Need help, anyone know about computer hard drive cloning?

[phototec]

This is NOT my main graphic work station, just an old Dell Inspiron 530 tower (win XP) used for office work and printing on CD's etc.

It just started starting up with a DISK SEEK ERROR (stuck in BIOS), so I think the factory hard drive is going out. In the BIOS I can do a F1 to continue and Windows XP will start but I don't know how much longer this will work before the drive fails completely.

I have heard the term CLONING, but I really don't know anything about this stuff. I need to get another hard drive and somehow transfer everything over to the NEW hard drive, to make a clone of the old hard drive before it completely fails.

I would like to somehow just make a duplicate copy of the failing hard drive so I could boot up off the new hard drive and all my applications and operating system would be there ready to use?

This is all new to me, thanks for any help or suggestions how to proceed.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

If you buy a Samsung SSD, it will come with the necessary software to clone to the new disk.
Otherwise, we use Macrium Reflect. Even the free version is capable of cloning from and old disk to a new one.
Used it plenty of times and works a treat.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

This is NOT my main graphic work station, just an old Dell Inspiron 530 tower (win XP) used for office work and printing on CD's etc.

It just started starting up with a DISK SEEK ERROR (stuck in BIOS), so I think the factory hard drive is going out. In the BIOS I can do a F1 to continue and Windows XP will start but I don't know how much longer this will work before the drive fails completely.

I have heard the term CLONING, but I really don't know anything about this stuff. I need to get another hard drive and somehow transfer everything over to the NEW hard drive, to make a clone of the old hard drive before it completely fails.

I would like to somehow just make a duplicate copy of the failing hard drive so I could boot up off the new hard drive and all my applications and operating system would be there ready to use?

This is all new to me, thanks for any help or suggestions how to proceed.

Most commercial backup programs will have this ability.

You do have something like Clonzilla (a linux (debian) based program) that will also (it does support MS and Mac file systems).

Acronis is a good and easy to use commercial one for cloning and backing up etc. Before I totally went Linux on bare metal, that's what I used.

 

[rossmosh]

When you buy a HD, it will come with software to clone. It's quite simple. Plug in both HD's and follow the instructions.

 

[netsol]

norton ghost

i am a computer consultant, you need to use norton ghost to copy an xp hard drive, ignoring errors. buy a drive on amazon. i will make you acouple ghost boot disks (1 floppy & 1 dvd) these will allow you to copy the drive

pm me an address and i will send them out tomorrow, along with instructions & my cell#

if you don't know what kind of hard drive, go to control panel>hardware>device manager & click on disks to see what model the hard drive is.

send to me in a pm i will tell you if it is ide or sata.

This is NOT my main graphic work station, just an old Dell Inspiron 530 tower (win XP) used for office work and printing on CD's etc.

It just started starting up with a DISK SEEK ERROR (stuck in BIOS), so I think the factory hard drive is going out. In the BIOS I can do a F1 to continue and Windows XP will start but I don't know how much longer this will work before the drive fails completely.

I have heard the term CLONING, but I really don't know anything about this stuff. I need to get another hard drive and somehow transfer everything over to the NEW hard drive, to make a clone of the old hard drive before it completely fails.

I would like to somehow just make a duplicate copy of the failing hard drive so I could boot up off the new hard drive and all my applications and operating system would be there ready to use?

This is all new to me, thanks for any help or suggestions how to proceed.

 

[Pippin Decals]

I went to best buy and bought their cloning program with cable to clone my 500 gb to a 1 tb hard drive and it work flawless.. I think i paid around 30.00 for the kit..I even did it on my girlfriends pc to upgrade her hd and flawless as well..And all my programs i had installed with serial keys worked with no glitches..

 

[phototec]

Thanks for the help, there is a NEW WD 1TB SATA/600 internal hard drive that comes with Acronis True Image cloning software on Sale at Fry's.

My question is: Will this SATA/600 work in the Dell Inspiron 530 that calls for a Dell 7200 RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive - 1 TB?

 

[phototec]

I went to best buy and bought their cloning program with cable to clone my 500 gb to a 1 tb hard drive and it work flawless.. I think i paid around 30.00 for the kit..I even did it on my girlfriends pc to upgrade her hd and flawless as well..And all my programs i had installed with serial keys worked with no glitches..

What operating system did you clone?

XP?

 

[Cross Signs]

I've been using "Macrium Reflect" for years. It works great and it's free!

 

[SightLine]

Yes that should work perfectly fine in that system and the cloning software is fairly easy to figure out. It will basically prompt you for the source drive (look for the model number / size of the old drive) then when you select that it will ask for the destination drive which will be the new drive. By far the simplest way is when the "cloning" software is more of a kit which includes an external USB drive adapter. A bit trickier is if you have to connect both drives internally to the computer. Then you need to at least temporarily locate another SATA and power cable for the second drive. On that Dell there "should" be another available SATA power connector already inside the case right next to the existing drive since they are designed to be able to have two hard drives. There will probably not however be a second spare SATA cable which you would need to provide. What you might be able to do though - with a caveat, if the Acronis software is provided on a disc, before installing the new drive, boot the computer and install the software, then shut it down, remove the side cover and temporarily disconnect the optical drive and connect the new hard drive to its SATA and power connectors. Then power it back up and run the cloning software. Once its done shut the computer down, and swap the new drive with the old drive and reconnect the optical drive.

With a cloning kit that includes an external USB drive adapter you don't have to fiddle around nearly as much since you just temporarily connect the new drive to the external adapter then replace the old one with the new once the cloning is done. The USB ones can be a good bit slower though but its still not terrible. The only catch is the USB ones are mostly for 2.5" laptop drives and SSD's. 3.5" drives need external power for use on an external adapter which means a kit for one would end up being a bit more expensive unless you want to put your own kit together which negates the simplicity aspect.

Thanks for the help, there is a NEW WD 1TB SATA/600 internal hard drive that comes with Acronis True Image cloning software on Sale at Fry's.

My question is: Will this SATA/600 work in the Dell Inspiron 530 that calls for a Dell 7200 RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive - 1 TB?

 

[James Burke]

Six months ago, I was where you are now. I got Acronis True Image and it's awesome and easy to use. Since then, I now have two separate clones on standby and several hard drives that I back up on often.


JB

 

[Pippin Decals]

What operating system did you clone?

XP?

Ive done windows vista,xp, 7 and 8.1

 

[rossmosh]

Just so you know, cloning a drive is not the ideal solution. Ideally you install the OS, clear out the crap, and install what you need. Then dump your important files from the old HD into the new one. This results in a much better foundation as you'll have a more organized HD. When you clone, you clone everything, good and bad.

Some people are pretty anal about their computers and will actually reformat regularly (every 3-6 months) so they can keep everything fresh and running as good as possible.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Just so you know, cloning a drive is not the ideal solution. Ideally you install the OS, clear out the crap, and install what you need. Then dump your important files from the old HD into the new one. This results in a much better foundation as you'll have a more organized HD. When you clone, you clone everything, good and bad.

Typically what I do is backup (full) fresh OS install, no apps. Then I do a backup (full) after I've installed all my apps. Then I'll do incremental and then every so often a full one (deleting the incremental) to keep up to do. In case I've tweaked settings etc. However, I have those previous 2 full backups to go to in a pinch.

Some people are pretty anal about their computers and will actually reformat regularly (every 3-6 months) so they can keep everything fresh and running as good as possible.

This actually isn't as necessary as it once was. A holdover from previous ways of doing things. Do some light house keeping and that helps tremendously. You wouldn't believe how filled up with log files a system can get (especially a Linux one, but I've had log files in the GBs with a Win 7 install). Those bog down a system by taking up resources.

Same thing with auto backup copies of files etc. My digitizing software will kill virtual memory if you let the backup files get to a certain amount.