Skip to main content

Clone to usb from IDE and then to SATA - help!

Thread needs solution

Hi
I have searched in the forum for a previous post but was unsuccessful. Hope I can get a quick answer so please help!
I have an old windows xp pc that is beginning to play up so want to clone the drive to a new one as the hard drive is on the way out. Problem I have is that the old drive (which I want to clone) is an IDE (only one IDE socket with a dual IDE cable for two drives, one of which is in use). my new drive is SATA. I have one of the IDE - SATA convertors but this will not allow me to run both at the same time. I was hoping to install new sata drive and clone to it, then start up with cloned drive, test and then bin old drive (or leave somewhere as a back up).
I cannot see any way I can connect up the sata and ide drives simultaneously with what I have got (the shops here dont have any ide drives as that would be th easiest solution). Can I clone my old IDE drive to a USB drive I have, then remove old IDE drive and replace with new SATA drive, then restore to that new drive? I have very little idea of how to do all this, so would appreciate a 'thickos' guide on how to do this, if possible, step by step!

Many thanks for your help
Will

0 Users found this helpful

William,

If your USB drive is a S-ata one, then put the new drive there and clone to it or if it is an IDE move your old drive there and insert your new drive into the PC. Obviously if you choose the latter method you will need to boot from the rescue CD which of course you have already made, you have, haven't you? :)

Do you also own a copy of True Image?

So to sum up, you can put your current IDE drive into your external USB case, install the S-ata drive into the PC, boot from the rescue CD and then clone from the external to the internal drive. Make sure the external drive is disconnected once the clone has finished and before the reboot.

You might need your XP install CD handy just in case Windows thinks it needs a repair - it shouldn't but it can happen.

I had the same problem; Can you clone from the original disc (IDE) to an external USB disc and then clone the new disc from this? I tried using the clone tool to clone from the old IDE to a new IDE, but the process stopped during cloning, (an error message saying a file could not be copied..). However, when I cloned to the external disc(USB) there was no problem. I understood that the external (USB) drive was not bootable, so I'm thinking that the O/S may not be present on the cloned external disc.
Mark