Cloning and replacement of boot hard drive

[mrgou]

Hi,

My boot hard drive seems to be having problems and to need replacement. As it's something I've never done before, I wanted to clarify a couple of things first:

1. Am I right to assume that I can replace the OEM hard drive by any other one (with similar specs)? It has a 1TB SATA 3 Gbits/s, 7200 rpm disk (Samsung, I believe). Could I replace it with a Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6 Gbits/s 5900 rpm disk?

2. To clone the disk, I found the ICY BOX IB-120CL-U3 docking station, where you can dock both disks. Can I assume that I can clone a 1TB disk to a 2TB one, or should both disks have the same size?

3. The Icy Box comes with a copy function and a clone function. In what case do I need to use one rather than the other?

Any help would be very welcome!

Thanks!

Raph

 

[Rod Speed]

My boot hard drive seems to be having problems and to need replacement.
As it's something I've never done before, I wanted to clarify a couple of
things first:

1. Am I right to assume that I can replace the OEM
hard drive by any other one (with similar specs)?

Doesn't even need to have similar specs.

Normally the only thing that matters is that it has the same
interface and fits physically and has enough space etc.

It has a 1TB SATA 3 Gbits/s, 7200 rpm disk (Samsung, I believe). Could
I replace it with a Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6 Gbits/s 5900 rpm
disk?

Probably. You can sometimes see a particular motherboard chipset
that does have a problem seeing a drive with a different SATA standard
speed but that's pretty uncommon with that particular pair.

2. To clone the disk, I found the ICY BOX IB-120CL-U3
docking station, where you can dock both disks.
Can I assume that I can clone a 1TB disk to a 2TB
one, or should both disks have the same size?

Not sure about what that particular docking station
can do, but certainly most cloners can handle that fine.

3. The Icy Box comes with a copy function and a clone function.
In what case do I need to use one rather than the other?

Safer to use the clone function and try the copy if that doesn't work.
It may be that the clone function might require them to be the same
size, or it may produce a clone that is only 1TB in size on that 2TB target.

JUST BE CAREFUL YOU TELL IT TO CLONE THE RIGHT WAY, FROM THE
SAMSUNG TO THE SEAGATE, otherwise you will lose all your data.

 

[mrgou]

Le samedi 14 juillet 2012 23:36:18 UTC+2, Kirk Bubul a écrit :

Yes, but you'd probably notice in use that a 5900 RPM drive is slower
than a 7200 RPM one. (And do you need the extra 1TB in size? Is your
current drive "full"?)

I happen to have found a great offer for a 2TB drive ;-)

Beware of a drive with a manufacturing date
that coincides with the Thai flooding of last year, or one that might
have been in inventory at the factory when the factory flooded.

Good to know, thanks!

Why spend 42 pounds for a dock when you can clone your drive for free
by Googling "drive cloning free software" and downloading software
that you think you'll like? there is also free software if you want
to partition your new drive instead of having one huge partition. (If
you follow my suggestion, you may have to purchase a new data cable
for use during the cloning, but that's far cheaper than the Icy Box.)

I could use the Icy Box later. Moreover, I wonder how much longer my PC is going to work with this hard drive, and I don't have any other to do the cloning on.

>3. The Icy Box comes with a copy function and a clone function. In what case do I need to use one rather than the other?
I think that cloning is superior for guaranteeing that your
newly-cloned drive will boot. YMMV.

Great, thanks!

 

[mrgou]

Le samedi 14 juillet 2012 22:14:08 UTC+2, Rod Speed a écrit :

mrgou wrote
Doesn't even need to have similar specs.

Normally the only thing that matters is that it has the same
interface and fits physically and has enough space etc.

OK, just what I thought.

Probably. You can sometimes see a particular motherboard chipset
that does have a problem seeing a drive with a different SATA standard
speed but that's pretty uncommon with that particular pair.

OK, then I'm safe: I already have a secondary disk in the extension bay, and it works fine.

Safer to use the clone function and try the copy if that doesn't work..
It may be that the clone function might require them to be the same
size, or it may produce a clone that is only 1TB in size on that 2TB target.

Ah, yes, that's quite possible. It it's really cloning, it might create a 1TB partition.

JUST BE CAREFUL YOU TELL IT TO CLONE THE RIGHT WAY, FROM THE
SAMSUNG TO THE SEAGATE, otherwise you will lose all your data.

Right, good point!

 

[mrgou]

I also meant to ask:

Yes, but you'd probably notice in use that a 5900 RPM drive is slower
than a 7200 RPM one.

I was also wondering about that. Would the difference between 5900 and 7200 be noticeable?

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Hi,

My boot hard drive seems to be having problems and to need replacement. As it's something I've never done before, I wanted to clarify a couple of things first:

1. Am I right to assume that I can replace the OEM hard drive by any other one (with similar specs)? It has a 1TB SATA 3 Gbits/s, 7200 rpm disk (Samsung, I believe). Could I replace it with a Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6 Gbits/s 5900 rpm disk?

Yes, as long as the new hard drive has the same or greater capacity than
the old one, you should be able to transfer one to the other. There are
a limited number of circumstances where you can clone from a larger
source to a smaller destination though. It's just easier to simply get
the same size or bigger replacement.

However, as others have said, a 5900RPM hard drive is slower than a
7200RPM hard drive, you might find the new one is slightly slower than
your old one. That's the trade-off for the "Green" label.

2. To clone the disk, I found the ICY BOX IB-120CL-U3 docking station, where you can dock both disks. Can I assume that I can clone a 1TB disk to a 2TB one, or should both disks have the same size?

Does this Icy Box device do all of the cloning internally? It looks like
it has a Source and a Target slot on it, which would indicate to me that
it can just clone two disks directly from each other if you just put
them into these slots, without requiring a computer in between. Am I
wrong? Most docking stations require the computer to control this activity.

3. The Icy Box comes with a copy function and a clone function. In what case do I need to use one rather than the other?

Not sure, don't know enough about the device. Perhaps one is done
internally between the two slots, and the other is done externally
through the computer?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Rod Speed]

I also meant to ask:

I was also wondering about that. Would the
difference between 5900 and 7200 be noticeable?

Really depends on how you use the system.

I just built a new i5 system running Win7 64 bit and chose to use a green
5400 drive and the difference between that and a 7200 drive isnt noticeable,
but then its got lots of ram, 8GB, and I leave it on 24/7 so I don't give a
damn about the boot time and I leave apps open all the time, never close
any that I am likely to use again in a week or two.

 

[Arno]

Hi,

My boot hard drive seems to be having problems and to need replacement. As
it's something I've never done before, I wanted to clarify a couple of
things first:

1. Am I right to assume that I can replace the OEM hard drive by any other
one (with similar specs)? It has a 1TB SATA 3 Gbits/s, 7200 rpm disk
(Samsung, I believe). Could I replace it with a Seagate Barracuda Green
2TB SATA 6 Gbits/s 5900 rpm disk?
Yes.

2. To clone the disk, I found the ICY BOX IB-120CL-U3 docking station,
where you can dock both disks. Can I assume that I can clone a 1TB disk
to a 2TB one, or should both disks have the same size?

That will not work. Or rather you will get a 1TB image on
the 2TB drive and the rest of the capacity will be wasted.

What you can do, if you are patient, is a binary clone like
this and then use a partition tool like gparted to enlarge
the partitions. This may take many hour though.

For the cloning itself, you do not need to invest money,
you can just hook them up bith to your PC. There are various
ways to clone an installation.

3. The Icy Box comes with a copy function and a clone function. In what
case do I need to use one rather than the other?

Refer to its manual. It is impossible to tell what they mean.

Also note that if your disk already has read errors, most
cloning hardware and software will not work. You can try with
the Linux dd_rescue tool (e.g. part of the Knoppix life-cd
Linux), that was specifically designed to copy a storage
device with read-errors. The errors will result in empty sectors on
the target, but at least you can copy.

My suggestion would be to take this as an opportunity to establish
a proper backup, make a backup and restore it to the new disk.

Arno

 

[Percival P. Cassidy]

That will not work. Or rather you will get a 1TB image on
the 2TB drive and the rest of the capacity will be wasted.

What you can do, if you are patient, is a binary clone like
this and then use a partition tool like gparted to enlarge
the partitions. This may take many hour though.

I've used MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition (free) to clone and
expand volumes although never such a large one. It seems reasonably fast.

Perce