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New Hard Drive

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If I want to get a new hard drive, can I first make a full backup, with all hidden files, of all the partitions in the old one, install the new drive (making it master) and then use the boot recovery disk and restore the old one? This would seem to me to be simpler than the clone method, and similar to what would be done to restore a crashed system.

A variation of the above:

If I get a new computer and prefer to keep the existing operating system and all it's applications, can I use the above method? What effect would this have on the Windows registration code?

Stu

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Hello Stuart,

Thank you for posting your question, I will be happy to help. Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Actually, if you want just to replace the hard drives, I would recommend you to perform the clone operation (please make sure that the source system is backed up). The important point to remember is that you need to put the new drive in the system first, and connect the old one via USB or plug the old hard drive as the second hard drive. Otherwise you may not be able to boot from the new cloned drive.

The Clone operation runs faster than the restore. Certainly, you can also perform the the backup/restore operations.

If you want to restore the archive to a dissimilar hardware, you should use Acronis Universal Restore. 

According to our database, you are an owner of the Acronis True Image Home 2009 license. You should upgrade the license to Acronis True Image Home 2010 and purchase Acronis True Image Home 2010 Plus Pack  (Acronis True Image Home 2009 doesn't have this addon).

Acronis Plus Pack is a separately purchased add-on that can be installed over Acronis True Image Home 2010. Once the add-on is installed, Acronis True Image Home 2010 Plus Pack will have the following features:

- Dynamic/GPT disks support;

- Acronis Universal Restore. See Acronis True Image Home 2010 Plus Pack: Using Acronis Universal Restore;

- Acronis WinPE ISO Builder. See Acronis True Image Home 2010 Plus Pack: Creating WinPE Media with Acronis Plug-In.

Please see this article on how to restore the archive to a dissimilar hardware. 

If the provided information is not clear or if you have any other question do not hesitate to post them and we will be glad to answer.

Thank you.