[RTTY] Off Subject Help Needed - Ghosting a hard drive?

[Bill, W6WRT]

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:55:29 -0600, "Don Hill AA5AU"
<aa5au at bellsouth.net> wrote:

>.  I'd like to replace the hard drive before it dies.

REPLY:

IMO, the best thing to do is create an image file of your existing HD.
If you're not familiar with that, an image is a single file that
contains all the information on your HD - every last bit. 

You create the image file on a second HD, either an internal HD like you
have or a USB external HD. Then you install the new drive and copy the
image back to the new HD. 

There are several programs which do this, but only one free one that I
know of: Macrium Reflect.  http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

The first thing you will do after installing the program is create a
bootable CD, which you will use later to copy the image back. 

Actually, I strongly recommend creating image files periodically just to
serve as a backup. I create one at least once a week. The huge advantage
is when you have a major malfunction, there is no messing around
installing individual programs. Just copy the image back and you're
done. It's like magic. 

Hope this helps.

73, Bill W6WRT