[bluzman2004]

I just found this forum and was hoping I could get some advice. My Duo started having lockup issues and windows pop up telling me to back up things because my hardrive was showing bad. I called Dell tech and they said that it was probably the hardrive, so I bought a replacement. The old one is still functioning, but I need to recreate the complete install on my new HD.

How do I swap over my stock OEM setup of Windows and drivers? I see someone said you can do a complete backup onto a USB drive. Is this the way to do mine? I can connect it to my home computer via my network and use the DVD drive in it if needed. Can you give a basic step by step?
Thanks everyone!

[jonny4]

Windows 7 has a built in image backup you can use to create an image to an external hard drive. You can also create an image with aftermarket programs like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. An Image is like a copy of your install so you can just restore it to the new hard drive. Or you can backup only the data you need onto external hard drives or flash drives and then use the Backup disks you created when you bought the laptop to restore the factory image to the new hard drive. There is also a guide with video showing how to put a ssd drive into the laptop and this would be the same way you would replace yours. The forum thread is called "Upgrade Duo to SSD" a little further down the main forum page.