New HD at home, doing backup

[dakolo]

Hi,

I have just bought a new HD for my Thinkpad G40 and would like to do a backup of OS. I don't have Recovery CD and I am out of warranty, so I read some posts here concerning the hard disk and found out programme Acronis True Image.

What I would like to do is to install the system (on the old hard disk), then apply all patches and updates (WIN XP SP2 etc.), install ms office and stuff like that and then I would backup that all with Acronis - is it possible? I don't want to backup the installation data in hidden partition of the old disk and copy that on the new one, is it possible?

Thanks a lot for your answers!
David

[Kyocera]

Check the HD Clone link in my sig below.

[dakolo]

Actually, I have read it before, but I don't fully understand this:

c) Using "Create Image" to clone without creating a image of all the partitions on the source drive.

If you don't have an adapter to hook up the new drive, you can "clone" by creating a disk image, installing the new drive and restoring the created image to the new drive. If the "created image" doesn't contain all the partitions of the original disk, "Restore Image" will restore the image to a new disk, but it may not boot. According to the True Image support forum, creating an image with less than all the partitions on the original disk creates a situation where the MBR may not be contained in the image and is therefore not transferred to the new disk. No MBR, no boot.

Does that mean that after I make an updated version of WXP with Office etc. installed, I have to copy also the install-data which I will never use again? (I would like to save that backup for the future)

Or is there a way how to join the hidden partition on the new disk with the other one (primary-with os installed)

Thanks.

[Kyocera]

Check the HD Clone link in my sig, lots of good info there, for what you are doing.