Upgrading a dual boot Sata HD

I am about to upgrade my old 200g sata 1 HD, to a 500g Sata 2 HD, at the moment I run a dual boot system (XP pro/Vista Ult). What I would like to know is, will True Image ghost both systems at the same time or is there a certain way of doing it? Both OS are on the same HD, XP Pro was the first OS to be installed, Vista was added a few months ago. The old HD will be used as an external HD after the new one is fitted. Can anyone offer me any advice on this? I'm no expert, but I do have a reasonable grasp on building mid range systems, I just haven't ghosted a dual boot before and wondered if I was going to be likely to hit any problems.

Hi there,

A ghost should copy the hard drive exactly as is, and install it in the same way on another drive - emphasis on should.

I don't see any reason why it will not work.

If I were you, I would have both hard drives in the computer at the same time. Install the new 500GB and format it from within Windows (XP or Vista shouldn't matter), so it appears as an empty drive under My Computer. Then, using your ghost program (Acronis True Image), you can just use the "Clone Disc" option to perform the ghost.

Once it's complete and verified, simply power down your computer, remove the old one, and start it up again with only the new 500GB installed. If everything works great, it should start up no problems like the old one.

If it doesn't work, you'll still have your old 200GB sitting there (removed from the computer) with the data intact on it, just reinstall to get up and running, and try again.

Sounds good to me, now I'm inspired to run my own backups!

Troy