Cloning a 500gb Secondary drive
Hey guys. I have Acronis True Image 2010 and I was just wondering how easy it would be to Clone a 500gb drive of mine. The drive is two years old, and has many things "Installed" on it such as games, programs and various other files. How would I go about cloning this disk to a newer faster 500gb WD Black drive?
Now I see under tools and utilities there is a Clone Disk option, but how could I clone the device and make its drive letter the same as my current one "H:/", so that it could replace that drive. Of course I would remove the current drive and keep it as a backup, but what is the best way to go about this? I want a smooth transaction, and for nothing in windows to be affected, if you know what I mean. I just want a faster/newer drive with everything the same.
Also, is there any chances of compatibility issues?, or is cloning a swift and good process?
P.S. this is not my OS drive, but does contain installed software. The suggested drive matches up in everything that matters i.e. same SATA interface. It is just a faster replacement.
Regards,
Sam.
Since it's not an OS drive, you should be just fine doing any normal clone. If the drive letter is incorrect after you boot the clone, just change it using Disk Management.
If you want to do it using a method that usually causes the least problems (assuming TI sees all the drives correctly), boot to the TI CD and clone the drive. Then disconnect the source drive before booting into Windows.
Another option is to make a backup image of the old drive, install the new drive in its place, and then restore the image to it.
In either case, having a backup image is recommended.