Cloning laptop hard drive?

[Ricoh]

Sorry if this has been done before...

I have a Dell inspiron 15R, and even though it’s about 5 years old it still does what I need. But Murphy’s law and all that, I’m conscious the hard drive could fail so I need to plan ahead.

It has all my photo developing software (LR stand-alone 6.14, Photoshop CS6, SilveEfex) , scanner software, so if there was a hardware fail with the hard drive I could be in trouble.

I periodically run Windows backup, but that works only if there’s a software error on the disk and you need to revert back - right?

I think I’m right in saying I need to clone my hard drive to a slave hard drive and keep that just in case. Can someone please inform me how to do this?

Many thanks.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I use "Recuva", make a stand-alone CD that is bootable. Use a USB drive to backup to. Some "Gotchas", when using standalone mode, put the USB drive on a USB 2 port. Standalone boots up Windows CE, did not recognize the 3.0 port.

https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

Recuva makes an Image File of the drive. You can then swap drives on the computer and restore it to the same sized disk. I use mostly Panasonic Toughbook computers, swapping drives is easy. I believe the Dell is also easy. These days- Dell Inspiron 15R's are pretty cheap,

https://www.ebay.com/itm/184961043713

I would buy a second one and clone to it.

 

[Ricoh]

Thanks Brian.
What about this as an alternative. https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/suppo...e-bootable-media-cd-with-discwizard-007717en/
I would need an identical empty drive (or bigger, possibly a SSD) a disc caddy to connect the original hard drive via a USB port, plus the Disk Wizard CD (presumably that can be purchased with the new disc or separately.
I’m not at all into the software side of computers, and admit to feeling a bit apprehensive in case I somehow damage the existing drive.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

That should work.

Notebook SATA drives can be finicky about USB adapters. The one I use for desktop SATA drives does not deliver the voltage needed for the Laptop drive. I don't have a first-hand suggestion for an inexpensive USB adapter for a Laptop SATA drive. The one I have- is expensive as it has a built-in write blocker to protect the drive.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

https://www.comparitech.com/net-admin/best-hard-drive-disk-cloning-software/

I use editor's choice.

 

[maigo]

Cloning laptop hard drive?

https://www.comparitech.com/net-admin/best-hard-drive-disk-cloning-software/

I use editor's choice.

What Ko said, backing up to direct connect external hard drive using top-tier backup or cloning software depending on your need.
MS Windows built-in Backup is not top-tier.

PLUS, and this is the important part, off-site backup like Backblaze Personal.
https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html