Is it possible to clone an external drive onto an internal one?

[elektriksheep]

Hi.

My question is: If I have an external IDE HDD (connected via USB), and an internal SATA HDD, can I clone from the IDE drive to the SATA drive? (I am aware that some cloning software is capable of doing the reverse)


Detailed info if needed:

I have a laptop and I am currently upgrading from an IDE HDD + IDE mobo, to a SATA HDD + SATA mobo.

I want to clone the existing Windows XP installation from my IDE HDD to my new SATA HDD.

I have at my disposal a 1TB USB/FIREWIRE external HDD, and a USB IDE HDD caddy.

Old IDE HDD is 160GB (will probably have only 20-30GB of used space, once I have moved non-system files to 1TB drive).
New SATA HDD is 500GB

I intend on doing the following (but I am not sure if it's possible, or what software to use)...

I can't do anything with my new SATA HDD until I install my new SATA mobo and connect the two. So I have to do that first.

I then intended on putting my old IDE HDD into the caddy, then connecting that to my laptop via USB.

I want to then clone the external HDD onto the new internal SATA drive.

I need to know...
1. If this is possible, or whether I need to rethink the whole thing.
2. If it is possible, what software is best (preferably freeware)
3. Any hints and tips that a cloning noob needs to know :O)

I am aware that some cloning software runs outside Windows, so it would be nice to not have to install a temporary installation of Windows onto the new SATA drive, but if it's the only way, it's the only way.

Many thanks in advance for any replies.

[Gatto]

There are plenty of cloning softwares on the internet - in order to clone the entire harddrive (including OS), then you would need to get one that can do it from outside windows. This generally would involve it setting a startup command so that you would restart the computer and the process is completed before booting into Windows.

Clonezilla is different in that you burn the iso download to a CD and then boot up from that. You then clone the hard drive to your firewire external and vice versa from that.

Link: http://www.clonezilla.org/

Give that a whirl and see how it goes.

[elektriksheep]

There are plenty of cloning softwares on the internet - in order to clone the entire harddrive (including OS), then you would need to get one that can do it from outside windows. This generally would involve it setting a startup command so that you would restart the computer and the process is completed before booting into Windows.

Clonezilla is different in that you burn the iso download to a CD and then boot up from that. You then clone the hard drive to your firewire external and vice versa from that.

*link removed*

Give that a whirl and see how it goes.


Awesome. Sounds good. I'll check it out.

Cheers, Gatto. Much appreciated.

[pctestcard.com]

If there are hardware changes including the mobo, you may have difficulty getting the cloned XP to boot ok on the new HDD.

In that case, you may need to reinstall the XP on the new hardware.

Hope this helps!
Bill

[elektriksheep]

If there are hardware changes including the mobo, you may have difficulty getting the cloned XP to boot ok on the new HDD.

In that case, you may need to reinstall the XP on the new hardware.

Hope this helps!
Bill


Mmmmm, good point. I hadn't thought of that. I guess I'll give it a go, and if it fails I'll have to bite the bullet and setup everything all over again. Not the end of the world :O)

Thanks for that.

[nacai]

the answer is absolutly yes

[shipra]

There are plenty of cloning softwares on the internet - in order to clone the entire harddrive (including OS), then you would need to get one that can do it from outside windows. This generally would involve it setting a startup command so that you would restart the computer and the process is completed before booting into Windows.

Clonezilla is different in that you burn the iso download to a CD and then boot up from that. You then clone the hard drive to your firewire external and vice versa from that.

Give that a whirl and see how it goes.

Great Idea

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http://www.discount-office-needs.co.uk/Computers/26/

[elektriksheep]

Before doing anything, I had to get all the data off've my internal hard drive in order to minimise the amount of data I would have to clone. So I transferred EVERYTHING off've my internal drive, onto my external 1TB hard drive. And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING - 300GIG of photos, videos, lyrics, porn, backups, all my music etc.

In the end I tried the whole Clonezilla route for the clone - I read all the instructions on the Clonezilla site very carefully, and part of what I had to do, was use HP-USB Format Tool to format my pen drive, before I could use it for the clone...

So I ran the HP-USB Format Tool as instructed.

At the time, I was using my laptop and I had 3 drives available in Windows Explorer....
C: Local
E: Seagate Freeagent Xtreme 1TB
F: LEXAR FIREFLY PEN DRIVE

When I ran the HP-USB Format Tool, it only gave me one option for which drive I wanted to format, which was E: LEXAR FIREFLY PEN DRIVE. And it WAS the pen drive that I wanted to format, so I clicked 'format'.

I think you can guess what happened next...

When the format had finished I went back to Windows explorer to find:
C: Local
E: LEXAR FIREFLY PEN DRIVE
F: LEXAR FIREFLY PEN DRIVE

Where was my 1TB external hard drive?

Answer: Gone.

This w!!!!r of a formatting program had relabelled my 1TB Seagate drive as LEXAR FIREFLY PEN DRIVE E:, causing me to format the wrong drive. Why had it done this? I honestly wish I knew.

So I had just accidentally formatted virtually EVERY SINGLE FILE AND PIECE OF DATA I OWNED - 300GIG OF PHOTOS, VIDEOS, WORK DOCUMENTS, PORN, BACKUPS, ALL MY MUSIC ETC.

So I immediately starting Googling 'undo format' and 'accidental format' and came across a few forums with titles like "Accidentally formatted my hard drive - HELP!" - Just what I was after.

Various people were like "Yeah, you can get data recovery programs that can recover formatted data, no problem" - so I was like YES! I'm saved!

Then one guy was like "If you did a quick format, your chances of recovering the data are pretty high. However, if you didn't do a quick format - don't blame yourself too much for having lost all your data, it happens to us all."

Guess what? I didn't do a quick format - F****.

Downloaded myself a 'free' data recovery program, started running it for about 30 mins, then found out that it was only the scan that was free - you have to pay for the whole license if you want to actually recover anything. Wankers.

Eventually managed to get hold of a working copy through someone I know. Installed the program, set it running, and went to bed...

Woke up, came downstairs, checked my laptop....

RECOVERED EVERYTHING. All 333GB. Holy f***ing sh**. Lessons learned.

[elektriksheep]

In the end, when I eventually got round to attempting the clone, it just said 'clone failed' and 'could not clone hard drive' even though I tried various different programs, so I gave up and had to do the full reinstall in the end, sadly.

Thanks again for all your help though, people, it is much appreciated. I think I'll just stay away from Hewlett Packard software in the future ;O)