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Question

Is it possible?

Dec 3, 2011 11:10AM PST

My HP laptop recently crashed. I deleted everything off the 120GB hard drive and I've yet to acquire a new Operating System. My friend has his older HP laptop with a 32GB hard drive working perfectly. I took apart my laptop and got the HDD out and whatnot, but I don't have the proper tools nor the money for an external cloning disk/usb thing that CNET suggested. I guess my question is, Could I somehow Mcgyver up a way to wire my own external or internal 120GB to increase his 32GB? <span id="INSERTION_MARKER"><span id="INSERTION_MARKER"> <span id="INSERTION_MARKER">

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Not sure of your objective
Dec 3, 2011 8:07PM PST

Are you wanting to give your friend your 120GB drive? You said that you "have yet" to acquire a new OS. Does this means you intend to do so? If so, would it be to repair your old laptop? If that's the case, and your HP laptop isn't beyond their support sundown, you acquire the restore media and use that on your 120GB drive. But, if you want to give him your old HD and clone his system to work on his laptop (not yours) you will need bootable media with the cloning software on it and a way to attach it to the laptop in such as a way that the cloning software can see the drive. My personal preference would be to use an external and not clone the drive but create a compressed image of it. I'd replace the 32GB with the 120GB and restore the drive from the image. I've found it better to best to have the old and new drive in the device it will run in during this operation.

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Answer
I think
Dec 3, 2011 8:50PM PST

that you want to connect your hdd to his and copy across the OS from his to yours.

If I am right, then that will fail, on both Windows and Mac OS. I have no idea about Linux but since Linux will boot up and work from a CD, and is free anyway, then that might work.

To install Windows you need either a genuine Windows setup CD or DVD, or the restore media that came with the laptop.

Mark