BleepingComputer.com: complete transfer of old harddrive to new drive

Hi all,

On my Vista Ultimate, I'm replaceing my only harddrive with another(both are hooked up internally for now) and returning the old drive.

I need to transfer my complete system from old HD to new HD, files,folders,games,registry etc., a complete clone. I was told to just drag and drop old hd into the new drive then remove the old HD and install the new in it's place.

Will this work?? i.e If I do as advise, and once the new HD is my boot hd, will my system info, games etc. be the same as when the old drive was my boot drive once I restart my system???

If not is there a way to do this without buying any software? If not, what would be the best program to do this correctly?

Thanks for any info

Ron

Drag and Drop won't work. Most all hard drive manufacturers offer a utility for your needs
Check our the download section of their support site

Thanks for the info! I'll check out Segate's site, both drives are OEM old one 7200.10 new 7200.11 750GB

If I cannot find any help on there site, will True Image also do what I need??

Thanks again

Ron

This post has been edited by raideron: 20 March 2009 - 03:57 PM

Yes, Acronis True Image will do the same thing. Read the directions carefully and don't do anything to the original disk until you've verified that the new disk works! (the old one will have to be disconnected when you try to boot the new one in it's place).

Thanks John,

I think I'm going the Acronis true Image route..... I wonder if their Trial will also do the same.......

Thanks again

Ron

I haven't used the trial version - so I'd read the documentation thoroughly.
Make sure to make a bootable CD for restoration purposes

The software provided by Seagate (DiskWizard) is Acronis TrueImage.

I looked at Seagates site, but since my replacement bootable drive is from Dell it did not come with
any software(except what was on my computer when sent). And if I have to buy software to do this,
I may as well get the latest and best that I can find.

I most likely will get Acronis true Image to do this and since I want to just clone my old drive, I'm
getting help from different forums to do the best to get the old HD as clean as possible before doing
the transfer..

Thanks for all the replies

Ron

This post has been edited by raideron: 21 March 2009 - 10:54 AM

Hi all,

And thanks for all the help/info!!

I'm always a bit "iffy" :-0.... After working with another forum, I believe I will just start fresh, with the replacement drive... I will still get Acronis true Image, to make a backup of the new drive after I do a bit of cleanup on it to remove any programs that I really do not need...

Thanks again for all the help/info

Ron