February 2, 2009

Cloning a Hard Drive

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

One of the tricks I mentioned in last Friday’s post was how to extend your PC’s life by adding a second, internal hard drive. You then clone the contents of the original hard drive to the second hard drive, and start using the second hard drive as the primary drive. That begs the question, “What is this “cloning” thing Dan speaks of?”

When you clone a hard drive you’re making an exact duplicate, a perfect copy. So, in the example I gave last week, you can take an older hard drive and clone it to a newer replacement hard drive. You can then optionally remove the old hard drive, then (providing everything is properly configured) you can continue using your computer with the new hard drive. That should add a few years to your PC’s lifespan.

The clone operation allows you to keep your files, programs, operating system, and complete computer configuration. That means the only thing you have to install is the new hard drive. There is no re-installation of programs, no copying of settings, nothing lost. That’s why cloning is a simple and powerful solution to a hard drive upgrade.

The most popular clone program out there is Norton Ghost. Not only can it clone a hard drive, it can also serve as a backup system and has some security features in it as well. You can buy Norton Ghost here.

Beyond Norton Ghost, there are plenty of other cloning utilities out there, some of which won’t cost you a nickle. This site reviews five free PC hard drive cloning applications. This site reviews some other cloning utilities, not all of which are free. (Please keep in mind that I have not tried any of these cloning tools so I can’t vouch for their effectiveness.)

Cloning works. It’s effective and cost-saving. A few months back I cloned my Macintosh hard drive: I replaced the factory-installed 200GB drive with a 500GB model. The operation went smoothly, and the end result is that I’ve extended my Mac’s life and gained more disk storage. For any older computer, getting a second, internal, larger hard drive and cloning is a great way to prolong the pleasant relationship between you and your computer.

2 Comments

  1. Interesting, I was unaware that you could expand a computer’s life-span by cloning the hard drive. I think I’ve got a new project for this weekend.

    Comment by deer dance — February 2, 2009 @ 7:04 pm

  2. Let me know how it goes. 🙂

    Comment by admin — February 2, 2009 @ 7:36 pm

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