utility for complete copy of harddrive

Fayd

Diamond Member
Jun 28, 2001
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www.manwhoring.com
i want to make a complete copy of my laptop's harddrive..prior to moving to win7 RC.

it's got XP on it now.

i have an ESATA/USB hard drive cradle, and a spare 160 gig harddrive sitting around. so compression or whatever isnt a problem.

i just want to make a complete copy of the harddrive, so that should i need to i can restore the contents of the drive without issue.

what utility would allow me to do this?

it must be bootable from USB key (netbook, no CD drive), and it must be free. (i'm cheap)

any suggestions?
 

bruceb

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2004
8,874
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Or you can do it the easy way and just get another hard drive for under $50 .. just swap it in and install the new os.
Then if you want to go back to the other one, just swap the drive again.
 

Absolution75

Senior member
Dec 3, 2007
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Seagate (SeaTools) has their own free version of Acronics avalible if you have a Seagate HD in your pc. I think WD does the same thing.
 

EagleKeeper

Discussion Club Moderator<br>Elite Member
Staff member
Oct 30, 2000
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Originally posted by: Absolution75
Seagate (SeaTools) has their own free version of Acronics avalible if you have a Seagate HD in your pc. I think WD does the same thing.

Most manufactures have a utility to clone a drive of theirs (must be as source or target)

 

WildHorse

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2003
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I use Acronis True Image which works wonderfully, but you have to buy it.

If you want something free you can use the xcopy command built into Windows.

Just click on Windows Help and Support and search for XCOPY,

or take suggestions of other good people who posted here.
 

RaiderJ

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2001
7,582
1
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Clonezilla.... although I haven't ever run it off a USB drive. Would like to see someone show me how!