Looking at upgrading to bigger hard drinve in laptop
- Greetings
I am looking to upgrade my hard drive in my gateway laptop, currently running Vista Home Premium. I intend to clone (from a 60 GB hd)to a bigger hard drive (at least a 250 GB) and install the new hardware in the machine.
What "gotchas" and little annoyances am I goning to face doing this?
No other hardware has or will be changed in the laptop for the next year or 2...- Edited byInfinityGamer Saturday, July 04, 2009 3:53 AMmake title clearer
1 person got this answerI do too
Answers
- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/backup.aspx
MS has complete backup, but not for Home Premium.
When you buy a new Hard Drive, the Hard Drive Manufacturer provides cloning software for their Product to help you migrate the OS.
Have a delve around their website, and on save having to buy Acronis!
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
Cheers.
Mick Murphy - Microsoft Partner- Marked As Answer byJames- Support EngineerMSFT, ModeratorMonday, July 20, 2009 8:20 PM
All Replies
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/quick-start/activation-faq.aspx
Quick start: Activation FAQThe worst that can happen is that you may have to Activate by phone.
http://support.gateway.com/s/SOFTWARE/Medialess/FAQ/SUPPAGE01su44.shtml
Contact Gateway Support at the above link about how you are going to reinstall Vista, as your Recovery Partition will be gone!
If you do not have a Vista DVD to reinstall, ask them to send you one, for a small $ cost, just in case of problems.
Your cloning process may fail, have a backup plan..
Try this for Phone Activation:
1. Click Start, and in the Search box type: slui.exe 42. Press ENTER on your Keyboard
3. Select your Country.
4. Take the Phone Activation option, and hold on for a real person.
Cheers.
Mick Murphy - Microsoft Partner- Edited byMichael Murphy Saturday, July 04, 2009 6:49 AM
- Proposed As Answer byMichael Murphy Saturday, July 04, 2009 10:12 PM
- Thanks for the reply.
So as far as I understand it...the only 2 mountains I have to surmount is Activation and the recovery partition? Sounds not too, too bad after reading your links.
I do have the original Gatteway Win XP disk that came with the laptop and I still have the Vista Home Premium (upgrade) dvd I used to upgrade my laptop. Is there not a way to clone the entire contents of the disk...including the Recovery Partition, so I would not have to run the Vista install again?
My preferred cloning software is Acronis True Image. ( I guess I'll have to go looking at their site when I get a chance....)
ttfn - Why not just buy a USB external drive, they make some very small.
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/368883/Transcend-StoreJet-hard-drive-250-GB/
Rob - Supporting Member, Cascade Bicycle Club P.O. Box 15165 Seattle, WA. 98115-0165 206-522-3222 and 24 hr hotline 206-522-BIKE http://www.cascade.org - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/backup.aspx
MS has complete backup, but not for Home Premium.
When you buy a new Hard Drive, the Hard Drive Manufacturer provides cloning software for their Product to help you migrate the OS.
Have a delve around their website, and on save having to buy Acronis!
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
Cheers.
Mick Murphy - Microsoft Partner- Marked As Answer byJames- Support EngineerMSFT, ModeratorMonday, July 20, 2009 8:20 PM
