How can you duplicate a copy to your hard drive?

Answer 1

You need cloning software.

You can download a free version on the internet called 'PC Disk Clone', Google it for availability.

The free version is fully functional but deliberately slow, a licenced purchase copy will run at full speed, but for a one off project the slow version will do the job.

Download the software onto a working computer with a CD burner included and run it.

The software will want to create a CD-ROM, so have a blank writable CD ready.

Arrange the Hard drives to copy to and from, on the same computer. This can be by various means.

On a desk top or tower system, the drives can be connected inside via the SATA or ribbon cables. The Drive to be cloned, can be the one that has the operating system for the computer in use, or added as a slave to the system.

On a laptop you can use the USB. An IDE to USB, or SATA to USB converter is also required, to connect the new hard drive to the working computer.

Re-boot the computer to be cloned and enter the BIOS system. You will need to set up the computer to boot on a CD-ROM. This will vary depending on the computer and BIOS used. Your computer may already be set up to boot to a CD if a bootable one is in the drive.

Insert the Cloning disk that you have just made and re-boot.

If all is well you will see the system loading on a black screen with coloured writing.

The disk has it's own operating system, so that will run independantly of the hard drive in the computer.

A prompt will ask you to connect any USB devices needed, then select 'next' at the bottom right corner.

The next screen will show the drives detected. Cursor to the one to act as the source data (the one you want to clone) and then press next.

Then next page will ask for the destination drive, select the one identified as the new one to receive the clone.

When you press next, if all is well, you will see a progress bar and the cloning will start.

For the free version be prepared for a very long wait, depending on the size of drive. A 300Gb will take 14 hours!

Make sure that the new drive has the same or more space than the drive being cloned, obviously, or it will not fit.

Be aware that if the new drive is larger, the finished clone will have the same capacity as the original. The extra space will be 'un-allocated'.

This can be retrieved to make full use of the bigger drive later using 'Partition Magic' or the Disk management within Windows XP. Or failing that another good, free program is 'EASUS Partition Manager 2.1'

Answer 2

As in you have two hard drives, and you want to make a duplicate copy of one on the other? Well you could just copy all the files from one hard disk to the other, but if you want to preserve all the properties of the hard disk such as the boot sector and stuff, you might find ghost copies helpful. Google 'ghost copy hard disk'....

Answer 3

The answer is Backup Utility...