How reliable is HDD cloning??

[kellamne]

I want to change a 40 GB HHD which is 75% full for an 80 GB HDD -would cloning solve this. I can do a reinstall but tbh I just being lazy about it. It is not for a performance bustig system, just for mothers office work and photos etc.

[fantomfreq]

Cloning is absolutely reliable. I clone my laptop's internal hard drive on a regular basis, just in case something ever goes wrong. I can't give you advice on what program to use on your PC, but if my experience on the mac is any experience for what you'll find on Windows you can find some good stuff with options to clone only the files that have changed since a previous clone (and thus taking a very small amount of time to clone.) Sounds like a very good solution to your problem if you ask me.

[Kaitain]

I've had pretty good results with Ghost in Windows, and partimage in Linux.

[kellamne]

Thanks - sounds like the right move then - If theres no danger of screwing it up anyway as i wont touch the original install initially (i'll probably then keep the 40 in the case for restoring system if needed)
I'll have a go at finding some software to do this then.
I like it when things are made simple.

[Rondog]

I assume Ghost. Refers to Norton Ghost.

Can I install Windows XP Pro SP2, activate it, install all other apps. Then Ghost it. Then if it mucks up, just put the Ghosted image back on. And not have to actiavte Windows?

How do I put the image onto the drive?

[bradmax57]

Originally Posted by Rondog

I assume Ghost. Refers to Norton Ghost.

Can I install Windows XP Pro SP2, activate it, install all other apps. Then Ghost it. Then if it mucks up, just put the Ghosted image back on. And not have to actiavte Windows?

How do I put the image onto the drive?

Sure you can, i tend to make one with every install of different components etc, basically install xp and apps etc etc, then use norton ghost to make a boot disk, boot the pc with the disk in and basically you want to select disk to image or something cant rememeber without seeing it etc and you can either back it up to cd or dvd, it also has a compression utility in it that allows upto 1gb on a cd or 6gb or so on a dvd, ive not yet tried a dual layer disk tho

[noorman]

Ghost-ing is done worldwide, certainly in schooling environment; when there aren't enough PC's to go round, it 's relatively easy for an admin to reinstall a bunch of machines with a Ghost Image of what 's needed the following day or week in a classroom.

Also for backup for one-self, it 's used everywhere; just backup the image of all you want to save (this way) and you can even compress that data to about 50% during the creation of the Image ..................

When the disk goes belly-up, buy a new one, put the Image back and there you are back on track within 15-20 minutes (average) !