# Wanting to upgrade desktop hard drive, Can I clone the drive



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I have a decent Dell desktop and upraded the graphics card to an ATI HD5670 but I would like to upgrade the hard drive to something faster. Can I Clone the drive (make an exact copy) without having to reinstall everything?


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## jinjuku (Mar 23, 2007)

Short answer is yes. See if the drive manufacturer has a cloning utility. There are products like Achronis True Image also.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

this is venturing into uncharted territory for me. Is it as simple as putting the new drive into the same computer and cloning or is this more complicated?


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

Achronis True Image or Norton Ghost, Futureshop has both. Basically you install the hard drive and run the software. You Tube has videos so you can see what's involved.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+clone+a+hard+drive&aq=f


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Thanks Guys, I will have a look


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

What operating system are you using Tony?
Some have backup/restore built in without the need for third party software.

Cheers,
Bill.


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## jinjuku (Mar 23, 2007)

robbo266317 said:


> What operating system are you using Tony?
> Some have backup/restore built in without the need for third party software.
> 
> Cheers,
> Bill.


That process requires a lot more work than simply imaging drive A to drive B. Plus restores sometimes don't go so smoothly.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

robbo266317 said:


> What operating system are you using Tony?
> Some have backup/restore built in without the need for third party software.
> 
> Cheers,
> Bill.


Hi Bill, I have Win7 Home Premium.


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

If you have another drive available you can do a backup, install win 7 on the new drive and then do a restore.
(I use an external usb hdd to backup mine - and I tested a backup/restore to verify it works) 









If you choose to try disc cloning software double check which drive you are cloning to which as it's embarrasing to clone a nice blank disc over all your data. Also check that it is win 7 compatible.

Cheers,
Bill.


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## Jasonpctech (Apr 20, 2010)

Great free option to clone running drive http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

For WD owners use Free Acronis True Image WD Edition
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119

Get both and try em out!


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## jinjuku (Mar 23, 2007)

Jasonpctech said:


> Great free option to clone running drive http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
> 
> For WD owners use Free Acronis True Image WD Edition
> http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
> ...


That WDC is what I was talking about. HD manufacturers almost always have a utility for imaging to their drive.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Well I bought the drive its a Seagate - 500GB Barracuda 7200.12 SATA III w/ 16MB Cache, Dont know if that makes any difference.


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## gorb (Sep 5, 2010)

Um, what's your current drive? What makes you think that drive will be any faster?

If you want to upgrade your system drive, you should go SSD or something


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

The current drive is only an 80gb SATA II 5400rpm I got the 500gb drive for free with a Windows7 DVD all for $99 If the 500gb is not really going to improve my speed I will look at other options. 
The reason i want a drive that has faster access time is I frequently play a 3D railroad simulator called Trainz simulater 2012 that loads a lot of 3D items off the hard drive as your driving the routes.
Game info here


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## Jasonpctech (Apr 20, 2010)

Great deal


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Jasonpctech said:


> Great deal


Ya tell me about it and in Canada too boot from a local computer store. 
Deal can bee found here for all you Canadians on the Shack.


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## Jasonpctech (Apr 20, 2010)

Now even though you have Win7 x64 you wont ever need more than 4gigs ram for HTPC tasks so don't waste money on 4 or more gigs ram. I would pick a 2ghz or faster multi core AMD (for cost) CPU I use a tri`core 2.8ghz. your also looking for a good quality 80plus rated Power supply this will be on alot if you DVR shows.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

My PC is already a dual core 2.4Ghz AMD 64bit but its about 2 years old now. And I have 4 gig of ram installed.

Update: I went to the Segate site and they have the utility to backup or clone a drive, its made by Acronis and it worked great!
Thanks for everyone's help


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## phillihp23 (Mar 14, 2012)

jinjuku said:


> Short answer is yes. See if the drive manufacturer has a cloning utility. There are products like Achronis True Image also.


Acronis is great! Not only for transferring to another larger drive but incase of virus or other issues. Anytime I build a computer a load all software programs etc. then I make a full system image onto DVD's with Acronis.
Makes it easy to reinstall everything if need be, or load onto a new harddrive.

Have repaired pc's infected with viruses many times doing this (family members). First I would scan and remove virusus, recover any documents photos etc. Then do a fresh install with the Acronis Image and reload there documents and photos. Rather just stop by the pc and insert another disc every so often than sit there clicking prompts for days while re-installing OS, Software, etc.


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## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

+1 for Acronis. Have used it for several years.


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

Tony its VERY easy using a new Western Digital drive ....they have a free download utility that will clone your old drive ez as 123.... and they are very reliable drives.....:hail:


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## Jusbegood (Dec 24, 2006)

You may need to upgrade to a WD 160GB internal HDD @ 10k RPM. I've found this to be a boon


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## epereira (May 12, 2008)

I have used Norton Ghost a multitude of times without any problem. You need to attach the new drive to your computer (with the old one still in place), boot from a Ghost CD or disk, and then select clone disk...follow the instructions and when done, shut down your computer, remove the old drive and replace it with the new one (ensure any jumpers are correctly set, reboot and you are golden!


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## pharoah (Jul 21, 2012)

you could download hirens boot disc.its free,and has a clone utility thats easy to use.it boots a version of linux and just run the clone utility.it has other cool uses as well.


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## easytim (Oct 31, 2011)

I use HD clone for Windows 7 Home very good program, it works well


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

So how did you get on?
Did you clone your disc and did it work? :waiting:


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## easytim (Oct 31, 2011)

easytim said:


> I use HD clone for Windows 7 Home very good program, it works well




I used the free version to make a hard drive clone with windows 7 64bit on it, this program worked perfect

http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html


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