Software to copy one drive to another

[jgbishop]

I have two identical 80GB hard drives (just got them). My system drive is much louder than the other one (which I use for gaming), so I'd like to swap them out if at all possible.

What programs are out there that would allow me to copy the entire contents from my C drive to my D drive (boot sectors and all)? I think Ghost might do this, but I don't know where to get that (although I haven't looked).

Also, what is the best strategy to do this? Create the image of drive C *on* drive C? Or put it on D? Or on a third drive (either hooked up to the machine or over the network)? The image wouldn't be too huge. With compression, I estimate ~4GB or so (my problematic drive is currently using 10 GB).

 

[corkyg]

Download Acronis TrueImage 8.0, and use the CLONE feature. It will create for you a bootable CD - then boot to that and have both drives connected. Use CLONE - and then select MANUAL. Select the source drive and the target drive. You can tell it to zap all data and partitions on the target drive. Then preserve the data on the source drive. It takes about 10 minutes for a 80 GB drive - I have 6 of them and clone them weekly as pairs. That way I always have a backup drive ready to go with no restore or imaging needed. Ghost sucks!

 

[jgbishop]

Great. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Jeff7]

Just be sure to do that exactly as Corkyg said - use the Disk Clone feature. Imaging a partition doesn't copy the Master Boot Record (or the boot sector? I don't know the difference, really). There are programs out there to copy the MBR, but I don't know how well they work, and I don't know if that's all you'd need.
But the Disk Clone will copy all the boot info too.

Just figured I'd toss that info in there, so that you don't wind up with an unbootable drive after your old drive gets wiped, like somone here did very recently.
Imaged the partition, but not the MBR. Without it, the system couldn't find a drive to boot off of. I tried a utility to copy the MBR from another bootable drive, but I guess it wasn't the same. Windows started to boot, but it blue-screened: Unmountable Boot Drive. Time to reinstall Windows then.

 

[dunkster]

HD manufacturers offer free utilities that do this (WD Data Lifeguard, Maxtor MaxBlst, etc.). They're free and they work. I've used both in the past to transfer complete contents to a new drive, including installed partitions.

Hope this helps!

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: dunkster
HD manufacturers offer free utilities that do this (WD Data Lifeguard, Maxtor MaxBlst, etc.). They're free and they work. I've used both in the past to transfer complete contents to a new drive, including installed partitions.

Hope this helps!

These utilities just need you to drop in a floppy.
When you execute the downlaoded app, they then install a booting Os and copy application on to the floppy.

Then just boot the floppy and follow the instructions to copy from one drive to the other.
As long as one of you drives is from the manufacturer, you are all set.

 

[StevenYoo]

Acronis worked like a charm for me.

wonderful piece of software.