soulfringe

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Apr 29, 2008
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I just got a brand new Lenovo Y580 Laptop, but the weakspot on this laptop is the mechanical hard drive. So I got this slick 240GB SSD here to swap into that bad boy. Problem is, I'd like the have an exact copy of the included hard drive, OS and all.

So whats the best software out there to clone the hard drive these days?
 

game junky

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I know it's very temping to use something like Norton Ghost, Disk Copy, etc. to get you up and running but it's usually safer and better to do a fresh install

If you do decide to go the clone route, I would look at your BIOS settings to see if you have AHCI enabled on your current install of Win7 (Dell has started to do that by default, others have jumped into that habit too). If not, there is a registry setting to change that. First, you'll clone either the entire disk or just the partition that your OS is on. Then, install that SSD in your laptop. Launch Win7 and do the following:


Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

After a reboot, check the BIOS settings and confirm it has AHCI enabled

AHCI is necessary to get full advantage of your SSD's speed and for TRIM support in Win7. There are some other tweaks I would recommend (disable defrag schedule, adjust power settings to where you do not use hibernate, etc.) but that will mostly get you going.

Again, I recommend just doing a fresh install and migrating your profile data over to the new install. But, this is how you could do a copy without that many headaches