How to copy a hard drive

[MrVeedo]

hey guys, i have a small hard drive that has some sort of program that runs an asphalt plant. i would like to make an exact copy of the drive and put it on a backup drive, in case the original fails. it is a fat16 partition. any ideas on what to use to make a duplicate of it and have the copy bootable?

 

[jbritt1234]

Your best option would be Norton Ghost. It will make an exact Image of the disk. You can either make an exact copy of it to another disk, or save the image as a file and keep it on another drive, DVD etc.

For example, you could buy a newer, bigger drive. Then use the old one to Image the new disk. Nortan can automatically expand the partition so that is uses the entire size of the new HD. Then store the old HD is a safe location for a backup.

 

[dmk11]

If the other drive is any of the big manufacturer (Maxtor, Western Digital, Seagate, etc).. You can download program off their respective website that would make an identical copy of the old HD. This usually comes with the HD when you buy the retail version..

 

[MrVeedo]

hmm, ok thanks for the help guys. doesnt windows have to be installed for ghost to work? or would i be able to pop in an extra drive and run the copy process off a floppy?

 

[jbritt1234]

You would run Ghost off a floppy. Just have both the HD's hooked up.

Be sure you know which is Primary and which is Secondary. You will need to choose in Ghost which drive you are wanting to copy and which one you want to copy to. BE SURE YOU SELECT THE CORRECT ONE!!! Or, you will overite your good disk.

It shows the size of the disk, so another easy way to tell is just look at that. I'm sure whatever new disk you get will be much bigger.

 

[markk]

THIS IS EXCELLENT INFO
waht a relief to find this out , about free cloning software or copy of HD software.I should have thought it was more publically know. I did not get any floppy with my 2 new WD HDs but I know now THANKS
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#dlgtools> this is downloads for Western Digital

NOw how about copying to a series of CD/r's to have pristine rebootable copy/clone mirror ability . to store the installation and allow placing on Hard drive real fast , so HD ends up just like original , all file structure retained & BOOTABLE ? Ideas?

 

[markk]

HD clones


On making preferable CD/r copies- one would need a boot floppy I suppose...
does this just open PC to receive DOS commands , so many types bootable floppy would do that ?

also I am now looking at Ultimate boot CD . for this and more..
progress is acceptable

 

[huesmann]

Originally posted by: markk
also I am now looking at Ultimate boot CD . for this and more..

Look into Bart PE.

 

[imported_Mavros]

You can tell Norton Ghost to 'split' the image into chunks....like 600-700 mb. Then burn those on cdr. Then you need a bootable Norton Ghost floppy with cdrom drivers. Then when you boot up you can choose to load an image from cd.

 

[Skiddex]

otherwise, if you have a maxtor cd laying around, their drive copy program works great. some maunfactures (i know segate) software for copying hard drives wont let you copy an 80gb drive to a 40gb drive even if there is >40gb of used space on the 80gb drive. ive tried it out and i know that maxtors software lets you do this. maybe this helps if you cant find ghost