This is all done on the "scale" of a home user, at home.... I cloned my Laptop to a different drive last week to stick in Win7 as a direct upgrade from Vista as a test. (Used 64bit, but can't use ANY on my old printers or scanners... No drivers.)
I've been doing this so long (successfully) I have to think real hard about what I do that makes it work, or more importantly, what I did at first that always (mostly) caused it to fail. I think you never progressed to "that next level"... <grin>... This is my general rules/overview: I ALWAYS start by booting from a CD version of Acronis TrueImage. (I do NOT believe in this "shadow copy" or "delta changes" BS... AND it is not important if I go "off-line" with the machine for as long as it takes...) I ALWAYS do a FULL SPINDLE IMAGE. ALL partitions, the MBR, track Zero, the partition tables, etc... Acronis makes that very easy. I re-size the partitions as a different operation later, with Acronis Disk Director10. (The newer versions of ATI will do this as a one-operation multi-step deal, but why change something that "works for me" at this late date<?>) IF a Laptop, I write the IMAGE file to a USB HD since I only have one physical HD in the Laptop at a time. (HP/Compaq tells me it is normal to "break" the Recovery Partition information on my HP/Compaq Laptops.) Likely since I do NOT do "bit-for-bit" forensic images/clones/copies.) IF a desktop, I may or may not to a direct clone, following all of the above "rules". When done, I pull the old drive out and put the new one in the exact "electrical place" of the old one BEFORE THE FIRST BOOT. I might add it back later as a slave or "data only" drive. Hope that makes sense and helps... I do these almost in my sleep. Sorry if it is still not clear... Rick Glazier From: "swzaske"
I have to be honest with myself. I have some blind spots.
Rick said:
By doing it the "hard way" I don't make it simpler, but it always works.
