HD advice please

[tonysmith1929]

Mu HD is getting tired after 7 years, not really surprising I suppose.
I have bought an almost identical HD, and hope to copy my recovery partition (HP) from old drive, and then activate it on to the new disc.
Is this likely to work ???
If it does I only want the original installed bits frm HP, not all the other clutter which I will put on another new disc.
Thanks in anticipation, and happy xmas etc to those few friends who are still on here !!!!!

[MilesAhead]

This free software may do it for you:

Clone Disk - EaseUS Todo Backup online help

It does clone sector by sector so the new drive should end up identical. If it's slightly larger then the extra space will probably be unallocated. But you can use a partition manager such as Partition Wizard to expand the partition next to it to use all the space without losing data. Non-destructive resize.

[tonysmith1929]

hd advice

Thanks Miles. Maybe I was not clear on intentions.
I want to reinstall all the original bits from HP, including XP and a few other progs/drivers etc.
I do not want to copy the whole drive as a lot of it will be dumped, or if wanted, reloaded with original discs. So essentially I need to copy the D partition only, not the rest of C as well. THINK I have copied D on to a memory stick OK with Macrium Reflect, not sure if it will activate OK, and if it does will the mobo recognise it or tell me its illegal copy !!!! If the worst comes to the worst I do have a genuine unused/legal copy of XP in hand, but that wont get me the original HP bits back. Hope this makes it clearer. Thanks.

[MilesAhead]

If it's OEM Windows it should not accept a different motherboard. Looks like you'll have to go with the XP disc.

[tonysmith1929]

HD advise

Sorry again Miles, I must be confusing you as well as myself!! Its only the HD being changed, ALL else is the same. Have downloaded the suggested program ready to try.

[MilesAhead]

The same program has partition image backup and restore. Just make sure at the end the programs think they are on the same partition letter they were installed on, or the Registry will have all kinds of references to the wrong drive letter.

[tonysmith1929]

Thanks, will advise progress