is there a program that wil make an exact copy of my hard drive including the partitions, so that i can then replace the old drive with a new hard drive and not have to reinstall all my programs from sctratch. it will be the exact same hard drive. my main hard drive is going bad and i need to replace it and i don't want to have to reinstall everything.
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Copy of my Hard Drive
- Thread starter Syrnix
- Start date
Norton Ghost probably the most well known. but there are others. I like Partition Magic and it will copy your partitions to a new drive and allow you to resize partitions (non destrictively-bigger or smaller) and allow you to convert your file system as well.
just about every HDD manufacturer has free utils to copy, resize and so on DL-able from their respective site's. the free utils usually dont have as much flexability, but they get the job done - Free
just about every HDD manufacturer has free utils to copy, resize and so on DL-able from their respective site's. the free utils usually dont have as much flexability, but they get the job done - Free
www.runtime.org has drive image XML which may be able to do it too, for free.
I would say that if you are willing to buy the software, then check out the differences between Ghost and Partition Magic. decide which suits your needs.I have both, and a good investment to be sure. but with out knowing what else you want to be able to do, it is difficult to say which is better for ya.
morpheus6d9
[H]ard|Gawd
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the free ones are great, but both Partition Magic and Ghost offer more features and can do things the manufacturers utils cannot.
if you are just interested in getting your old partition copied to a new drive, the the free utils are prolly best. If you want the ability to manipulate change/add or merge partitions, then purchasing software to do so is a good choice.
I'm not knockin' WD-Lifeguard or MaxBlast or any others. they will copy your partition and can resize (useful when getting larger drives-which is why most people need the utils). but they do not allow choosing the size of clusters, or creating or converting FAT, FAT32, NTFS, Ext2, and Ext3 as well as external drives via USB or Firewire. and you can always go back and add another partition for when you're looking to dual boot
since i do more than a few HDD upgrades a month for clients, the software is worth every penny to me. but not everyone needs these features.
if you are just interested in getting your old partition copied to a new drive, the the free utils are prolly best. If you want the ability to manipulate change/add or merge partitions, then purchasing software to do so is a good choice.
I'm not knockin' WD-Lifeguard or MaxBlast or any others. they will copy your partition and can resize (useful when getting larger drives-which is why most people need the utils). but they do not allow choosing the size of clusters, or creating or converting FAT, FAT32, NTFS, Ext2, and Ext3 as well as external drives via USB or Firewire. and you can always go back and add another partition for when you're looking to dual boot
since i do more than a few HDD upgrades a month for clients, the software is worth every penny to me. but not everyone needs these features.
Zepher
[H]ipster Replacement
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I use Norton Ghost since some of the free software don't see my SCSI drives.
Heliocentrical
2[H]4U
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- Mar 28, 2005
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- 2,852
xxGriff said:
I got another drive about month ago and couldnt get Max Blast to work for some reason. I copied the drive but the new one refused to boot.
morpheus6d9 said:
Another vote for Acronis True Image. Its the best that I have used when it comes to backing up a hard drive. It will make a exact image of your hard drive. You can also create a bootable cd, navigate to the back up image you made and then restore the image to your new drive. I have used it quite a bit and has not failed me yet.