Cloning hard drive -- data, operating system settings, everything

Posted by Salman A on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Salman A
Published on 2011-01-08T12:42:31Z Indexed on 2011/01/08 12:55 UTC
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Hardware

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hard-drive

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backup

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clone

I am using Windows XP. My hard drive (Seagate 160gig Barracuda) is about to fail. Its already developed bad sectors and it seems to get worse everyday. Data transfer mode is down to PIO mode 2, chkdsk runs every now and then, registry and important windows files get corrupted and I spend 30-60 minutes running chkdsk /f /r from the recovery console.

I've got a replacement (Seagate 5000gig Barracuda) and now i want to transfer each and every thing on to the new drive. I don't want to go through windows and software installation, I spent ages getting all those software installed and configured on that hard drive. Need advice: whats the best way to transfer everything onto the new drive so that it behaves just like the old one. And are there any "gotchas".

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