Cloning disks works a treat

Hard drive making very odd squeaking and crunching noises. First thing first, search web for best back up software, purcased Acronis, easiest interface.
Next buy a new Hard drive, great, bigger one, more space.
Download and study manual for best way to get operating system and all my programs and files onto new disk from old one with minimum effort.....hmmm this cloning looks good.
Got new disk, set it to slave, cloned master to slave, turned off system, set slave to master took out noisy old disk.....cross fingers, boot up computer.
Amazing, absolute success and I am one of those people that if its can go wrong, it will.
This took me 1 1/2 hours compared to the 2 weeks it just recently took me reinstalling windows and getting my system back up to how I wanted it.
I am overjoyed!