Cloning a hard drive

Kantastic · Dec 5, 2009

I just put in my new Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD and expected the cloning process to be fairly simple. Right now I the WD drive is detected but I believe all the space is currently unallocated (since I didn't allocate it yet?). I don't want to go further into the process without knowing how exactly I should clone my 7200.9.

I don't know what software (freeware) to use (I'd like to keep the cloning process in Windows) and how I should use it. Can someone walk me through this headache of a process?

Sean8 · Dec 5, 2009

are you using wd utility to clone it? there might be instructions on their website

Kantastic · Dec 5, 2009

No I wasn't, but now I am! I didn't even know they had a cloning utility. Edit: Oh it's just Acronis haha.

I'm installing it right now.

The question is, do I or do I not allocate the space on the new drive?

Asylum · Dec 5, 2009

You dont have to allocate anything.
Just start up acronis and clone your drive.
Acronis FTW.

DonInKansas · Dec 5, 2009

Acronis ftw. I lurve it.

[Ion] · Dec 5, 2009

Google Clonezilla, it's a live Linux-based cloning CD, it has a text-based interface, but is easy to use, and reasonably fast. It supports all recent and old chipsets, and even cloning to/from a USB drive

Kantastic · Dec 5, 2009

Phew! That was a long 3 hours. Everything is finished! The Caviar Blue isn't silent but it's a lot quieter than the 7200.9. The 7200.9 made this loud mechanical grinding noise since day 1 and it was very, very annoying.

Thanks for the help! Especially you Sean, I'd still be figuring out how to use Shadow Copy if you hadn't told me about the WD utility. :toast:

3870x2 · Dec 5, 2009

Kantastic, there was a mechanical problem with the 7200.9, without a doubt. You should have backed up and moved your stuff much earlier, that drive probably doesnt have much of a life yet. The only way to recover from a mechanical error is to do a platter exchange, and that costs lots of money.

Kantastic · Dec 5, 2009

3870x2 said:
Kantastic, there was a mechanical problem with the 7200.9, without a doubt. You should have backed up and moved your stuff much earlier, that drive probably doesnt have much of a life yet. The only way to recover from a mechanical error is to do a platter exchange, and that costs lots of money.

Oh man I'm one lucky kid then, it lasted over 3 years! I'm glad I can get rid of it, finally. :toast:

Espera · Dec 5, 2009

So Acronis makes an image of your drive, even those hidden partitions used to install or activate windows automatically, and then writes the image to the new hard drive? Because I don't want to end up with a copy of my windows os that isn't activated.

Kantastic · Dec 5, 2009

Espera said:
So Acronis makes an image of your drive, even those hidden partitions used to install or activate windows automatically, and then writes the image to the new hard drive? Because I don't want to end up with a copy of my windows os that isn't activated.

I'm not getting any activation errors.

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Cloning a hard drive

Kantastic

Sean8

Kantastic

Asylum

DonInKansas

[Ion]

WCG Team Assistant

Kantastic

3870x2

Kantastic

Espera

New Member

Kantastic

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