Upgrade Hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter butcha22
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butcha22

I have a laptop with Vista home premium on it and a 80GB hard-drive, after
quickly filling this i have bought an internal 120GB, i also have an external
HDD enclosure (if needed). Could someone please tell me how to swap the HDDs
so that i can keep my OS and settings etc. Thanks
 
butcha22 said:
I have a laptop with Vista home premium on it and a 80GB hard-drive, after
quickly filling this i have bought an internal 120GB, i also have an
external
HDD enclosure (if needed). Could someone please tell me how to swap the
HDDs
so that i can keep my OS and settings etc. Thanks
Click to expand...


You should use some imaging software like Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost.
 
If you search on the web for replacement notebook hard drives you will find
many vendors that package kits to clone your existing hard drive. Some use
an external enclosure so that you can use your old hard drive as an external
drive.
However this is Vista.
Odds are that if you clone your old notebook hard drive successfully and
reinstall it in your notebook Vista will say you need a new activation code.
Vista does this in my experience even when you change videocards from the
same vendor, e.g upgrade within the Nvidia line using the exact same drivers
that were already on your computer.
However when you finally get through to the Indian support center where
Microsoft has sent American jobs they will give you a new activation code
after you pledge in blood that you have not robbed Microsoft of a Vista
sales.
 
If you have added a 2nd internal drive why swap the o/s drive?
If data is the main consumer of space simply move your Documents folder to
the new drive using the reccomended method.
Then undertake some houskeeping to reduce the size of your restore points
and temp internet files.
 
butcha22 said:
I have a laptop with Vista home premium on it and a 80GB hard-drive, after
quickly filling this i have bought an internal 120GB, i also have an
external
HDD enclosure (if needed). Could someone please tell me how to swap the
HDDs
so that i can keep my OS and settings etc. Thanks
Click to expand...


Use Acronis True Image to create an image, including the MBR, and store the
image on your external hard drive. Swap the drives and boot with the
Acronis cd (make one first if you buy the download version). Tell Acronis
where the image is stored and restore from the external drive. Voila!

Ignore the rantings. If you have to reactivate over the phone it is not
hard to do and takes about six or seven minutes. Generally you never have
to talk to a live agent in your scenario.
 
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