drivehard454

I just bought a SATA 750GB HD to replace my IDE 160GB HD. I found cloning software online (HDCLONE by Miray software GB)and ran through the proceedure. I think it copied an exact replica onto the new HD for everything. I go to MY COMPUTER and hit properties for both drives and they both say the same thing, including the capacity. I even go to device manager and the HD properties have the same driver and date. What did I do wrong, and what is a better free cloning or ghosting software that is out there?

I did this once before with Norten ghost a long time ago and it was free, but now anything I find I have to pay for.

Thanks for the advice.......

mkk

I used the trial version of Acronis True Image not so long ago and it was a straight forward procedure. Not free but the trial wasn't limited in features.

temeteus82

the driver dates are the same since the generic drive is used for all the drives in the system. I got two raid drives divided to few separate partitions and they all got same driver dates etc..

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drivehard454

Thanks MKK. Question, did it work for you and recognize the newer drive with its rated capacity, or was it the same size HD? The one I used made my new 750 GB only recognize 160.

OK thanks temeteous. I get it.

mkk

Ah, sorry I didn't get the problem at first. Acronis True Image managed to copy the data from one drive to the other without having to fix the new partition to the same size as the old one. There may have been an option in there to ghost the partition exactly the same but I don't think that it was the standard procedure.

ET3D

Paragon has free disk tools here: Free license software - free backup, partition freeware & data recovery

The backup tool should do what you want.

Takaharu

If you're running Windows 7 there is a built-in feature. I found it easier to use than any third-party software and it can run over the network quite happily. Pop into the Backup and Restore section of the Control Panel, click on "Create a system image" on the left then follow the on-screen instructions.

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crowTrobot

Thanks for the suggestions. I am looking for something like this as well.

Would this work on the OS drive itself? I want to clone my current HD into a new larger HD and will that copy the MBR as well?

Tipstaff

Legalities aside, one of my most used discs is the Hiren's Boot CD (now at version 10.2). Can't tell you where to get it, but it's one of my most used go-to discs. Not only does it have over a dozen backup software (including Ghost 11.5.1 and Acronis True Image), but it has a ton of other useful tools (including a BartPE Mini-XP). BTW, I do own the original software, so this disc, for me, is just a convenience.

The reason I mention this disc in particular is because of Ghost. Acronis can be a pain sometimes when cloning off Windows 7 images as it wants to do everything automatically, such as resizing. Sometimes Acronis won't allow you to properly resize partitions, odd partitions, and this can be a bad thing with Windows 7 due to the small 100MB partition it creates at the beginning of the drive. It should always stay 100MB, and Acronis always wants to resize it, and quite often I find I can't manually stop this from happening. As such I find that Ghost is still the best tool for cloning disc to disc, and I use Acronis True Image for doing the F11 bootup recovery option.

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Takaharu

Yes to the first question and as for the MBR, yes. At my workplace we have two lots of Dell Vostro 220 machines. Although the hardware is exactly the same when I copy an image made using the first batch onto the second batch it has to reformat the hard drive. I recall it mentioning that it would recreate any partitions, though it's worth testing out (as it's free) to ensure that you get the desired results. Worst-case scenario you'd need to reformat the larger hard drive that you are copying the image to.

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drivehard454

Late update but.....I went to western digital website and they have a ghosting program through acronis for free with their products. I downloaded it and it worked perfectly. Thanks for all the suggestions.