Global Conflict

So, again, I come here looking for some help with my PC. Even after looking and reading for a few hours, I always find you guys really helpfull and comited to these things.


What do I want to do? Easy
I want to make a copy of my actual (abouttodie) HDD to a new one. With everything included, OS, files, etc.
I've seen a few different methods and software to use and the one that convinced me the most is this one "Macrium Reflect"

But I'd like to hear your opinions and/or experiences with this since that's my main HDD where I keep a lot of youtube related stuff that took me hours to set up and that I can't really lose.

The 2 HDDs are these:

Main HDD (dying one)
Western Digital SATA 2 500gb
New HDD
Western Digital SATA 3 500gb


As always.
Thank you

I always use norton ghost to clone drives. Basically you boot to the Norton ghost CD and navigate though the menu's, 2 hours later you have a exact boot-able copy of your failing drive. It also has a windows install that can automatically back up your drives to a compressed file that you save on a different hard drive according to a schedule you set. Any time you want to retrieve files from a back-up you can just browse the backed up file by double clicking on it. If a backed up drive ever fails, you can install a new blank drive, boot to the CD and it will guide you through restoring a backed up copy of the dead drive to your new drive and in two hours or so its like nothing ever happened.

Would the same apply to SSDs? Thinking about getting one...

TheNixNick wrote:Would the same apply to SSDs? Thinking about getting one...

samsung and intel SSDs come with a program that does it for you IIRC.

matsif wrote:

TheNixNick wrote:Would the same apply to SSDs? Thinking about getting one...

samsung and intel SSDs come with a program that does it for you IIRC.

Cool.

I used to use ghost, but when it became too big for a backup program, i switched to PING which is also free!

A) download YUMI in order to create bootable USB (or you can use a bootable CD if you still have a CD-ROM and find it easier...).

B) download PING, this will create an image of your partitions.

1. start YUMI, select your USB drive, from the drop down find and select PING (partition magic is not ghost).
browse to the PING.iso file downloaded in step B.
proceed with creating a bootable USB.

2.
a) put USB in hole.
b) restart computer, boot from USB.
c) YUMI screen will ask you if you want to continue to boot from HDD, or select an utility.... start PING
d) type "enter" to boot PING GUI
e) choose what to do when the job finishes, choose "reboot".
f) choose where to backup to (local partition).
g) press space to tick the partition you want to back up, then press enter
note that the first option selects restore.
h) similarly choose where to save the image....
i) backup.

when it finishes, do the same just in step g tick restore, and choose to restore to your new HDD. it will restore everything, including the original partition size.

but i think its too much hassle to go through just to clone an HDD.

i used minitool partition wizar (home edition is free) to resize partitions. I didn't try to copy partitions with it since i didn't need to, but i'd suggest using this program.
its more straight forward. you select the job and everything in a nice windows GUI, then you reboot and it executes everything automagically.
here's how to clone partitions, as easy as it gets.
note that copying hundreds of GB will take you a while (as in few hours), so be prepared.

Thanks guys!
I'll try it tomorrow probably, so if I don't show up on battleday, you know why, lol.

Can't you just set it up as redundant raid and let it copy everything, then turn it off and remove the failing one?

Fields wrote:Can't you just set it up as redundant raid and let it copy everything, then turn it off and remove the failing one?

I though about that, but idk if the OS works if I do that.

Wait a second.
Can't I just plug in this new HDD in this PC alongside with my other 2 HDDs.
Make a copy/clone of the main HDD that is about to die.
Turn off PC.
Un-plug dying HDD.
Turn on PC.
PC boots from new cloned HDD.

Makes sense... right?

no.
1) you cannot copy OS files while the OS is working.
this is why all imaging is done prior to OS load / using alternative OS.

2) simple copy won't make the HDD bootable. you also need to copy the boot sector.

i suggest you fire it up before you go to sleep.

I wondering if the steps already mentioned here, will help me.

Santa got me a 1TB HDD that I would like to use to replace my main, bootable, 300GB HDD. Also, I think I would like to keep the 300GB HDD but not have it bootable - can I just reformat it?

What are my options? Thanks! and Happy New Year

insanityrocks wrote:I wondering if the steps already mentioned here, will help me.

Santa got me a 1TB HDD that I would like to use to replace my main, bootable, 300GB HDD. Also, I think I would like to keep the 300GB HDD but not have it bootable - can I just reformat it?

What are my options? Thanks! and Happy New Year

assuming you've already cloned your 300GB to your 1TB, go into your bios and set the 1TB as your boot drive. This will set it to your C:\ drive in windows. From there, you can format the 300GB drive once you start up and you should be fine, as you will be booting off of the 1TB drive.

That's essentially what I did when I got my SSD up and running anyways.