Cloning HDD

[sktn77a]

This isn't really a Thinkpad question but I wasn't sure where else to post. I have a rather expensive HDD audio player (NAIM HDX) which just had the main HDD replaced under warranty. The out of warranty cost would have been over $600 (the drive itself is a Seagate 500Gb pipeline AV drive - $40 on Amazon). This drive contains a windows XP operating system in a proprietary implementation. I would like to make a bit-for-bit copy of the drive so that, should it fail out of warranty, I can simply swap it out. Pretty much like cloning the HDD in a Thinkpad as a backup, should the original ever die.

I have read issues about bit-for-bit cloning using Acronis, Ghost, etc and the drives not working properly. If it is truly a bit-for-bit clone, the new drive should work perfectly, shouldn't it? How about hidden partitions, etc. Would these cause problems for either (or any) cloning software program?

Thanks,

[jdk]

Hi,

You can download Clonezilla for free and burn it to a CD. It will allow an exact copy of a hard disk from one drive to another, including the partition table, hidden partitions, and master boot sector. I have used this software on failing drives in an enterprise environment; once the process is complete, you can try using the cloned HDD in a setup as if it were the original to verify.

If you feel more familiar with the command line, the dd program will also do what you need. Otherwise, Clonezilla is a great free program to try.

[sktn77a]

Thanks, will check out Clonezilla!