Fastest way to copy a whole hard drive

[Guest]

Hello,

I want to do a clean reinstallation of Windows but i want to keep my files so im trying to copy a 700 GB Hard Drive to an external Hard Drive i heard that the fastest way to do it is clone the hard drive.
and if cloning is the fastest way whats the best cloning program to do it?
Answer as soon as possible please, i have limited time.
Thanks!

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Meowstic.

If the files you want to preserve are not on a separate partition, the cloning process will also clone the OS, the apps and games you've installed as well. So those are all things you'll have to reinstall anyway, as you'll be making a fresh install of Windows, which will make the cloning process a lot slower than if you just copy the data you need from one hard drive to another.
However, if you're set on the cloning process, you might want to check this thread's best answer for some suggestions: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1848564/hdd-cloning-software.html.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[hang-the-9]

Run the user migration tool, it will backup your files and settings, after you install Windows you can run it again to restore things. What I like to do is to never re-use a hard drive if possible, get a new one, and install Windows clean on that. That way you are sure that nothing is missing or forgotten from the old drive, say a program license key you forgot to note. A new hard drive is maybe $50, probably easily worth spending the money on that rather than try to recover something you formatted.