clone current system to new hard drive?

Is it possible to clone an existing Windows XP SP2 system on a Toshiba Laptop to a new larger replacement harddrive?

Which acronis product would be best?

thanks,
mike

 

Yes, that's one of the main functions of True Image Home ... now called Echo, I think.

 

Instead of doing a clone, just image each partition and restore it to the new hard drive. Just make sure that the partitions on the new hard drive are at least 1gb larger than the partitions on the source drive. It's always better to partition the new hard drive how you want it, rather then have true image do it.

Example if your system partition is 20gb only restore it to a partition that is at least 21gb. (this will prevent drive letter changes when restoring windows xp).

Note - if you decide to do a clone instead, be aware that this will copy the MBR from the old hard drive to the new hard drive. When this happens the new hard drive will show the exact same size as the old hard drive. You will need to do repairs that recover all the unused space on the new hard drive.

 

Joneyjoe 81,
I suggest you check your facts in future. Otherwise it is possible you could mislead others with the advice you give.

Xpilot.

 

joneyjoe81:

I don't want you to think that we're ganging up on you, but Xpilot is correct. I gotta admire your persistence and your willingness to help out, but there have been factual errors in several of your posts.

1. Restoring to a larger partition is not a requirement to avoid drive letter changes in Windows. The partition size has nothing to do with this issue. I've restored many times to the same or smaller-sized partitions without issue. In fact, as I'm typing this, I just now finished restoring yesterday's image of my main Vista partition without a resize, and there were no drive letter changes or other issues; the restore went perfectly.

2. When you say that cloning copies the MBR of the old disk to the new disk I think you must be referring to the partition table getting copied. While that can occur if you just clone without resizing, you have the opportunity to resize when doing a clone. In that case a new partition table is generated to account for the different-sized partitions. No repairs are necessary when done this way.