Hi all I have a smallish problem with what I hope is an easy solution. 
 
My C drive kept going off line a few weeks ago and I traced the problem to the fact the Sata cable was falling off at the drive. It seems the plastic tab was broken and it fell off when I touched the cable. 
 
So I ordered a new drive as well as a Sata eternal power supply and adapter. I just got this today and it works fine. I managed to spin up the old drive and open it as an external USB drive. 
 
Is it possible to totally clone the original drive over to the new drive? 
Will drag and drop work or do you require special software? 
 
The original drive was the same a 1 T  7200 RPM sata. 
I had it partitioned into 100 Gig for C drive and the rest was just back up storage. I have 2 other drives in there that contain all my projects etc. So I only need what was on C to hopefully bring the computer back to it's original state. 
Thanks for your time. 

Use Acronis True Image or Paragon to clone the existing HD.
A good investment... as it'll allow you to maintain an up-to-date backup image file.
Cheap insurance that you can always get back to a properly functioning DAW.

Thanks Jim, I have ordered it as I see it's only $50 Can. Amazon. 
 
In the mean time a tech friend has given me a link to EaseUS To Do Backup software which is freeware. 
Worth a try for now, it will either work or it won't 
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/download.htm
 
 
 
 
 

I use Macrium Reflect now. Many more choices such as only clone parts of the disk that are used which speeds things up. Also able to clone without dropping into dos mode somehow.
 
John

Just an update, the EaseUS To Do backup software works most excellent. I cloned successfully as well as it is now working perfectly to back up my C drive every day at 4PM. 

Jim Roseberry
Use Acronis True Image or Paragon to clone the existing HD.
A good investment... as it'll allow you to maintain an up-to-date backup image file.
Cheap insurance that you can always get back to a properly functioning DAW.

Jim, I got a free version of Acronis with my Western Digital 1 TB external drive.
Do you happen to know if it's up to par with the paid version?
 
I'm not against purchasing something other than redundancy, of course.

The free version is designed specifically to clone a drive. It lacks the file backup capabilities and other features of the paid version. If a clone or disk image is all you need it will be fine. My recollection is that it checks the drive and only works on the vendors drives however.
 
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
 
 

Cactus Music
Is it possible to totally clone the original drive over to the new drive? 

Only if you have its entire DNA sequence.

slartabartfast
The free version is designed specifically to clone a drive. It lacks the file backup capabilities and other features of the paid version. If a clone or disk image is all you need it will be fine. My recollection is that it checks the drive and only works on the vendors drives however.
 
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
 

Thank you for the info!
 
I don't know why I didn't see this when I went looking on their site.

As I said this is free and I've now used it a number of times. It works! 
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm
 
EaseUS Todo Backup is just such a backup and restore utility. Like any good backup tool, it will back up your entire system's current state, data, settings and all, or just what you want it to, including partitions or full disks, and restore your computer in the event of a hard-disk crash

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