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Did I forget anything? replacing my hard drive

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Hi:

Did I forget anything?
I think I have done what I need to do to start replacing my failing hard drive but I want to make sure as this is my first time using Acronis!

I have a Dell Dimension 3000 with W/XP Service Pack 3. intel 3G with 2 G memory and 80GB HD.

I have the latest version of Acronis True Image Home 2011. I have a 500G external Seagate drive and I just copied my entire Hard Drive in my Dell Dimension 3000 - Maxtor 80GB drive to the seagate. It said it was successful. I did this to get all files, programs and data - everything.

After I remove my old drive and install my new 160GB HD, I expect to be able to start using my original Windows XP reinstallation CD by inserting it into the CD drive and starting up, then going to start Acronis from the Seagate.

Just to play it safe, I created a bootable media backup on a thumb drive. I that what I use to boot up my PC?

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Michael,

You said "I copied my entire hard drive". I hope you meant you used ATI to back it up, using a disk and partition backup, and selecting *all* partitions.

It is better to do this backup from the Acronis CD/thumb drive (not the windows one), and then validate it. Watch out! The drive letters on the CD are different than in Windows. Your C:\ partition might have a D:\ letter, while some hidden partitions (maybe) might have the C:\ partition. Double check the labels (labels don't change) and partitions sizes).

Then put the new disk at the same spot (and cable connection) as the old one. Remove the old one from the computer.

Reboot on the CD/thumb drive and restore one partition at a time, in the same order as your original disk. Do not resize any partition except the System partition (your old C:\ partition). You don't need to reboot between each restore. Once all partitions are restored, restore the MBR and track0 and disk signature.

Pat L:

Thanks for the assist!
To be precise, I performed a Disk Backup of my internal hard drive onto my external backup drive.
Then I created a bootable rescue media on my thumb drive.
This morning I just downloaded the free plugins "BartPE and SafeMedia" just to play it safe.

It is important that you restore you partitions in the same order as on the original disk. You might want to take note of them (order, label, exact size in bytes or MB), because the differences within the backup and through the ATI on-CD interface might throw you off.

Operation status says "15 hours"
I may have messed up...
I started the recovery using my bootable disk. That worked.
I then went to Recovery and selected "Disk recovery" instead of individual partitions... I's running VERY SLOW... it's been "Preparing" for 3 hrs.

Should I cancel and start over doing the individual partitions in the original order?

Yes, you should restore partition by partition because this is the best way for you to control the size of the restore partitions.

No harm is done. That's the benefit of backup and restore, you can just start over with no risk to the original data...

Wrong thread.

I was able to recover the first partition but the software keeps locking up on me...
I have had to reboot several times.

The process might be much slower when you resize a partition. Give it some time.

It locked up again and was all night...
I am putting in a trouble ticket and after that - Geek Squad!

Thanks for the help!