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easiest, simplest 'tard proof way of copying a hard drive

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MonMotha:

--- Quote from: Bender on July 03, 2009, 04:25:42 pm ---anyone know how to clone a laptop drive Can you do it in a usb enclosure?

--- End quote ---

Works fine on Linux since it shows up identically to any other hard drive.  I'm told at least some of the Windows tools will deal with them.  SATA laptop hard drives are especially easy since the connectors are the same as their desktop counterparts.  PATA laptop hard drives need a little adapter as they use a smaller connector than the desktop versions, and power is placed on that same connector.

severdhed:
you can copy a laptop drive several ways.  if it is a sata hard drive, you can simply take it out of the laptop and connect it to your desktop just like a normal hard drive (assuming you have sata ports on your desktop).


if it is not a sata drive, you could use one of these to connect it internally to an IDE connector on your pc

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119245

or you could use a usb adaptor like this that would allow you to connect either a regular IDE, laptop drive, or sata drive up via usb.  we use these at work all the time

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119152

King Nerd:
Wouldn't plain old XCOPY through WinXP or Vista do the job and it comes with Windows?
Might not be the most "tard" proof, but it's certainly the most accessible. No downloads, no purchases, nothin'. It's already there.

MonMotha:

--- Quote from: King Nerd on July 03, 2009, 07:54:18 pm ---Wouldn't plain old XCOPY through WinXP or Vista do the job and it comes with Windows?
Might not be the most "tard" proof, but it's certainly the most accessible. No downloads, no purchases, nothin'. It's already there.

--- End quote ---

This will only copy files.  This means that the filesystem isn't guaranteed to look the same on disk, won't replicate the partition table for you, and it won't copy any filesystem which Windows doesn't understand (which is most of them).

It's perfectly possible to copy the raw drive to another one or into a file, creating an "image", if you prefer.  This creates a drive that is 100% a duplicate of the first one if an identical model drive is used.  This is very handy for backing up arcade games that use a hard drive, since most of those don't have filesystems or even partition tables that Windows (or any other common OS) will understand.

Besides, if you want to copy a ton of files, you should probably use robocopy, now.  At least use xcopy32 (though that may just be an alias of xcopy on modern Windows systems).  rsync can also be handy in some situations (e.g. backup).

Ummon:

--- Quote from: severdhed on July 03, 2009, 07:47:38 pm ---you can copy a laptop drive several ways.  if it is a sata hard drive, you can simply take it out of the laptop and connect it to your desktop just like a normal hard drive (assuming you have sata ports on your desktop).
--- End quote ---

Couldn't you just go through ethernet to a drive in another PC?

I used Acronis a year or so ago on a few drives, and the only issue I had with one of them was that I needed to verify the installation, which resulted in having to call Microsoft. The call was actually only six minutes in length. I used the trial version, and there was no 'water-marking' or whatever that I've.

As for copying, I just highlight whatever I want to copy, and then paste it to wherever else, be it another drive on the system or on another system in the network.

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