Need to Transfer (clone) Hard Drice

[JLMullins]

Does windows 7 have a program to transfer entire hard drive to another then remove the old hard drive and the new one works as the main drive? If not are there programs that do that?

Thanks,
Jimmy

 

[Y0GI]

Yes there are. The HDD manufacturers offer free cloning software. The only caveat is that you must get it for the HDD which is the recipient. They don't care who made the donor HDD but the recipient HDD must be made by the supplier of the cloning software. Just go to the website for Seagate, WD, etc.

Yogi

 

[JLMullins]

I guess my questions was wrong. Sorry about the spelling I am getting a new computer with Windows already installed and all I want to do is make sure I can get al my files to the new drive and be able to access them before I have to send the old one back.

Yes there are. The HDD manufacturers offer free cloning software. The only caveat is that you must get it for the HDD which is the recipient. They don't care who made the donor HDD but the recipient HDD must be made by the supplier of the cloning software. Just go to the website for Seagate, WD, etc.

Yogi

 

[Y0GI]

If the new computer is a laptop, you'll need to buy a USB enclosure to connect the 2. If it is a desktop, just connect the old HDD to a spare port and copy and paste your files.

Yogi

 

[JLMullins]

It is a desktop and I have had problems in the past copying all files, it says some can not be accessed I guess system files. I will be using the system on the hard drive but I want to completely copy the entire contents and delete as I go. Things are stored in so many different places.


quotemsg=12688602,0,1369653]If the new computer is a laptop, you'll need to buy a USB enclosure to connect the 2. If it is a desktop, just connect the old HDD to a spare port and copy and paste your files.

Yogi[/quotemsg]

 

[HardwareDude83]

Use windows backup to create a complete image of the drive, this can be saved a few different ways such as to a external USB drive, over a network to another computer or even to a sset of BRD-R's or even a bunch of DVD's. This will create an image of the entire drive as a format that you will be able to restore to your new drive (as long as the new drive has the same OS installed which it sounds like it does). Your next step would depend on how thoroughly you want to scrub your machine to get rid of all your personal data. You can either run a repair utility /system restore to the original state you received it in, or you can run a program called DBAN which you can find here http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/ it will randomly write 0's & 1's to every block of your dive overwriting any date previously stores there.

 

[JLMullins]

Can I save the image to an ext. HD that has files and folder on it? How big is the image file that is created?
Thanks

Use windows backup to create a complete image of the drive, this can be saved a few different ways such as to a external USB drive, over a network to another computer or even to a sset of BRD-R's or even a bunch of DVD's. This will create an image of the entire drive as a format that you will be able to restore to your new drive (as long as the new drive has the same OS installed which it sounds like it does). Your next step would depend on how thoroughly you want to scrub your machine to get rid of all your personal data. You can either run a repair utility /system restore to the original state you received it in, or you can run a program called DBAN which you can find here http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/ it will randomly write 0's & 1's to every block of your dive overwriting any date previously stores there.

 

[Hawkeye22]

You can't do a straight copy of programs. They will need reinstalled. The only way to copy everything from the old drive (programs & data) to the new drive is by cloning or imaging your old drive. This of course will overwrite everything on the new drive.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Some of the previous responses seem to me to have lost the concept of what you are trying to do (based on your second post, not your first one), which is to simply get your data off the old drive - right?. This doesn't involve cloning the drive, imaging the drive or anything in that direction.

As YOGI said, just buy an external enclosure for the drive and plug it in to USB port on your new PC. That means you won't have to go messing about inside your shiny new PC to fit it internally.

Now, the reason "access is denied" to some files & folders on the old drive is because those files/folders were created under a different user account (even if it was your account, your new Windows doesn't know that). You just need to "take ownership" of those folders.

Right-click a user-account folder to which access is denied, click "Properties" from the menu.
Click the "Security" tab.

Click the "Edit" button.
Highlight the user account you are currently logged on to.
In the panel below, tick all the "Allow" check-boxes except "Special Permissions"
Click 'OK'

You'll have to repeat that process for any other user folders on the old drive which trigger "Access Denied"