[JonnJonzz]

My Toshiba laptop is giving me a "S.M.A.R.T." warning that its hard drive may be failing. The unit is out of warranty, of course. I purchased a replacement hard drive. My plan is to attach the new drive externally, clone the possibly-failing drive to the new drive, then install the new drive into the laptop.

I have the new drive installed in a NexStar TX external drive housing. However, the instructions are rather sparse, and don't tell me how to attach the drive to the system. The connector is a USB "Y" cable. Do I attach both arms of the Y to USB ports on the laptop, or only one of them?

Thanks.

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Hi JonnJonzz

Yes connect the two cables of the "Y" some Hard Drives will work only with one other need the two connected it will no do any harm to connect the 2 ends.

Just for curiosity, what tool you will use to clone the drive?

[SleepyDude]

Hi JonnJonzz

Yes connect the two cables of the "Y" some Hard Drives will work only with one other need the two connected it will no do any harm to connect the 2 ends.

Just for curiosity, what tool you will use to clone the drive?

[JonnJonzz]

I've downloaded several freebies. One site recommended DriveImage XML as a good choice for straightforward drive-cloning.

If you have other suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them.

[SleepyDude]

I've downloaded several freebies. One site recommended DriveImage XML as a good choice for straightforward drive-cloning.

Careful with the freebies make sure you choose to do a custom install so you have a chance to uncheck the box's to skip installing the junk many times are offered...

Yes DriveImage XML seems to be a good product, I personally never tried.

If you have other suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them.

If your new Hard Drive is from Seagate/Samsung or Western Digital they provide for free a special version of Acronis True Image that is a very good program to do that task.