Vista - New "C" Drive

Hello, if i install a new drive, which is to be a replacement for a failing
drive, can I get away with just copying the contents off the old one onto
the new one, then installing that? I seem to remember something about MBR
etc. How will Vista react if I do this, will it require reactivation? Will I
have to reinstall all programs that are on the other hard drives? Is there
any cloning utility I can use, for example within Nero 8 as I have that?

Hi Carl,

Yes, you can make a complete clone of your failing hard drive to another partion, drive, or DVDs. I would use a bootable DVD clone to make it easier though. I do not know if Nero 8 has that option, but Acronis True Image does. You can get a 15 day fully functional trial version here if you wanted to try it:

Download backup software trial of HDD ghosting, data backup and restore software for home and home office PCs

This will give you everything back when you remove your old hard drive and install your new hard drive, then boot from the clone installation DVD to restore everything on the new hard drive. It will then run as if you never took out the old one, but not failing now of course.


I'm not sure if just a new hard drive will trigger you having to reactivate Vista or not. If you do have to, then you probably will just need to do a quick phone activation. This tutorial will show you how to if needed.

Activate Vista by Phone


Hope this helps,
Shawn

Crying shame, I got Western Digital hard drives!

Thanks for the fast replies.

Your welcome Carl.

Shawn

I did exactly that using a download of Acronis True Image.
Very easy to use and no issues once I'd swapped the drives.

"Carl" <me@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:08CF0D17-60E5-47CB-BB42-C184959F8FF2@xxxxxx