cloning software without the cd

i am in the process of buying a momentus xt and id want to clone my primary drive to it.
however i sent my bluray drive for an rma so i dont have access to an optical drive.
i know the preferred method is to use the bootable disk of arconis true image to clone the drive. is there a way to do this within win7 and will it give the same results assuming i dont use the computer during the cloning process?

 

Within windows 7 you can use the Backup program which you access through the Maintenance folder. You can make a complete backup image of your existing HDD to an external HDD and then restore that image to your new HDD. I don't believe you can clone with the Windows 7 software but the image backup and restore essentially does the same thing. I have done it several times with new HDD's.

You can either create a system repair disk from within the backup program or use the Windows 7 disk to access the image to restore. I would perform a 'Quick format' (NTFS) of your new drive before beginning the image restore process.

Edit:
After re-reading your post, you can run Acronis TI from within windows and do not have to use the bootable disk to make either an image or clone (to a HD in an external enclosure). This is my preferred method of creating a new HDD. I have used the bootable external disk also but I have not noticed any difference than using the within Windows method. If you don't already have Acronis TI installed on your laptop you can install over a network.

 

i dont have an additional external hdd.
i only have my primary which is 80% full and the soon to be purchased XT.
i also dont have my optical drive.
becasue of this limitations i dont think i can do the image/backup/restore.
will arcnis tru image or other cloning software work within the win7 o/s and will it give the same results as a clone done thru the bootable cd?

 

Yes, Acronis will work within Windows 7 just fine without using the bootable cd. I have done it many times cloning to a new HDD in an external enclosure. I recommend you do a Quick NTFS format of your new drive after it is installed in the external enclosure and make sure you can write and read to it before performing the clone.

The great thing about making a clone is that the original drive is left untouched so if the clone fails for any reason you still have the original HD to fall back on.

 

thanks! how long would a cloning of a 5400rpm 500gig primary to a 7200rpm 500gig momentus xt in an ext enclsoure via usb 2.0 usually take?
how do you recommend i test whether the drive in the enclosure can read/write?
would writing and reading a small .wmv suffice? or maybe run crystaldiskmark?

 

I really don't know how long it will take. Although my primary drive is a 500GB HD I only have 50GB on it. Creating an image (about the same time as making a clone) takes about 30 minutes. I don't know if you can extrapolate that to 240 minutes for 8 times the data or not.

After you quick format (NTFS) the new drive in the external enclosure, just copy and paste a few files to make sure you can write to it then try reading the files back (if you can write then I am sure you can read). Once you are satisfied the drive works as it should just delete the files you copied over.

If for some reason the drive is not recognized you might have to go into Disk Management and 'enable' the new drive (right click on the drive>enable), and also assign a drive letter. You may have to do this before you can format the drive. Be sure to do a quick format with NTFS. A full format will take hours, a quick format will take less than a minute.