Need to clone a hard disk

[shashgo]

Hello guys,

I had an old laptop a compaq presario 1680 that suddenly went out on me, its motherboard got fried.  So what I want to do now is to take that hard drive and put it in a working computer.  Easier said than done, because the hard drive of that compaq is physically bigger than the standard 2.5" hard drive of my working computer.  So I cant fit that old hard drive into the working computer. 

So what I want to do now is to clone the compaq  hard drive to the hard drive in my working computer.  Soquestion is, is it possible to clone an external hard drive (the compaq hd)  to an internal hard drive (in my working computer) and if so what program and what are the steps

[Geek-9pm]

The CH forums have  a number of articles and posts about hard drive clone.
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?topic=135033.0
A word of caution. It does  not always work.
An example of a unhappy user.
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?topic=95000.0
There are many programs to clone a hard drive. Many are free.

The normal HDD for an older laptop is a 2.5 inch. PATA (IDE)
For many desktops it is 3.5 inch SATA or PATA.
A 2.5 to 3.5 IDE converter.

The image is from http://www.monoprice.com/
(This is not an endorsement.  Only shown here for information
It is also on Amazon, Newegg and others vendor sites.)

[strollin]

... the hard drive of that compaq is physically bigger than the standard 2.5" hard drive of my working computer.  So I cant fit that old hard drive into the working computer. 

So what I want to do now is to clone the compaq  hard drive to the hard drive in my working computer.  Soquestion is, is it possible to clone an external hard drive (the compaq hd)  to an internal hard drive (in my working computer) and if so what program and what are the steps

Is it possible that the physically larger drive is actually just a standard 2.5" drive in some sort of frame or bracket?

If you want to clone from an external to an internal then you'll need a way to attach the external drive.  If you don't already have it, you'll need something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-CB-ISATAU2-Supports-2-5-Inch-5-25-Inch/dp/B000J01I1G.

In order for you to clone from the external to the internal you'll probably need to boot from a Live CD or something like that.  You may want to look at this software: http://clonezilla.org/ which boots from CD.

[shashgo]

Strollin and geek,

I have the thing you said, the The SATA/IDE-USB Adapter.  I just didnt know how to use it to clone an external 2.5" hard drive to an internal 2.5" hard drive. 

I ca attach the external IDE hard drive (20GB) to the laptop via a USB, and have the internal IDE hard drive (80GB) already in the laptop, but then I dont know what to do.  Can I use the free clonezilla to do the clone of the external to the internal, or is there any other free program?

And most importantly, is there a tutorial?

[strollin]

Here's a tutorial for Clonezilla: http://how-to.linuxcareer.com/using-clonezilla-beginner-and-advanced-approaches.  Remember that the external will be the source drive and the internal the target drive.  I have never done it that way before, typically the internal would be the source and external target.

[shashgo]

strollin, thanks.  Is the clonezilla program pretty easy to use.  I have never done a cloning before.  Or would that easus program be easier?  Oh, by the way I forgot to answer your other question about the older disk being in an enclosure,  not its not in any enclosure, its just a thicker drive (I guess standards for hard drive sizes have changed over the years)

Let me see if I can follow the tutorial link you sent.

[soybean]

According to Compaq Presario 1680 Notebook PC - Product Specifications your computer came with Windows 95.  It has a 200MHz processor and a 2.1 GB hard drive.  Why not just send it to recycling? 

After reading this discussion, I'm still wondering whether you see the oddity of your idea of cloning from an external drive to an internal drive since the internal drive is the very drive that the computer is normally operating from. This would be akin to replacing a car engine with the old engine running while it is being pulled and the new engine installed.  Obviously, that's not feasible.

If you have some files on the old hard drive you want and the drive is, indeed, still working, you can just retrieve the files you want by using an adapter or external enclosure.

[shashgo]

Soybean,

That is true , it is an old computer and im probably going to chunk it.  There are programs and data on the hard drive that i still want though, and if I do a data transfer, it just transfers the data and not the programs.  I have already done that.  I need to find a way to transfer the programs as well and thats what makes the idea of cloning better.  I dont mind cloning the external hard drive to another external hard drive, and then taking that cloned external hard drive and putting it in my laptop.

[strollin]

... After reading this discussion, I'm still wondering whether you see the oddity of your idea of cloning from an external drive to an internal drive since the internal drive is the very drive that the computer is normally operating from. This would be akin to replacing a car engine with the old engine running while it is being pulled and the new engine installed.  Obviously, that's not feasible. ...

Precisely why I suggested Clonezilla which is a bootable CD that boots into a lite Linux environment in order to do the cloning.

[shashgo]

strollin,

The tutorial seems to be a little scary   Anyway Ill try to go through it slowly.  So if I have a bootable clonezilla CD and I connect the old hard drive to a new laptop as an external HD via USB, then I will be able to clone the external drive to the internal drive and the internal drive will then become bootable and have all the programs, data and OS from the external drive?

[strollin]

That's how it should work.

The part I'm unsure of is where the external hdd came from and whether whatever OS, drivers, etc... on it will actually boot in a different laptop.  Are the 2 laptops anywhere close hardware wise?

[soybean]

I had an old laptop a compaq presario 1680 that suddenly went out on me, its motherboard got fried.  So what I want to do now is to take that hard drive and put it in a working computer.

Rather than attempt this idea of running a very old version of Windows on a working computer, a procedure which is likely to be fraught with pitfalls at every stage, why not install a version of Linux?

[shashgo]

strollin

Actually the old laptop is a compaq presario and the new one is a dell inspiron.  The old drive had windows 98.
So cloning only guarantees that the data and information from the cloned drive will only work if the other drive will be used in the same computer only? 

So is there no definite way to transfer data and programs  from one hard drive to another if they are going to be in differing computers?  Im interested in transferring the programs and data,  I dont care about the operating system



 

[shashgo]

Soybean, 

I dont care about the operating system.  Im just interested in the programs and the data, data I can transfer easily but I thought the only way of transferring programs is cloning, or is there another way?  Problem is I dont have any of the program disks anymore

[soybean]

You cannot clone programs alone; they have to be installed or cloned along with the OS (operating system) on which they were installed.  So, since you don't have any of the program disks anymore, you have no choice but to find a source for the programs (versions that will run on whatever OS you will be using) or find alternative programs that are a satisfactory substitute for the programs on your old computer.

Data files that you created are another matter; they can be retrieved from the old hard drive (assuming it still works); putting the old hard drive in an external USB hard drive would be my method for doing this.