boot drive cloning

[dogbandit2]

I'm upgrading my laptops hard drive and I've looked into cloning my existing drive onto the new one. I have a lot of paid programs on my laptop and was wondering if the cloning process will keep everything that is on my computer (OS, programs, files and product keys/ activations).

 

[USAFRet]

If nothing goes wrong, yes, it will work.
Depending on a few factors. Drive size, old and new....stuff like that.

What are you considering changing to?

 

[boosted1g]

As long as there is no errors then yes, cloning works just fine.

If you are migrating due to getting a better drive then you have fairly decent success probability, if you are migrating because your current drive is giving you issues; then don't have to high of hopes.

 

[dogbandit2]

I'm upgrading from my current 250gb drive to 1tb. Just wanted to make sure that my paid programs wouldn't want their activation codes again.

 

[boosted1g]

No issues with the activation keys.
Only issue is with all the bits of data not copying properly. If you have had not had any disk errors or issues then this probability does go down significantly

 

[dogbandit2]

The reason for upgrade is just storage space. In terms of the current drive it has no issues.

 

[USAFRet]

The reason for upgrade is just storage space. In terms of the current drive it has no issues.

Why not consider just adding the new drive as just another drive letter? Move/redirect some stuff off the current drive to the new one.

 

[dogbandit2]

It's a laptop with only one drive bay. Replacing the drive is my only real option

 

[USAFRet]

It's a laptop with only one drive bay. Replacing the drive is my only real option

Well...the cloning operation usually works. Usually.
A clean install on the new drive is far more likely to work properly.

But you can try the clone thing first. See what happens. If it fails, then revert to a full clean install on the new drive.

 

[USAFRet]

And before you do either, make a Recovery DVD set from whatever functionality exists from the manufacturer. Just in case.

 

[dogbandit2]

Ah ok thank you for your help