Jump to content

Replace Laptop Hard Drive


Recommended Posts

Guest Marty
Posted

I need to replace my laptop hard drive with a larger one. I am looking for

software that will allow my to image the hard drive to multiple DVDs then I

can replace the hard drive and restore the image to the new drive. Reboot

and everything is the same except I now have more free space. I tried Norton

Ghost v10.0 but the "Copy My Hard Drive" feature will not allow coping to

any removeable media. Because it is a laptop I can not install the new drive

as a slave either. I can only have one hard drive in the laptop at a time.

 

Thanks,

-Marty

  • Replies 4
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Popular Days

Guest Gary S. Terhune
Posted

Re: Replace Laptop Hard Drive

 

Get Acronis True Image Home edition. http://www.acronis.com. You can use it to save

an Image to your DVDs and then later restore it.

 

--

Gary S. Terhune

MS-MVP Shell/User

http://www.grystmill.com

"Marty" <no@e-mail.com> wrote in message

news:_8SdncGAAOSVLg7bnZ2dnUVZ_oimnZ2d@giganews.com...

>I need to replace my laptop hard drive with a larger one. I am looking for

>software that will allow my to image the hard drive to multiple DVDs then I

>can replace the hard drive and restore the image to the new drive. Reboot

>and everything is the same except I now have more free space. I tried

>Norton Ghost v10.0 but the "Copy My Hard Drive" feature will not allow

>coping to any removeable media. Because it is a laptop I can not install

>the new drive as a slave either. I can only have one hard drive in the

>laptop at a time.

>

> Thanks,

> -Marty

>

Guest Ron Martell
Posted

Re: Replace Laptop Hard Drive

 

"Marty" <no@e-mail.com> wrote:

>I need to replace my laptop hard drive with a larger one. I am looking for

>software that will allow my to image the hard drive to multiple DVDs then I

>can replace the hard drive and restore the image to the new drive. Reboot

>and everything is the same except I now have more free space. I tried Norton

>Ghost v10.0 but the "Copy My Hard Drive" feature will not allow coping to

>any removeable media. Because it is a laptop I can not install the new drive

>as a slave either. I can only have one hard drive in the laptop at a time.

>

>Thanks,

>-Marty

>

 

Check out Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com)

 

Also do you have another computer which is, or could be, networked

with your laptop? If so then you could use the imaging software to

save an image over the network to the other computer, and restore it

the same way. At least you can with Acronis.

 

Another possibility is to purchase an external hard drive (USB) and

use that to save the image of your laptop's hard drive.

 

Good luck

 

 

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

--

Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2008)

On-Line Help Computer Service

http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

 

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference

has never been in bed with a mosquito."

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)
Posted

Re: Replace Laptop Hard Drive

 

 

"Marty" <no@e-mail.com> wrote in message

news:_8SdncGAAOSVLg7bnZ2dnUVZ_oimnZ2d@giganews.com...

>I need to replace my laptop hard drive with a larger one. I am looking for

>software that will allow my to image the hard drive to multiple DVDs then I

>can replace the hard drive and restore the image to the new drive. Reboot

>and everything is the same except I now have more free space. I tried

>Norton Ghost v10.0 but the "Copy My Hard Drive" feature will not allow

>coping to any removeable media. Because it is a laptop I can not install

>the new drive as a slave either. I can only have one hard drive in the

>laptop at a time.

>

> Thanks,

> -Marty

 

Yet another possibility consists of buying a $10.00 adapter

that lets you connect your laptop disk to a standard desktop

IDE port. You could then use Ghost to create your copy.

Posted

Re: Replace Laptop Hard Drive

 

> "Marty" <no@e-mail.com> wrote in message

> news:_8SdncGAAOSVLg7bnZ2dnUVZ_oimnZ2d@giganews.com...

>>I need to replace my laptop hard drive with a larger one. I am looking for

>>software that will allow my to image the hard drive to multiple DVDs then

>>I can replace the hard drive and restore the image to the new drive.

>>Reboot and everything is the same except I now have more free space. I

>>tried Norton Ghost v10.0 but the "Copy My Hard Drive" feature will not

>>allow coping to any removeable media. Because it is a laptop I can not

>>install the new drive as a slave either. I can only have one hard drive in

>>the laptop at a time.

>>

>> Thanks,

>> -Marty

 

 

"Gary S. Terhune" <none> wrote in message

news:eeNFlHxwHHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> Get Acronis True Image Home edition. http://www.acronis.com. You can use it to

> save an Image to your DVDs and then later restore it.

>

> --

> Gary S. Terhune

> MS-MVP Shell/User

> http://www.grystmill.com

 

 

Marty:

In addition to Gary's recommendation, let me offer you another suggestion...

 

1. Why not purchase a USB external enclosure (they're certainly cheap enough

nowadays) and install your new, larger HDD in the enclosure?

 

2. Using your Ghost disk cloning program or the Acronis True Image program

that Gary recommends - note Acronis has a 15-day trial version available -

clone the contents of your present laptop's HDD to the new HDD in the USB

external enclosure. (I know you've stated that your version 10 of Ghost

doesn't have this capability, but it does, since we've used that feature in

the past to clone the contents of an internal HDD to an external HDD. But we

were never thrilled with Ghost 10 and haven't used it for some time. We much

prefer the Acronis program that Gary mentions although our present favorite

disk cloning program is Casper 4.0. But the Acronis disk cloning program

will work just fine).

 

3. After you've cloned the contents of your old laptop's HDD to the new one,

remove the new HDD from its enclosure and install it in your laptop in place

of the old drive.

 

The advantage to the above is that you need not create "disk images" to a

number of DVD's and then go through a restoration/recovery process. The disk

cloning process is simple & direct and you will have a bootable, functional

HDD in a relatively short time.

 

While it is true that you could create a disk image or images with the

Acronis program (or for that matter, with the Ghost program that you have)

and store the image(s) onto DVDs, I would assume you have a reasonably

substantial amount of data on your current HDD so that you would probably

need multiple DVDs to store the images. While the Acronis and other disk

imaging programs do have the capacity of compressing the image, it's still a

large amount of data even in the compressed state. It's doable, of course,

but I wonder if under the present circumstances of your basic objective in

simply "copying" the contents of your present HDD to a new larger drive, the

disk cloning process would better suit that objective.

 

There's still another advantage with using a USB external enclosure. You

could install your current laptop's HDD in that device and the disk

imaging/disk cloning program as a routine comprehensive backup system. And

you could use the external HDD as the recipient of either a disk image or

disk clone - whatever suits your needs.

Anna


×
×
  • Create New...