Copying a hard drive

[coyote454]

I'm trying to copy my main hard drive (which is wearing out)  to a second hard drive I added to my PC.  The main would then become the slave. I tried using QuickMirror which had been suggested, but it would never work. I then found out that QuickMirror isn't supported by Windows XP (which is what I use).

Any suggestions for an alternate program?

Thanks,

Mike

[Allan]

If you want a paid solution, Acronis True Image. If you want the best free alternative, Macrium Reflect

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

[coyote454]

Thanks Allan.  I'll give it a try.

[Allan]

You're welcome. May I also suggest that whichever you choose, you create images on a regular basis as part of a dedicated backup routine.

[coyote454]

Okay, here's another fly in the ointment. 

I tried Acronis True Image to copy the hard drive.  It appeared to copy everything, as the amount of info was nearly the same on each HD after the copy. However, when I go through Explorer to see exactly what's on the target HD, the files all have long lettering/numbering names associated with them and won't open when I click on them.  Nothing looks like the source HD.

So it appears the info has been copied from the source HD to the target HD, but I can't retrieve anything on the target HD.

I'm obviously doing something wrong.  Any idea what?

Thanks,

Mike

[Allan]

I'm not sure what you did. All you want to do is either clone the drive to the new drive or create an image and then restore it to the new drive.

[patio]

The image files need to be viewed thru Acronis...use the bootdisk to do so...
The image has to be "mounted " for this to work properly...
After cloning the files go back to their native names.

[Allan]

The image files need to be viewed thru Acronis...

No, actually it doesn't. In newer versions of Acronis True Image you can mount the image by simply double-clicking on it in Windows Explorer. A new Explorer window will open with the image mounted and ready to access.

[patio]

Gotcha...thanx for the update...that was the old procedure...IE ver 11 and back.
Good to see they made that change as it was a pita.

[coyote454]

Think I found the problem.  I was trying the trial version, and if that worked I'd buy the whole version as a great backup program.  I found in reading the info included that the trial version doesn't allow cloning.  Looks like I'll have to purchase it first before using the clone mode.

Thanks for the help Allan and Patio.

Mike

[patio]

Anytime...BTW Allan's Free suggestion above works great as well ...i use it also.

[soybean]

For personal use, EaseUS Todo Backup Free is another good option.