Need a hard drive copy tool!

[RobUK]

I want to copy my old hard drive to a new one. So i don't have to format/re-install everything again. Is there any software out their that can do this? If so where can i find it?

Thanx - RobUK

[Mungla]

Norton Ghost is the best tool that I have found so far for this. You can copy your hard drive in several different ways:

1. Hard disk to hard disk
2. hard disk to image, then image to HD

If you wanted to copy your HD to an image and you have a CD burner, it will detect your burner and allow you to use it as a storage device.


Drive Image by PowerQuest I do not recommend to anyone after having bad problems with it. If errors are found on your hard drive, even very very minor problems, it will refuse to backup your hard drive. And then, it has no included software to fix these errors, it recommends Scan Disk (which is a joke!). Norton Ghost has a feature in the options menu that will scan your HD for errors and fix them -- Ghost will backup your HD even if it has errors, it's just good practice to save yourself trouble in the long run.

If anyone disagrees with me, let me know.

[NDC]

Yeah, Norton Ghost does a great job for Disk to Disk cloning. I myself use it to make clone back-ups of my system, and restoring Windows back to its original state with all applications intact along with saved data which is about 20gb takes about a good 30 minutes. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Mungla]

Exactly! When I made my first image backup to another hard drive, I didn't believe it could transfer that fast!! Anymore, my 75GXP has quite a bit of data on it, I use high compression to CDRW's, taking up only 6 CD's. I have had to restore my system from a backup only once so far, after wiping and formatting, it took a matter of minutes to have a fully operational system again.

[shadow]

Most HDD manufacturers have a cloning program that you can get from their website. I've used the Western Digital one and it worked great, not sure if it'll work on non-WD drives...I believe one drive has to be WD, but you could try it. Download it from their site and give it a go.

[jad1097]

DRIVE IMAGE PRO (http://www.powerquest.com/freestuff/index.html) works great and it is a 30 trial.

[Doryforos]

XCOPY32.exe in your %WINDIR%\COMMAND folder can be used, but there might be limitations.

Check:
- http://n-lemma.com/FBOM/cave/backup/xcopy32.html
- http://navasgrp.home.att.net/tech/clone_copy.htm

There used to be a HOWTO at TextPad's (http://www.textpad.com) website, by a person named Keith MacDonald; however, I can't find this HOWTO anymore (TextPad has probably removed it), but you could possibly find it by doing a web search...

Cheers!

[jman01pa]

If you happen to get a Maxtor, the floppy that accompanies works real well. It is easier than "Drive Copy" by PowerQuest.

J http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif