Hello, I recently went to Dell Service center and they tell that HDD is faulty and needs to be replaced. I have a Studio 1457 laptop with 500 GB HDD and don't want to lose the data(purchased in May 2010, still under warranty). I have searched a bit and I think it may be best to use a disk imaging software for this task. However, I don't know about a good software. I have following steps in mind:

• Get a 1 TB External HDD.
• Make an image of existing 500 GB HDD and store data on external disk.
• Install new HDD and install a brand new Windows copy and then install the software on it.
• Using the same software I used to make image, restore the old HDD image on new one.

However, I have some questions in mind.

First, is this possible?

Second, I live in a country where piracy is a big issue and I am sure the support executive who will come to change HDD will have a pirated copy. But I have genuine Windows 7 Pro and don't want to lose it. Now, Dell does not supply and OS disks, so I can't install it on new HDD! If I follow above steps, which version of Windows 7 will be retained? One in the image(authentic) or one in the new HDD(pirated).

I am ready to purchase a good software for this task and my budget is $50-60. Since laptop is under warranty, new HDD will be free.

One last thing, I have created a Windows Migration file whose size is 70 GB. Can it be used to move from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 7 Pro?(In case I get a genuine copy of Windows 7!)

Any other method to save all the data?

Thanks in advance.