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    Dell Studio XPS 16 (1645) Laptop HDD Imaging

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Devastator0, Jan 30, 2011.

  1. Devastator0

    Devastator0 Notebook Enthusiast

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    All,

    I'm attempting to fix a friend's laptop (as above) and basically the problem is that his Dell factory HDD (non SSD 500GB) is having issues and won't let the machine boot. Basically we want to replace the faulty hard drive with a new one (Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB) and what I want to know is if it's possible to image the old hard drive's data, including the partition structure (including the recovery partition) and then bring it all over to the new drive.

    I would really like to do it this way in the future in case my friend has further issues & needs to re-install Windows...at least that way, he can restore it from the Dell partition instead of having to use the Windows 7 DVD to install the O/S & then manually do all the drivers etc etc.

    It would be great if someone would let me know how this could be done and the best app to use for it.

    Thanks to anyone who posts a reply.
     
    Devastator0, Jan 30, 2011
    #1
  2. Psyloid

    Psyloid Notebook Evangelist

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    Acronis true image home can make full drive clones, but if the defective harddrive is really broken, it might be too late for that.
    As for cloning recovery partitions , I had mixed successes in doing that, sometimes it works, sometimes it didn't ...
     
    Psyloid, Jan 31, 2011
    #2
  3. Devastator0

    Devastator0 Notebook Enthusiast

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    So basically it comes down to giving it and go and seeing if it works or not...lol.
     
    Devastator0, Jan 31, 2011
    #3
  4. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    You can try Acronis, but software cloning has it's limitations. The best are those docks that do sector by sector cloning, they can be bought for ~100 dollars.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Jan 31, 2011
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  5. Devastator0

    Devastator0 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well, I've got a USB/eSATA SATA HDD dock...is that what you are talking about?
     
    Devastator0, Feb 1, 2011
    #5