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Laptop HDD replacement

Chuffchuffbuff
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Posted April 25, 2012 at 9:19PM

I want to replace the HDD in my daughter's Acer laptop. I can make backup disks from the current drive can I use these to install the OS onto the replacement drive?

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted April 25, 2012 at 9:54PM

Be careful of the difference between a Backup and a Clone.

You really need to Clone the drive

When you use the Disk Clone tool, you copy all contents of one hard disk drive onto another hard disk drive: as a result, both the source and the target disk have the same data. This function allows you to transfer all the information (including the operating system and installed programs) from a small hard disk drive to a large one without having to reinstall and reconfigure all of your software. Disk Clone operation it is not generally used as a backup strategy, as it offers little flexibility.

In general, disk clone is a one time operation designed to clone one disk to a different one for the purpose of migrating to a larger hard drive or to a new machine.

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Strawballs

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Posted April 26, 2012 at 1:46PM

You can download a program to do this from the maker of the drive you end up buying that are usually based on Acronis which is highly recommended on here.

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Chuffchuffbuff

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Posted April 29, 2012 at 8:27AM

Thank you both for your advice, I'll buy Acronis and go ahead.

Donald

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Chuffchuffbuff

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Posted April 26, 2012 at 12:49PM

Thanks for that. I assumed the system backup / rescue disk which Acer tell you to create when you get the laptop could be used. I will try cloning before i swap drives. Is there a recommended program to use, preferably shareware or freeware? I would prefer not to have to buy an expensive program I'll probably only use once.

Donald.

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