I would like to make an exact duplicate of my laptop PC including the OS and all software apps. I have tried Norton Ghost, as well as multiple other software cloners, but to no avail. For example, the Norton Ghost trial hard drive would not boot. I am considering using the Apricorn "DriveWire - Universal Hard Drive Adapter" and its bootable cloning software. I would be cloning 1 hard drive to another; both would be applied to identical computer laptop models. Does anyone have any experience cloning a hard drive this way?
I would just use a live Linux distro and 'dd' one drive to another. It's an exact clone, it's free, and the process is pretty fast. Linux Copy One Hard Disk to Another Using dd Command
I saw your post above regarding cloning a hard drive and I'm having a similar issue. I'm trying to clone a IDE disk to a SATA disk. I purchased the correct cables which enabled me to hook up the SATA drive (destination) to the source computer (IDE) via USB. I used Macrient? software (free off the web) and it appeared to copy just fine. After installing the cloned drive, I get a black screen that says something in white letters, like "if you see this screen you may have lost power...."and it gives me the choice to reboot in safe mode, safe mode with networking, return to platform before and resume windows. I've tried them all and I keep getting put back to this screen. Any advice?
Take a look at Copy Commander, It can make a clone real good... just make sure you scan for viruses before you use it... also if you are using a laptop you well need some other hardware to do this.. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ADA-2012&cat=HDD
