Can anyone recommend a cheap/free utility that can do this without very much effort?
My preference is that it would be really easy.
- Boot into Windows
- Pick drive to move
- Pick target drive
- It copies everything over, and reboots to the correct partition.
Solution:
DriveImage XML
DriveImage XML will do the job. It runs from within Windows and it can copy directly from drive to drive. A lot of people rave about it after good experiences with the software.
DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives.
Image creation uses Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Services (VSS), allowing you to create safe "hot images" even from drives currently in use. Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools. Never again be stuck with a useless backup! Restore images to drives without having to reboot. DriveImage XML is now faster than ever, offering two different compression levels.
EASEUS Disk Copy
EASEUS Disk Copy is a great alternative if you don’t want to go for a ‘hot’ backup that runs from within Windows. Good review at lifehacker and on a par with DriveImage XML. They quite clearly state that it is ideal for moving from one disk to a larger one. Like other suggestions, this requires that you create a boot CD.
EASEUS Disk Copy is a potent freewareproviding sector-by-sectordisk/partition clone regardless ofyour operating system, file systemsand partition scheme by creating abootable CD. The sector-by-sectormethod assures you a copy 100%identical to the original. Disk Copycan be used for copy, cloning, orupgrading your original small harddrive to a new larger drive. Simplyspeaking, it can copy anything fromthe old hard drive including thedeleted, lost files and inaccessibledata. So, the freeware is a perfecttool for Data Recovery Wizard torecover files from a backup disk.