[PeterGroom]

HI
1st time here.

I have purchased and formatted (NTFS) a new 1tb hard drive, on which I wish to place a clone of my c: so that if it fails, i can just swap out the drives and be back in business (accepting the fact that it will only beas current as my last clone!)

I downloaded 2 free web softwares. The 1st claims I must use a destination drive that is at least as big as the source drive. It is exactly the same - both are 1tb drives. The data on my C drive amounts to about 600 gig.

I tried another different one, and it ran overnight, but had an error message saying that the re were files that could not be copied! These amounted to about 20 gigs worth so clearly not a viable clone.

I have successfully used the win 7 tool to create an ISO file backup.

What software would you recommend to allow an easy (and cheapest) clone to allow me to have this safety c: hard drive sitting on the shelf..
The pc is win 7 64 bit pro (SP1) i7 16gig ram if that helps.

[Advertisements]

Consider this Pete.

http://www.whatsabyt...ing_Review.html

[Wolfeymole]

Consider this Pete.

http://www.whatsabyt...ing_Review.html

[PeterGroom]

Thanks Wolfey

do you think that the reason why the clone tool said that the destination drives must be at lease as big as the source drive might be because there are partitions (of no doubt a different size on the new dest drive. Perhaps i should get rid of that and try again.
Peter

[Wolfeymole]

It doesn't matter if a hard drive has just 1 partition or 10 partitions, they will all add up to the size of the drive.

Here's an analogy as to why both drives must be the same size, you can't fit an elephant in a shoe box.

[PeterGroom]

yes but they are both 1tb drives, so im trying to get an elephant into an elephant box (and theres nearly space for his mate too.
Peter

[CompCav]

There are several free disk cloning options. Sometimes even in the best case one or more of them will not work for your particular case.

The one's that have been recommended to me are:

xxclone - This has had positive results where even Norton Ghost has failed. The link is here , you need to download the freeware version xxclone.zip to your current hard drive, install it , and to clone to the larger drive, put the source and destination drives in the correct boxes and then select :
Backup the entire volume by copying all the files from scratch (/backup1)


hdclone - has excellent success with several people at GTG. This has had positive results where even Norton Ghost has failed.
The freeware version needs to be run from a bootable CD so you need a computer with a CD/DVD drive to boot from. Again connect both drives and then boot from the bootable CD.


EaseUS Diskcopy - and it has been used also by GTG personnel with success cloning XP and Windows 7 for training on GTG.


Ping Partition copier - This is a linux based product so the interface is not as finished but the supporters rave about it's performance in cloning drives. It can be run as a bootable CD or as a bootable usb drive.


If you have a Seagate drive you can download and use Disk Wizard once on this page you click the download finder and plug in the information on your drive to download the software. The instructions in a video slide show are here.

If you have a Western Digital drive you can download and use Acronis True Image WD Edition Software, you can download the program and there is a user manual also available.



Again the source and target drives need to be installed prior to boot for all of these freeware products to work in making your new larger drive a true clone that works.

[Wolfeymole]

Pete you are talking about the first clone software which at no time have you mentioned any issue with.

Are you saying that you are now having issues with it?

[PeterGroom]

Thanks
ill try those this evening
Peter

[PeterGroom]

Pete you are talking about the first clone software which at no time have you mentioned any issue with.

Are you saying that you are now having issues with it?

Yes, it doesnt start, saying that the destination drive must be at least as big as the source drive (which it is) Thats why i downloaded application another to try.
Peter

[PeterGroom]

Ok
I successfully cloned my drive using the Seagate tool off their website.

Id quite like to check it works now before i set it aside for a bad day (hopefully never). Is it safe just to reboot the system with the old c drive disconnected and the new one in its place or do i need to do anything else. Is there any danger to my existing happy setup?
Peter

[Wolfeymole]

Go ahead and try it mate.

[DonnaB]

Macrium Reflect free may be another option.

How to clone a disk