Drive cloning

I haven't cloned a drive in ages (I generally prefer a clean start), but now I have a friend looking to replace a 100 GB SDD drive with a much larger one in a machine otherwise working well. It's in a windows box.

Any one have any recs? I've heard Clonezilla is solid, but haven't used it.

thanks,

-jk

Windows or Mac?

Never mind: just re-read the post.

I had that question recently, and here is my thread for it:
http://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/366826

Short recap: The new drive came with some bundled cloning software. I tried Acronis True Image first, thinking it would be better, and ran into problems with it. Then I tried the bundled cloning software and it worked on the second attempt.

Thanks! I was pretty sure there was such a thread, but I couldn't find it...

-jk

I've used and had good success with DriveImage XML, which can "hot clone" your drive while you're using it for other things, so no rebooting and waiting required. The fact that it's free for private use is an added bonus. The UI is slightly clunky, but tolerable considering the price (or lack thereof).

For the Mac crowd, I've used Carbon Copy Cloner several times with good results. Many other options fail to clone the recovery partition, and the new disk works perfectly fine until there's a problem and you can't recover. Well worth the $40 bucks I paid for it, since I've gotten several uses out of it for family and friends as well. They also offer discounted upgrades when the newer versions are released so I go ahead and keep current so I have it when I need it. You'll have to use something else to clone the non-mac partitions if you're a dual or triple booter.

If your friend swaps out that 100GB drive for another Samsung, it'll come with cloning software (as mentioned in that thread Tony linked in which I think he used the Samsung software).

I've had problems with it before, but it can work well, too.