# Move to new hard drive



## amagab (Jul 14, 2006)

I have Windows Server 2008 Standard installed on a test computer with a 160GB hard drive. I'm planning to replace the hard drive with a 2TB capacity one. 

What is the best way to accomplish this? What software and technique do I need?


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## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

If it is only a single drive going back into the same machine all you need to do is clone the drive with something like Acronis or Ghost. There are also free clone/image pieces of software out there.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

CloneZilla GParted LiveCD will do it.

Or:

Free Drive Cloners/Imagers:

Minitool Drive Copy
Easeus Disk Copy
O&O DiskImage Express
FOG (a free cloning/imaging solution)
Redo Backup & Recovery
Terabyte CopyWipe (Can securely remove a drive's contents, or it can copy an old drive to a new one)
Disk Wizard (reduced, free Acronis for WD drives)
Runtime Shadow Copy
Dr. Freeware boot CD (also has file recovery, Avast scanner, and partitioning tools)
EASEUS Todo Backup (Partition and drive imaging)
EASEUS Disk Copy (Partition and drive cloning)
Farstone Driveclone Express
Macrium Reflect
Paragon Drive Backup Express
G4U - Ghost For Unix (Platform-independent, floppy or CD)
Clonezilla (Bare-metal restoration from image)
Partimage
Dubaron Diskimage
SystemRescueCD
EaseUs Disk Copy (Copies disks or partitions)
XXClone
CloneZilla GParted LiveCD (Complete partitioning and drive imaging/restoration tools)
Drive Image XML
Partition Saving
PCI CloneMaxx
HDClone
DriveClonerXP
Self-Image
copyr.dma (Copies disk with bad sectors for recovery)
DiscWizard (For Seagate or Maxtor drives - contains reduced version of Acronis)








Parted Magic disk partitioning, PC repair, and file recovery tool (Bootable CD or USB image)
If you prefer a bootable USB key, download and run Linux Live USB Creator. Choose the Parted Magic distro, and it will download it and automatically create a bootable USB key.

This CD (or key) contains many useful tools. You can partition, recover files, recover lost partitions, make disk images (by several different methods), transfer files between media, scan for viruses (It can serve as an Alternative Trusted Platform for search and elimination of rootkits and bootkits), examine and benchmark hardware, access the internet, and much more.









Commercial Apps:

EMC (Dantz) Retrospect
Casper
NTI Backup Now (Image Edition)
XXClone Pro (One of the fastest incremental backups)
JustBoot Disk Backuper
ASIS Backup (Bootable disk image)
Paragon Drive Backup
DT Utilities PC Backup Pro (formerly, Migo PC Backup)
Easy Image
[email protected] Disk Image
O&O DiskImage
Acronis True Image Home
Farstone Drive Clone (Drive image, snapshots, file/folder backups.)
EAZ-FIX Professional and Easy Image
Drive Snapshot
ShadowProtect (Also online backups.)
Keriver Image
Avanquest Copy Commander
Paragon Drive Backup
NovaBackup
R-Drive Image
Norton Ghost
HDClone Pro or Enterprise
Terabyte Image for Windows
Terabyte Image for DOS (can directly access FAT, FAT32, and NTFS partitions)
Spotmau Disk Clone & Backup


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## amagab (Jul 14, 2006)

Wow, great responses. Thank you!!!! I've used and liked Acronis for something else in the past so maybe I'll give them a try. Although the free ones might be more appealing financially. 

So it doesn't matter that there is a capacity difference?


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## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

Check what the server or controller will support as far as size. I am sure there are partition size limits for the OS as well.


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## srhoades (May 15, 2003)

Some cloning programs will clone the disk exactly, partition size and all, while others will utilize the maximize size of the disk for the new partition. Either way you can easily re-size the partition in Server 2008 if it only clones the original 160GB.


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## amagab (Jul 14, 2006)

Most of them don't seem to support Windows Server. Anyone have a free one to suggest that covers Server? I'd like to get Acronis but don't have $900 for it. :-(


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Most of them are OS-naive. If you use the boot CD's to clone, it doesn't matter what is on the drives, what file systems, or what OS. Paragon, Easeus, O&O and more will all work on Server.

Since it is always best to do a cloning job from a boot CD when Windows is not running, the only reason to even install the programs is to create the boot CD. In the case of Clonezilla, for example, the boot CD is what you make so you can use that without installing anything.


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