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    cloning hard disk -- via USB?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Alan-HK, Dec 30, 2007.

  1. Alan-HK

    Alan-HK Notebook Enthusiast

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    I've bought a new (used) hard disk for my Dell Inspiron and want to clone the existing one and replace it.

    I've got a USB-ATA cable that I can use with Win XP. But cloning the hard disk you're running from is not straight forward.

    Are there any bootable CDs (or floppies) that can use the USB interface and have cloning tools? The "Ultimate Boot CD" looks like most of its tools are DOS based, so unlikely to work with USB. Though I haven't tried it (yet).

    Otherwise I'l have to pull the disk and copy it to my desktop PC, and then back to the new disk. In that case, what is a simple (freeware) app that can clone a hard disk to an image file and then write it to a new disk?
     
    Alan-HK, Dec 30, 2007
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  2. KnightUnit

    KnightUnit Notebook Evangelist

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    You can use Acronis, Its a 14 day free trial and I used a USB to SATA cable.
     
    KnightUnit, Dec 30, 2007
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  3. Han Bao Quan

    Han Bao Quan The Assassin

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    Or you can try Norton ghost the newest version.
     
    Han Bao Quan, Dec 31, 2007
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  4. D3X

    D3X the robo know it all

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    No. Norton Ghost has been pretty much abandoned ever since Symantec took over PowerQuest.

    Use Paragon Partition Manager, it does the most complete cloning I've seen yet.
     
    D3X, Dec 31, 2007
    #4