Cloning a hard drive

[wheelgirl]

I have to send my HP slimline off for repair (dont get me started on this nightmare ) and from what the tech said they will have to wipe the hard drive and restore everything to its original config. I am not happy about this but that is beside the point. The computer will not boot up and so I bought a hard drive enclosure to try to clone the hard drive to an external drive using my laptop so I can replace everything when I get the computer back .

I havent ever done this before, I have a WD Passport portable external drive (500 GB) but when I try using the backup software on my laptop (Windows backup) I get an error that says the largest file size is 4GB on a FAT32 which is what the external drive is so I cant create a backup file on it because I have over 200 GB on the drive Im trying to clone.

I downloaded Paragon's backup software but havent had a chance to try it. Will I get the same error? I dont have another drive to clone to. What do I need to do? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Steve R Jones]

Cloning a drive that won't boot isn't going to help much.

Trying to do a Windows restore where the backup was made on a different pc won't work either.

All programs you have will have to be reinstalled etc...

Simple copy n paste of your important files to the external drive would help.

[wheelgirl]

No there is something wrong with the processor or something, the hard drive is fine, they just are going to wipe it and send it back. I just want to clone the hard drive before I send it off so when I get it back I can restore it.

[Steve R Jones]

Might consider poping in a new blank drive when you send it in.

[Bizkitkid2001]

Very easy to do.

1. Download and install Acronis True image on your laptop. Complete hard disk recovery solution, backup, drive copy, clone and image computer software

2. Plug your external hard drive into your laptop, go into My Computer/File explore and format the external drive to NTFS. (this will erase everything on the external drive but it must be NTFS for Acronis to create an image)

3. Start True Image and follow the instructions to do a full backup. Choosing the default settings should be good enough.

4. Create a True Image restore disk ( this is very important)

5. When you get your laptop back you will want to boot up with the restore disk and load the image you created in your external drive back onto the laptop. Follow the on screen instructions and once everything is done you should be able to boot up like as if nothing changed.


The True Image trial is only 30 days, I do not know if the boot up disc will still work if it has been 30 days since you installed the trial. I just want to warn you that you may have to pay $40 to buy the software if your laptop takes longer than 30 days to get back in your hands.

Another thing is that if your laptop problem is a software problem, this is not a good idea. As True Image will also copy any software related problems that you have.


EDIT: Sorry I can't provide detailed step by step instructions right now. If you have any difficulties or any questions about the steps above reply with another post and I can help you better.