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How to clone / image my HD, if I need to change HD on my M4400

Discussion in 'Dell Latitude, Vostro, and Precision' started by essami, Apr 21, 2009.

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  1. essami

    essami Notebook Geek

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    Hi,

    I had weird thing happen today. I heard some crackling from my hard drive (presumably) and then all the hard drive functions stopped. I could move the mouse but opening files, folders etc. wasn't happening. So it seems the HD just stopped working. I had to force reboot and after that all was fine again.

    I'd like to make an image/clone of the hard drive in case I need to exchange it to a new one. Can someone point me to a good preferably free program that does the job. I have Vista 64bit OS and a 250GB HD that is some basic model that Dell ships.

    Anything else I should consider? Everything works now but I'd like to be on the safe side.

    Thanks!
     
    essami, Apr 21, 2009
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  2. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

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    Take a look at HDClone. That should do the trick! ;)
     
    ahl395, Apr 21, 2009
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  3. essami

    essami Notebook Geek

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    Seems that HD clone only supports cloning to a larger HD then the original.
     
    essami, Apr 21, 2009
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  4. Skye2

    Skye2 Notebook Evangelist

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    Acronis True Image is another option but it is not free.
     
    Skye2, Apr 21, 2009
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  5. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I would do a fresh install, copy data over via USB or eSATA.
     
    sgogeta4, Apr 21, 2009
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  6. essami

    essami Notebook Geek

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    Id really like to avoid this since I have so many programs installed and everythings working peachy right now. I think it would take me at least two days to re-install everything from scratch.
     
    essami, Apr 21, 2009
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  7. Asymmetricblog

    Asymmetricblog Notebook Consultant

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    Doesn't Acronis come with a free trial edition?
     
    Asymmetricblog, Apr 21, 2009
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  8. antskip

    antskip Notebook Deity

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    Of course it's not itself free, but if you are in need of an external HD to backup your internal HD to (everyone should have at least one, IMHO), then if you buy a Maxtor Onetouch 4 drive it comes with cloning software that works great. Image one's HD, then replace it with the new HD, then use the rescue CD to restore the image onto the new HD. Everything is restored- Windows and all programs as before. I did it, and it worked great. (however I backed up all data files onto a second external HD, as fail-safe plan for data). I imagine Acronis True Image does a similar thing, but with the Maxtor external HD you get the external HD as well...
     
    antskip, Apr 21, 2009
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  9. LPTP-LVR

    LPTP-LVR Notebook Deity

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    Use Vista Ultimate...you already have all you need. Make a full laptop backup and load it once you have your new HDD....i do this every two months. Reload image, install new drivers, make new image....simple. And i never had any issue with Vista's built in back-up.

    If you try Acronis and don't like it, it's REALLY annoying to remove the program from your system.
     
    LPTP-LVR, Apr 22, 2009
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  10. essami

    essami Notebook Geek

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    Hey! Great idea LPTP-LVR :) Will be doing that!

    Sami
     
    essami, Apr 22, 2009
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