Drive Imaging Question

[fenton06]

I am getting a new drive for my laptop this week, and I want to make an image of it to put on the new one. I will have an external HDD that I can use to store the copy. The only problem is that I have to put the new HDD in, and connot boot from it to copy the image. I have a thougt of a few solutions:

1 - a linux livecd, the only problem is that I don't know how well this could work, and don't even have a remote clue as to what program(s) and procedures to use.

2 - Use norton Ghost - I have it, and I am not sure if i could run it without the original HDD and OS (read boot disk) to copy the the image it makes?

My laptop HDD is on the way out, I don't really want to re-install and my other apps becase I reformated a coupel weeks ago. Thanks!

[sovalon]

I have used ghost to do this before. It is fairly easy. You can do a couple of things.

1. Use Ghost and burn your image to CDs or DVD's.
2. Use Ghost and image your hdd to your external, but make sure that you go into the advanced options and select to include drivers or USB or Firewire so it will recognize your drive.