How to Copy an OS to Another Hard Drive

Copying an OS or operating system to another hard drive can serve several functions. Some simply want to move their current operating environment to a new PC, while others are replacing an old system hard drive with a newer one and want to avoid the hassle of updating and reinstalling. The process of copying your operating system to another hard drive is a very easy one, in fact, and can be accomplished by anyone with nothing more than some software and some time.

Things You'll Need

• Acronis True Image software

Instructions

1. Install Acronis True Image and launch it from its installation icon. A link is provided in the Resources section for the Acronis free 15-day trial.

2. Click the "Utilities" button from the left menu bar.

3. Click the "Clone Disk" button from the right pane of the main program window. This will cause a dialog box to appear.

4. Click the "Next" button on the bottom-right corner of the dialog box.

5. Select the disk with the operating system you wish to copy from the drive list and click the "Next" button. This will begin an examination of your hard disk that will finish in a few minutes.

6. Select the destination disk from the hard drive list and click the "Next" button.

7. Choose the "As-is" option for how you would like to handle your partitions. This option merely lets you decide whether to keep all partitions on the drive or copy just the data onto one blank partition on the new drive.

8. Click the "Finish" button, and Acronis will prompt you that your system needs to be restarted to begin the cloning process. The restart will happen automatically when you click the "Finish" button.

9. Allow the computer to restart, and Acronis will launch prior to the operating system and begin the cloning procedure. This process may take several minutes to several hours, depending on the size of the operating system and whether there are any installed applications.

10. Restart you computer once again after Acronis has completed the cloning procedure. The software will notify you when the cloning has finished.

11. Boot into your operating system and use your new operating system installation as normal. You may now remove your old operating system drive or format it as you desire.

Tips & Warnings

• Acronis takes quite some time to finish the cloning procedure, and as such, it is recommended you set aside a span of 2 to 4 hours or more during which the computer will not be needed.

References

• Acronis - User Guide

Resources

• Acronis True Image Home 15-Day Trial