Cloning my hard drive

[Estam]

I have 160 gig hd with two partitions, one I'm using for general web browsing and the second I have my marine charting software which is registered which also was fairly expensive. Over the years and a few crashed hard drives/laptops I only get 3 registrations and I'm on my last. My laptop is running fine but I would like to preserve this final copy so my question is if I buy an identical hard drive can I clone this new hard drive and will it work on this same laptop for use if this hd ever crashes. Many thanks for any suggestions.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I don't think a hard drive replacement requires any re-activation of the OS. I'd almost bet on saying that I'm sure of it. Motherboard replacement? Yes. RAM? No. HDD or SSD? No.

So you don't need an "identical" hard drive; you only need a laptop drive with the specs to fit the laptop -- big enough to hold the capacity of used space on the existing drive. (You obviously would want bigger.)

If you don't want to upgrade the laptop with an SSD, I've seen good laptop HDDs of 1TB selling for between $50 and $90 at the Egg. Look at HGST and WD drives, maybe Seagate. I advise avoiding Toshiba. You might investigate the Samsung offerings further.

Just don't screw the pooch when you clone. Cloning is a very easy and straightforward process with the right software. Somehow I get the impression you've never done it before.

 

[Elixer]

I have 160 gig hd with two partitions, one I'm using for general web browsing and the second I have my marine charting software which is registered which also was fairly expensive. Over the years and a few crashed hard drives/laptops I only get 3 registrations and I'm on my last. My laptop is running fine but I would like to preserve this final copy so my question is if I buy an identical hard drive can I clone this new hard drive and will it work on this same laptop for use if this hd ever crashes. Many thanks for any suggestions.

You have multiple choices here, you can clone from one HD to another HD (or SSD) and have a backup that way, or you can clone to a image file, which will allow you to write that image to whatever you want, and write that to some DVDs or whatever.

The only thing is, there is some software that can be locked to a specific HD, and without knowing what this marine charting software is, it is hard to tell if it uses draconian DRM or not.

P.S, in any case, it is also a very good idea to backup.

 

[smakme7757]

Cloning should work fine, but I'm pretty sure if for what ever reason you ever need to reactivate you can just ring/email the company and ask for a new activation.

A lot of companies try to make it sound like you only get X activations. But once they are used up they usually give you an extra activation. They want to keep you as a customer, so it's in their best interest to allow you to keep using their software.

 

[Crunos]

if your two computers have the same motherboard, I think any clone software will work. if they have dissimilar hardware, you can use backup the disk and restore to your laptop using universal restore. Many software on the market have this function, but it's only available on the paid version. recently I found a freeware, aomei backupper standard, that can do this trick. I hope it will help you.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I've never had an issue with software activation when cloning a hard drive to use in the same machine. Obviously I've not had that specific software but nothing else I've run into a problem with.

 

[techmanc]

I never had problem with licensing after I cloned a hard drive but that was always to replace the drive I had.

You should have no problem if your just using one drive at a time.

 

[Estam]

Thanks for all the responses and I will clone my new hard drive and check it out see if it works. I have used this HD for 5 years and have over 50gig free so for simplicity I will buy a 160gig so I have two questions... HDD or SSD recommendations please and thanks Crunos for mentioning aomei, will this also do the cloning job I'm looking for.

 

[FrankRamiro]

if your two computers have the same motherboard, I think any clone software will work. if they have dissimilar hardware, you can use backup the disk and restore to your laptop using universal restore. Many software on the market have this function, but it's only available on the paid version. recently I found a freeware, aomei backupper standard, that can do this trick. I hope it will help you.

Hi; i have 2 dv hp with same motherboard how i go about cloning a Hdd from one PC to the other?

 

[Crunos]

Thanks for all the responses and I will clone my new hard drive and check it out see if it works. I have used this HD for 5 years and have over 50gig free so for simplicity I will buy a 160gig so I have two questions... HDD or SSD recommendations please and thanks Crunos for mentioning aomei, will this also do the cloning job I'm looking for.

IT can do the clone job.

 

[Crunos]

Hi; i have 2 dv hp with same motherboard how i go about cloning a Hdd from one PC to the other?

u can just use the software I mentioned to clone a HDD. If youtake a lookatitsinterface,I don'tthinkyou need any guidence.

 

[Estam]

The Free Aomei "backupper Standed Edition software worked perfectly. It cloned my 3 partitioned hhd perfectly with a few clicks. Thanks for all your info.

 

[FrankRamiro]

The Free Aomei "backupper Standed Edition software worked perfectly. It cloned my 3 partitioned hhd perfectly with a few clicks. Thanks for all your info.

Hi Estam:i did download ''Aomei back up software''; to my Laptop Dv6 win 7,now how i clone another HDD from Laptop Dv6 to Laptop DV5 empty HHD.
i have an USB interface cable,will that work,or how do i go about it

how do i connect this laptop dv6 where i have the Aoem software to my other laptop Dv5 same motherboard empty HDD,or i need a sata small hdd caddy


http://postimg.org/image/4keszr50x/1b6d5253/

 

[FrankRamiro]

Hi guys good news and success, i've ordered this DVD hdd caddy

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...044469-2269508



i used this software

http://www.backup-utility.com/download.html

note;i had an win 7 Iso in the HDD which would never activate,(probably it would if i call Win activation center but that would be too much hassle) and it kept booting on the caddy DVD HDD no mater if i changed boot Drive in bios, so to over come that i had to take DVD caddy out and boot then put CD caddy in place then just use the clone software,it cloned really quick
then i moved the cloned HHD to my other HP DV5 laptop and boom it works like a charm and is genuine activated,

 

[FrankRamiro]

Hi guys; another HDD cloning Win 7 success,this time i had 2 desktops Lenovo Thinkcentre m71 I5 2400,one running Linux and the other Win7,so i got another HDD and used the same software process above,this one did not have to buy any adapter because the sata cables from the DVD drive did the trick, and all genuine activated,and ready for Win 10.
the aomerBackuper Software really works and it's so easy,recommended