noob backup/upgrade question

[cbliss1000]

Yo-

In a moment of fleeting clear-sightedness yesterday, I realized that I should probably possess an external hard drive for backing up the 700 gigs or so of data I have stored on my current drive. Thing is, I would also like to upgrade my current drive: it's a 1 terabyte WD Caviar Green, and I'm ready to be done with 5400 RPM. So, ideally, I would like to get something faster, probably just a WD Black, then copy everything over from my current drive and begin using it (the WD green) as my backup. Follow? Thing is, I'm unclear as to how exactly one copies/clones OS partitions, and whether or not they'll work afterwards. I have a legit version of Win7 Pro, bought for 30$ as a student dl. The installation key is only good for one install.

In a nutshell, is it possible to move everything from my green drive to the black drive, including a working OS? I would really prefer not having to reinstall the billion or so applications I have.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Freak1]

There are alot of programs that can clone the drive. Im sure someone else will tell you witch is best. But you might end up needing to reactivate windows efter the harddisk swap as it might see that as an significant hardware change.

I moved from 1 SSD to 2xHDD in raid 0 using windows 7's own backup/recovery and after that, it wanted me to reactivate it.

 

[lightp2]

1. Western Digital has software available for this Acronis True Image Western Digital Edition. (Free and only usable if WD drives) You can download from WD website and try.

2. Several days ago I used it for a Windows XP disk imaging. Operation OK. However, activation is not a problem because it is a Dell desktop so OEM automatic activation.

3. I am not sure about retail and Windows 7. You can try the following procedure.
3a. Original WD-green. Install Acronis true Image WD Edition
3b. Install WD-Blue/Black new disk.
3c. Initiate disk clone : original=WD-Green destination=WD-Blue/Black. Double check and don't miss. It will need to restart to initiate operation. After cloning completion, it will ask you to restart computer again. OBSERVE : power-off. do not restart. ensure everything is done b4 turning off.
3d. physically disconnect SATA cable to WD-Green. Or if you do not want to touch SATA cable, then boot into BIOS screen and disable the WD-Green SATA connection if possible. This step is to make sure original WD-Green cannot be seen upon next boot.
3e. Boot with the newly cloned WD-Blue/Black. If everything OK, things will be back to normal pretty soon. After confirming all data and activation status good, you can then decide what to do with original WD-Green.

3f. If the newly cloned WD-Blue/Black failed to work to your expectation, shutdown, disconnect new WD-blue/black, reconnect/re-enable original WD-Green. Computer back to normal. (you can then ask for more help on forum)

Cheers

 

[cbliss1000]

You are both awesome - thanks! If anyone else has more input, please do post. I have yet to buy the second drive so it'll be a while - just wanted to make sure it was possible.

Also, I think if win7 gives me activation errors I can call Microsoft and get a new key (they would disable the old one).

EDIT: one question @ lightp2. In 3b., when you say "Install WD-Blue/Black new disk," do you mean just plug in sata/power cables, or should I also format it?

 

[lightp2]

reply to question on 3b.

--connect SATA power and data cables to new WD-Blue/Black.

During cloning setup(software, all graphical screen ), you can do many alternative procedure including formatting the new drive/partition.

For me, I chose to dedicate the entire new drive for cloning so Acronis will take care of the problem automatically so no need to perform manual format. This is the simple scenario. There are also more complicated scenario where you may want the new disk to be setup in particular way (for example, multiple partitions, different size, misc) You may need expert help from others if this is the case.

Cheers

 

[Wipeout]

I used Clonezilla to clone my Win7 Pro x64 install from an older SATA 1 drive to a 500GB SATA 2 drive about a week or two ago, absolutely no issues. Only took 25 minutes or so...but I had less stuff on the drive than you do.

 

[InvisiBill]

I've seen it recommended here before, so I used EASEUS Disk Copy to clone my laptop's HDD to my new SSD (Win7 x64 including the 100MB system partition). As long as you can hook up both drives simultaneously, it's a pretty simple process.

 

[cbliss1000]

Word. Good stuff. Easeus looks super powerful, as does Acronis. There a lots of these tools out there, huh?

 

[cbliss1000]

Just an update - went with the samsung f3 deal posted a few days ago, cloned to it with easeus, and now, 9 hours later, am enjoying a damn fine and fast new hard drive. Thanks ya'll!