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If I Copy my hard drive

jockmadonna

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Posted March 8, 2013 at 10:47AM

As I am a complete novice ( I know a novice in this day and age) I wondered If I copied my computer hard drive to an external hard drive would it transfer all programes and files and could I then transfer individual programes and files from the external drive to a new computer

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Zak

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Posted March 8, 2013 at 10:53AM

Unfortunately it does not work like that. The only way to do it is to create an image of your hard drive on to the external drive. You will need imaging software

I myself use Acronis.

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Zak

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Posted March 8, 2013 at 11:00AM

Add I was a bit hasty in my reply and misread your question. You do not need imaging in this instance Programs will need to be reinstalled in your case from the original disks or set up files stored on your external hard drive or other medium. As for the files then that is correct as to what you want to do.

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jockmadonna

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Posted March 8, 2013 at 11:04AM

Thank you for your information

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lotvic

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Posted March 8, 2013 at 11:10AM

Yes, for your personal data 'My Documents'

No, it doesn't work like that for the Operating System and programs. (we all wish it was that simple)

It's not even possible to put the old hard drive into a new computer and expect it to work on new different hardware and motherboard. The drivers will be all wrong for starters. You have to install the Operating System from DVD and then install the programs.

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