Clone C-Drive to larger HDD replacement

I have a laptop with Vista Home Prem 64-bit and want to replace current C-drive with a larger HDD. Can Acronis clone from a 200GB C-drive to a 320GB HDD using a Vista 64-bit O/S? (Norton Ghost cannot do it on 64-bit machines). Will Acronis clone the entire drive — boot sector, O/S, registry, TOC, indices, hidden files, restore partition, and all my installed application software? — And leave the remainder of the 320GB drive available for use?

Do I use Acronis TI Home 2009, or TI ver. 10, or TI ver. 11? What’s the difference? The Acronis website says they all do essentially the same thing; which is newest?

Also, will this work? Install Acronis to my 200GB C-drive. Clone/copy 200GB C-drive to new 320GB drive mounted in an external enclosure. Shutdown computer. Then swap 200GB HHD with the 320GB drive. And simply boot from the cloned image on the newly replaced 320GB drive located in bay formerly occupied by old 200GB C-drive.
Thanks in advance.

 

garuda,

What you plan to do depends on the laptop brand. What is yours?

 

2009 is the newest but many here would say ver 10 is/was the best. Ver 9 still works for me.

 

Brian,
My Sager notebook's sys details are on my signature block at bottom of original post. But my primary concern is whether is works on a 64-bit O/S. I have sent two emails to Acronis, but with no reply. Makes me hestitant to buy it, even though the price is reasonable.

Has anyone cloned a C-drive on a 64-bit Vista system?

Thanks in advance.

 

Only versions 11 and 2009 will clone Vista w/o a repair.

Here's how I do my laptop cloning - it makes no difference if 32 or 64 bit when you use the TI Rescue Bootable CD.

Connect an external drive containing your new HDD via USB, Firewire, or eSATA, and boot with the Rescue Disk.

Then choose the CLONE function and MANUAL, and select your internal HDD as SOURCE and the external as TARGET.

Then choose PROPORTIONAL and KEEP DATA on the source drive.

When done, switch the drives and boot your laptop.

 

garuda,

Sorry, I missed your computer details. I wanted to know if you had an IBM, HP or Compaq laptop as they have 240 heads BIOS geometry and require a non standard clone technique. I've been waiting for answers to your 64 bit question as well. Regarding the 320 GB HD, you can have all the partitions cloned over so it finishes looking the same size as your 200 GB HD but with 120 GB of Unallocated Space. Or you can expand each partition so you finish with no Unallocated Space.

Regarding technique, the above laptop brands require a reverse clone. The new HD mounted internally and the old HD in the USB enclosure. You boot from a rescue CD to perform the clone. Actually, the reverse clone procedure seems to be a more reliable way of cloning standard geometry laptops and that would be my recommendation.

 

Thanks guys for your input!

Brian, I’ll have to check w/ Sager on the “std geometry” issue.

Corky, nice concise description of steps for cloning, thanks. Spent 2 months in Sedona last winter, nice countryside you've got out there!!! Rumor has it that Bluetooth and wireless communications are much faster in AZ with all that clean, fresh air out there.

Is the TI Bootable Rescue CD you refer to, the ISO file that burns to CD – (that I read about on the Acronis sticky post on this forum)?

 

Hello garuda,

Thank you for your interesting in Acronis True Image

To create Acronis bootable disc or rescue disc you should use Media Builder option within the program, Tools -> Media Builder. See user guide for more information about Acronis True Image bootable disc.

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev