Non-recording related backup question

[notCardio]

I want to move all of my stuff on one pc to a larger hard drive. Is it true that I can only backup data, and not software? What if I wanted to move it to a new pc? Would I have to move only the data, and re-install all of the software? I could have sworn that there were programs like Ghost, or something like it, that could essentially create a disk image that could be loaded to a different drive, as in the case of a disk crash. Is this incorrect?

Also, in case I can't move the software and I just want to use a different data drive, if I use an external usb drive will it just be slower than molasses? It's an old machine with IDE architecture, so I'd have to find an internal IDE drive, which would probably mean I'd need a bigger power supply, and I don't really want to go to that much trouble for a machine I'd rather just replace. On the other hand, I don't really want to re-install a bunch of software, either, especially if it means I'd have pay to get newer versions of everything to run on a new machine.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[TetraFish]

Yup, you can use ghost. I use a product called Acronis True Image.

http://www.acronis.com/promo/ATIH20...e image home&gclid=COy1v8q-uqUCFQNrKgodpWzHZg

I was using Macrium Reflect, which is free but it wouldn't handle a dell laptop I had that had a boot partition that was different from the OS partition.

On the dell laptop I did exactley what you are talking about. Made an image of the drive (both partitions). Put in a new 300gb drive and restored the backup to the new drive. Worked like a charm.

 

[robdean]

Acronis True Image kicks ass

 

[Emerson Maningo]

I want to move all of my stuff on one pc to a larger hard drive. Is it true that I can only backup data, and not software? What if I wanted to move it to a new pc? Would I have to move only the data, and re-install all of the software? I could have sworn that there were programs like Ghost, or something like it, that could essentially create a disk image that could be loaded to a different drive, as in the case of a disk crash. Is this incorrect?

Also, in case I can't move the software and I just want to use a different data drive, if I use an external usb drive will it just be slower than molasses? It's an old machine with IDE architecture, so I'd have to find an internal IDE drive, which would probably mean I'd need a bigger power supply, and I don't really want to go to that much trouble for a machine I'd rather just replace. On the other hand, I don't really want to re-install a bunch of software, either, especially if it means I'd have pay to get newer versions of everything to run on a new machine.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

My experience about cloning computers is that it requires compatible and similar hardware architecture. For example, if your computer hard drive is failing and you have successfully cloned the drive with all the software and data in it. And then you will replace the failing hard disk with a new one - cloning works in this case because only the hard drive is changed. In this case, I have tried to successfully restore my OS and files (without reinstalling Windows) using Macrium Reflect which is free.

However if you will restore the clone to a completely different hardware (motherboard, CPU, etc), you need to use appropriate backup/cloning software. For example Acronis allows deployment of clone to a completely different hardware and takes care of the new hardware drivers and everything. Read more here: http://www.acronis.com/backup-recovery/advanced-server/universal-restore.html.