Clone Laptop HD - Help

Okay, here is my situation. I have not seen anything like this in the threads so any good advice is appreciated. I currently have a Compaq Pentium 4 laptop (Presario 1510) with a 40 Gig HD. I have a very special software that I purchased 3 years ago online that isinstalled. Even though I have a zip file to reinstall the software if something goes wrong and I need to reinstall (I have the zip file saved to an external drive for backup) I cannot reinstall since it requires an "activation key" to install. That is, in the installation process it goes to a web site to "activate and validate" the software. Trouble is the company that developed the software went out of business and their web site no longer exists. Thus, I have a tough situation since if my computer (Presario 1510) has a failure (be it hard drive, mother board or whatever) then I will no longer be able to access this very important software. I purchased ATI 9 from Best Buy (bummer they didn't have version 10 in stock) and I am waiting (until I really know what to do) to install ATI.

Some thoughts I have are to buy a spare hard drive from Compaq (exactly the same as my current hard drive) and have my existing hard drive "cloned" to to have a "spare" drive available. Remember a simple file backup won't work since I cannot reinstall the software. I have actually though about purchasing another Compaq 1510 configured exactly the same as mine to have a "spare parts" computer for the future. Of course I have to locate one... Another way to solve the problem is to have a software expert figure out how I can reinstall my software on a new computer.

This is a bummer but currently the only way see of fixing my problem is to buy the second hard drive and cloning it from the original and then locking in a safe place. Trouble is I cannot screw the master hard drive in the process. Any suggestions how to do this?

Thanks.

RLVB

 

Cloning is the logical choice. Buy an extra drive that will fit your laptop ( you don't need to get it from Compaq). Put that drive in an external enclosure. Install TI 9 and register it. Then download either the latest build 3854 or 3677. I would recommend build 3677. Check out this thread Testing build 3854. Also this one How to Restore a Replacement Hard Drive. Some folks have reported issue with cloning. I would stay with V9 unless you absolutely need the features on V10.

 

Thanks thomasjk.

I will read your suggested links. My fear is can I screw my master hard drive by installing and trying what you suggest (cloning). I don't care if I "mess" up the extra drive cause I will just reformat it but I cannot mess up the master. Also, if I am succesful in the "cloning process" should justbe able to swap out drives and the computer (original) wouldn't know the difference?

Thanks again,

RLVB

 

Correct. The other option is to buy an external enclosure that has a hard drive included along with a new laptop hard drive. Install TI and create an image of the old drive to the external. Install the new laptop drive and do a restore from the external to the new drive. This will leave your original drive intact.

 

If you have access to another computer that you can use, you could install the updated version of TI on that and create a new rescue cd. The rescue cd that came in the retail box is probably out of date. The rescue cd is computer independent so it doesn't matter what computer to use to make it.

If the laptop has network access or USB ports (and is supported), boot from the Acronis rescue cd and backup to an external USB drive or to a network share. Just do an Image backup, don't do a clone. You can then restore the image when needed (to a new internal hard drive, for example).

This is how I ugraded my laptop drive. I did a backup image over the network (faster than usb 1). Installed the new hard drive. Restored the image. Everthing worked fine and nothing needed to be reactivated. If you do it this way, the original drive stay intact and you can always reinstall it and be back where you were if something is wrong with the new one.

 

Hello rlvb,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Please notice that cloning procedure is designed mainly for moving to a new drive, not backing up (see this article for details). Therefore, in your situation it is recommended for backup purposes to create images of you whole hard drive. You may then store them anywhere and restore using Acronis Bootable Rescue Media when needed.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Agree entirely .. that's exactly the process I follow on laptop and desktop. Gives me assurance that the day I need to restore that it's going to work. If it fails during this test then you can start worrying, but you still have your original working disk to fit back into the laptop.