# Copy entire drive?



## hat (Jun 22, 2017)

I need to copy the contents of an entire drive over to another one. Cloning applications aren't working for me because the source drive is larger than the destination drive (the amount of data actually present will fit on the destination drive no problem, however).

I've tried xcopy and robocopy, but xcopy fails evidently because some file names are too long, and robocopy fails because it can't copy some protected system files.


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## Kursah (Jun 22, 2017)

Do you need it to be cloned or can it be imaged?

*Macrium Reflect Free* might be worth looking at either way.  I've used it for creating mountable images, and also for cloning larger drives to smaller SSD's. Damn good piece of software for free. Review the link and choose Home Use to download the installer.


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## jboydgolfer (Jun 22, 2017)

iirc, *seagate discwizard* accounts for the host drive being larger with an option.... i know ive used it to clone a 500Gb HDD to a 256Gb SSD for a friends laptop.

afaik, its a "reskin" of acronis, or atleast built off of Acronis' work, but it was easier when i needed it than Acronis was.


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## hat (Jun 22, 2017)

I'd prefer not to make an image but copy the files as is. If I have to make an image I can, but it's more hassle.


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## W1zzard (Jun 22, 2017)

I'm using Active@Disk Image. It's free and works extremely well, even from within Windows. It can't do direct copy though


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## hat (Jun 23, 2017)

Kursah said:


> Do you need it to be cloned or can it be imaged?
> 
> *Macrium Reflect Free* might be worth looking at either way.  I've used it for creating mountable images, and also for cloning larger drives to smaller SSD's. Damn good piece of software for free. Review the link and choose Home Use to download the installer.



This one ran into an error of some sort and instructed me to run chkdsk. chkdsk ETA says 999:00:00... oh boy.



jboydgolfer said:


> iirc, *seagate discwizard* accounts for the host drive being larger with an option.... i know ive used it to clone a 500Gb HDD to a 256Gb SSD for a friends laptop.
> 
> afaik, its a "reskin" of acronis, or atleast built off of Acronis' work, but it was easier when i needed it than Acronis was.



Won't install because I don't have a drive from a supported brand.



W1zzard said:


> I'm using Active@Disk Image. It's free and works extremely well, even from within Windows. It can't do direct copy though



I'll keep it in mind, thanks


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## Kursah (Jun 23, 2017)

Maybe check to see if that disc is reporting failures and bad sectors. Hopefully the CHKDSK goes successfully! If not, you might fire up a Linux distro and go that route...I've had to do copies in Linux because Windows would fail since the HDD was in such rough shape... there's also been times where that option failed too.

Keep us posted!


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## hat (Jun 23, 2017)

I'm open to running Linux, but I have little experience in that field. Mostly booting off a LiveCD, that's about it.


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## rockit00 (Jun 23, 2017)

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 9.1 works pretty well.


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## rtwjunkie (Jun 23, 2017)

@hat what is on the drive? Just data, or actual installed programs that you need to keep registry entries to, moving the paths?


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## stinger608 (Jun 23, 2017)

rtwjunkie said:


> or actual installed programs that you need to keep registry entries to?



Yep, that makes a huge difference on how you need to "copy" the drive!


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## hat (Jun 23, 2017)

Just data mainly, I could care less about registry entries. Lots of pictures. I'm not sure where they all are... and the drive is in rough shape.


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## rtwjunkie (Jun 23, 2017)

If you need the pathing, *funduc software* http://funduc.com/ make s great program called *Application Mover* http://funduc.com/app_mover.htm

Application Mover has a trial as well, that will give you virtually unlimited number of file moves for several days, which may be all you need.

If you just need cloning, I have not found much better than *EZ-gig IV by Apricorn*, especially for going larger to smaller.  It's accurate, fairly fast, and easy to use.
https://www.apricorn.com/upgrades/ezgig

That said, you can't really go wrong with one of the free types of Acronis either.


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## DRDNA (Jun 23, 2017)

can you not make a partition on the "drive in rough shape."that's the size of the smaller drive your cloning to then just clone?


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## remixedcat (Jun 23, 2017)

paragon has file exclusions and is 20 bucks


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## Caring1 (Jun 23, 2017)

DRDNA said:


> can you not make a partition on the "drive in rough shape."that's the size of the smaller drive your cloning to then just clone?


This was my thought too, shrink the partition that you wish to clone.


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## brandonwh64 (Jun 23, 2017)

Acronis will work as long as you do not copy sector and only file table.


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## marinexu (Jun 23, 2017)

If you only need to copy data you can try fast copy
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/FastCopy.shtml
And you can use it later for data sync between folders or drives.


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## metalslaw (Jun 23, 2017)

Fbackup is a great program for doing file backups. Just select the entire drive, use the mirror option, and it will just copy everything.


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## cdawall (Jun 23, 2017)

Run command prompt as an admin

Robocopy (source) (destination) /xj /e /b /r:0

When it finishes you may have to run attribute -h -s (folder) to unhide unsystem file the stuff


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## ERazer (Jun 23, 2017)

I use this to clone drive without software, just giving you options.


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## scoutingwraith (Jul 23, 2017)

For simple copying of the Data im surprised no one mentioned TeraCopy. As far as Cloning the whole drive i would go with something like Acronis (cant remember if there was a free version though)


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## DeathtoGnomes (Jul 23, 2017)

marinexu said:


> If you only need to copy data you can try fast copy
> http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/FastCopy.shtml
> And you can use it later for data sync between folders or drives.


I dont trust any software on Softpedia.


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## cornemuse (Jul 23, 2017)

If you know what files you want to copy & it is your C:\ drive, start at the top & 'select' folders you want. If cloning is not necessary you dont need program files, recycler, system volume info, windoze, &c.

This is how I have allus backed up my data.

I also prefer smaller hdds as they get full faster &_ I have to back up more often_.

-c-


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## Jetster (Jul 23, 2017)

If the drive is damaged move it in small parts, about 50 Gb size. If you need to clone it just try to shrink the partition to the size of the receiving drive


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## Miguel2013 (Aug 2, 2017)

hat said:


> I'd prefer not to make an image but copy the files as is. If I have to make an image I can, but it's more hassle.


why is it a hassle to make an image? wouldn't copying directories and rearranging them on the destination be more work or hassle than cloning it from the image?


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## lorraine walsh (Aug 15, 2017)

hat said:


> Just data mainly, I could care less about registry entries. Lots of pictures. I'm not sure where they all are... and the drive is in rough shape.



If you can not crack then why dont you go to some hardware/software shop near by with your system. I think They may have various tools to help you out.


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## SnakeDoctor (Aug 15, 2017)

Nortons Ghost always worked for me  - as long as drive is not in bad shape (it will ask to skip bad sector )
Just select Drive to Drive -you wont have to worry about your partition being too big it will copy data and make partition on new drive same size as the data
You will need to mark the drive as an active boot drive after though - in Disk management ( if a bootable drive)

Another gem is Acronis products 

If the drive is in too bad shape , would copy files over with killcopy and ask to skip files on error or manually skip on error

Active@ boot- have some great tool which should work fine


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## niko084 (Aug 15, 2017)

You can use numerous utilities to handle the long name/path issues.
I generally use Richcopy to copy raw data in large amounts.
Easeus is a free imaging software, you could likely create an image with it and then extract the data to the new drive.

Are you trying to copy a disk that is active? As in using installed software or os on that disk? --- That generally doesn't work the best.


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## Miguel2013 (Aug 27, 2017)

lorraine walsh said:


> If you can not crack then why dont you go to some hardware/software shop near by with your system. I think They may have various tools to help you out.


they don't know as much they know general stuff, they're pretty basic I tried taking a bios rom chip to be erased and they said that was too advanced.


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## lorraine walsh (Sep 5, 2017)

Miguel2013 said:


> they don't know as much they know general stuff, they're pretty basic I tried taking a bios rom chip to be erased and they said that was too advanced.



Oh man seriously. 
I hope you find a suitable solution.


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## Bones (Sep 5, 2017)

I've used this before and it worked fine: https://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html

HDclone does work - All you need is the free version to get it done. 
It only does so many clone operations and it's feature/speed limited due to being free but at least it will clone the drive for you if it can be done at all with the drive in it's current condition.


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