If you purchased a new hard drive for your laptop, what is the best current way to transfer your old drive, OS, files, etc. to the new drive?

If you’re tech savvy then I would recommend Clonezilla http://clonezilla.org/

I’ve done this so many times I can’t count.

I wouldn’t use any of the clone programs. They always miss something.

You are better off making copies (or better yet, backups) of all your persoanl files – usually held in your Downloads and/or Documents (or Music, or whatever) directories.

But for all your programs – reinstall from download or from CD. It’s much cleaner; you’re not bringing over trash, and you are assured of having the latest versions.

Yes, it’s work. But you’ll be happier with the result.

Oh, it’s free – just takes your labor.

1)
If you do a clean install of the operating system as recommended by @elbanditoroso (and you are using Windows), Microsoft gives you a free tool to save all your settings and files and then load them back.

For example, in Windows 7, it’s called Easy :Transfer”:http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/transfer-files-settings-from-another-computer#1TC=windows-7

In XP it’s the File and Settings Transfer Wizard

2)
I have also used Clonezilla. It worked great.

It really depends on why I’m replacing the drive.

Personally, I prefer to do a clean install of the OS and reinstall the applications I use anyways, then plug my old drive in as a secondary drive to copy documents over.

I’ve also been known to use various Linux live distros to utilize certain commands and utilities that have no Windows equivalents. Clonezilla is a popular option, though Redo Backup is also up to the task. Maximum PC magazine seems fond of Macrium Reflect, though I have no real knowledge of it aside from generally considering Maximum PC a trustworthy source.

On a Mac it is pretty simple. Plug a new drive into a external USB enclosure. Format as HFS+ Journaled in disk utility. Then run Carbon Copy Cloner and select make bootable copy. Yeah, that is pretty much it. Nice thing about this is you can boot from the external USB drive if needed. It has saved my ass a few times.

One thing that has been danced around but hasn’t been explicitly stated is that many times, cloning your drive is actually a bad idea. I recall one of the people in the vocational department affiliated with out high school got a virus on her (Macintosh) network. She backed up the server’s hard drive, let the computer teacher do his thing, then restored from her backups.

The catch was, she made the backup after the server was infected, so she backed up the infection as well. And when she restored her OS, applications, and documents, she also restored the virus.

Now, even if your system is virus-free, there is still a lot of clutter, fragmentation, and other mess that a direct clone is rarely optimal unless it’s from an image of drive where everything is freshly installed but hasn’t had time to get messy.

Not familiar with how it’s done on windows anymore, but on a Mac there is a migration assistant that automatically copies the data from either a backup or secondary hard drive connection (might need a Sata to USB adapter). I’d imagine there is equivalent software for windows and Linux.

@jerv fragmentation is still an issue for some OS?

@elbanditoroso You are better off making copies (or better yet, backups) of all your persoanl files – usually held in your Downloads and/or Documents (or Music, or whatever) directories.
Oh, been there and done that. Unless one is very meticulous and have very good records, there are always files from years back you hardly used that seemed to be forgotten at the time of the move.

But for all your programs – reinstall from download or from CD. It’s much cleaner; you’re not bringing over trash, and you are assured of having the latest versions.
Yeah, I have gone from scratch, from the chipset drivers, video, LAN, etc. all the way back. With many programs you have no choice but to reinstall because copying doesn’t copy the .ini files so there is always an error or the program doesn’t work at all. Trouble is, if you have an older program that is useful, or one you no longer have the disc to, then you are screwed if you can’t clone it. Depending of the size of the file, it can take a long time to load once you save it off one computer to paste it in the new. Last time I had to do it in that manner to put all the system files (chipset, video, etc.) in, the OS, all the aftermarket programs and gatekeepers, it took about 3–4 days and that was putting hours in at a setting.

@jerv Personally, I prefer to do a clean install of the OS and reinstall the applications I use anyways, then plug my old drive in as a secondary drive to copy documents over.
On a laptop I found that to work fairly well, I would just stick the old drive into a USB connected enclosure, and treat it as additional storage to pull files off and hold junk I don’t use every day, like setup files. Still, some programs you can’t copy/cut and paste to the new drive because they for some reason, don’t bring all the hidden files, or .ini files with them. I do have to say, depending on where you go online, you are adware and popup free for a time; but they always seem to come back, not all, but some always slip by the gatekeepers.

@Silence04 For Windows, yes, it is. It stands to reason as it’s the only major OS that isn’t based on UNIX.