Best method to clone T40 HDD as a backup?

[Arf the Lab]

Hello.

What is the most efficient way to clone my T40 HDD, including all boot and system files (basically a 1:1 copy of the entire drive, as an image file)? I want to make that if anything happens to my laptop, I can just restore the image to a new HDD without having to install and reconfigure my OS and applications all over again.

Of course I have a second HDD attached, that has more than enough room to hold the entire backup.

Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

Acronis True Image from www.acronis.com
Look for special deals at the likes of Newegg, it's on special sale most of the time.

[lophiomys]

for mixed-OS systems I use Clonezilla booting from USB, backing up images onto an external USB HDD
for Windows-only systems I prefer EaseUsTodo Backup (free version) over Acronis TI, because earlier on
EaseUs ToDo did handle the migration of HDD to SSD better. Besides it is much easier to handle, if you just
want to do the basic imaging.
HTH

[rkawakami]

My preferred (tho' maybe not best) method is to use a Ghost 2003 boot floppy and image or clone to a Ultrabay-attached hard drive. For minimally installed systems (just the OS with all current updates applied and only essential applications installed) I typically image to DVDs. Ghost allows you to place a copy of itself onto the first DVD and make it bootable. Thus you don't need the boot floppy when you restore from an optical drive;simply boot from the DVD. Yes you'll need to shuffle disks in and out of the DVD drive but it's cheaper (but much slower) than dedicating a hard drive for the backup.

I'm old school and like the idea of booting the backup/imaging software from a source other than a hard drive that needs an OS installed on it.

[Arf the Lab]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

My machine is a dual-boot: Windows 98SE and Windows XP, on the same HDD.

Let's say I wanted to pick up a T43p in the future. Would I be able to just take the image I made of my T40 HDD and write it to the T43p's HDD? Obviously I'd need to remove/replace some drivers and such, but otherwise would it work OK in the new machine?

[Neil]

Don't know about the others, but Acronis has the feature "Universal Restore" that will allow you to do just that.