OK,

Hard drive is full, I've bought a larger new replacement drive,
changing from EIDE to SATA into the bargain...

In the old days I would have just reached for my copy of Norton Ghost,
a short while later I had an exact copy of my original drive on a
larger drive, swap them over, job done.

Now...Vista...where do we start with that ?

Anyone any recomendations on any cloning software to use with Vista.

I am aware that I may need to speak to Microsoft to get it re-
activated afterwards, but hey that's no great shakes is it.

What I'm after is a cloning program for Vista, ideally a free one..?

Jim.

You can still use Ghost (probably not your old copy, however) or Acronis
True Image (my preference) with Vista. I don't know why you think you
can't. It works fine. The tricksy bit will be to go from IDE to SATA. I
know it can be done, but someone else will need to tell you how.

Acronis true Image 11x the latest version always... ROCKS!

I hate anything to do with norton.. even the new norton 14 thats coming out
looks crappy (screenshots)
http://www.softpedia.com/progScreens...hot-29350.html

If this were XP, you would need to do a repair installation of XP after the
cloning in order to install SATA drivers, since XP has not native support
for SATA. And, to do that repair you would need a retail XP CD, the same
one that installed originally, or a new CD with associated unused license.

Try a few newsgroup/google searches to see whether Vista is any smarter, or
how to procede

If you have Vista Ultimate, you could do a complete pc backup, then replace
your hard drive, then do a restore onto the new larger drive.

I've got Windows Vista Business, so I am trying the Complete PC
Backup / Restore option.

So far so good.

I performed a Complete PC backup onto my external USB HDD.

Then shut down, removed my internal EIDE 80GB HDD and attached the new
SATA 250GB HDD

Then inserted the Windows Vista DVD and booted to that and selected
the repair option.

Then selected the Complete PC Restore option.

Went throught the steps, not a lot you can change, most if not all
fields are locked.

Started the restore, and just as it was about to kick off it said that
it could not complete due to no drives being found or drives of a
different size to the original backup !!!! eh..????

So I went back a step and dropped down to the MS-DOS box.. Uhh..seems
that it's made my Maxtor external USB drive the C:\ drive ?

OK, restart without the Maxtor connected, then attached that after
everything has got going...OK that doesn;t work, now cannot see the
Maxtor drive at all.

Back to the original setup again...

...weird...this time it's doing it OK....though I think it's going to
restore the backup to an 80GB partition..I really don't want this, I'd
like the whole C:\ drive to be 250GB..

Anyone had any experience with Vista's Complete PC backup and more
importantly a Complete PC Restore.

Ideally I want the backup to restore onto the new drive but using the
entire disk.

Dontcha just love Vista eh !

Methinks I might be doing a fresh install and then doing a File and
Settings Transfer... :-(

Jim.

Then again I suppose I could always extend the disk partition to
include the remaining space with that new natty Vista tool.(perhaps
that's why it's included...) .would I trust the system after
that...Hmmm...

Jim.

OK it's finished restoring...

At first it wouldn't boot so I turned off and booted back to the DVD
disk and ran the Repair option, selected the C:\Windows folder to
repair.

It said that I should disconnect my USB camera and try again ???? (no
camera connected obviously)

So I disconnected the external USB and also removed the DVD disk and
then it booted up OK.

Seemed to take a long time booting into my profile, but once it had
got in it said that it needed a restart.
Did that booted back up and then all looked OK, albeit it was on an
80GB partition as expected.


OK, lets extend the volume then using the new option in Disk
Management..
Did that, added the extra 159GB, job done. now have one single 232GB
volume

So all seems to have worked, even went from EIDE to SATA as well, I
wasn't counting on that working !

Several trial reboots later all seems OK. Wonder how long that will
last ;-)

I've have a bit of a play around before I commit to using it.

Anyone think of anything to look out for ?

So seems that you can do it with just the native bits and bobs.

Jim.

Ok, try this:

Install the sata drive on your motherboard, don't bother putting it
in the case. Format it the way you want. Now *copy* c: to whatever drive
letter windows assigns.

Turn it off, remove the current C drive and properly install the
new sata drive. Boot the windows cd and repair your installation.

If windows can't see the sata drive then you need to load sata
drivers which will be available from your motherboard vendor.

Is there a reason you didn't merely attach your new drive, then copy *.* old
drive to new drive, then remove old drive and boot from the new drive?