers!

 

[jamautosound]

I would be interested in this also. Thanks.

 

[Underclocked]

Are these 9x machines? Couldn't you just slave the new drive and copy the entire contents to the new one (-the swap file)? Take out the old, master the new, and boot?

 

[AnitaPeterson]

<< Couldn't you just slave the new drive and copy the entire contents to the new one (-the swap file)? >>



I guess that's possible as well - never thought of that. Still, I think a disk cloning utility would make things less of a hassle.

 

[Buk]

I believe the drive manufacturers' installation software will do this....Maxtor's Maxblast, WD's DataLifeGuard, Seagate's Disk Wizard, etc. Its a free download from their respective sites. To use Maxtor's Maxblast, one of the drives (source or destination) must be a Maxtor. Same with WD software.

Good luck.............

 

[manly]

Ghost used to have a downloadable 30-day trial.

Have you investigated whether they still do?

 

[Utterman]

<< Couldn't you just slave the new drive and copy the entire contents to the new one (-the swap file)? Take out the old, master the new, and boot? >>



That sounds like the easiest thing to do. All you have to do is use the DOS xcopy command. In dos type "xcopy D: C: /E" . D: being the old hd and C: being the new one. /E copys everything to the drive.

 

[randypj]

I've always used DI when changing systems, but my Dad has had good luck with the drive manufacturer's free downloadable clone software, as Buk said. And.....I delete the Enum key in HKEY_Local_Machine in the registry (I'M GOING FROM MEMORY....SOMEONE PLEASE CONFIRM THAT THIS IS CORRECT), which deletes everything in Device Mangler, and forces W9x to refind everything. I also have drivers for the "new" system handy....or easily downloadable.
--Randy

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Cool... Thank you all very much!

 

[ECUHITMAN]

One question about WD "Data lifeguard" tool. What exctly does this do? Here is my problem: I have just purchased a new vid card and I am having old vid driver problems (I THINK), I have tried everything I know how to get rid of the old drivers. Nothing seems to be helping. What I would like to do is wipe away the C: partition of my hard driver and reinstall windows to it. Now i know when i do this i will have to also reinstall all the programs on my d: hard drive, UNLESS i can ghost my registery. I dont know much about doing this so if someone could tell me the best and easiest way of doing this i would be very grateful.