For several years I have used Ghost 2003 to clone my hard drive in my desktop computer. Since I could put two drives into my desktop, the procedure was fairly simple and straightforward. I recently purchased a laptop and also purchased Ghost 14 to use to create an image (now called a recovery point) to an external usb drive.
I would prefer to make an exact duplicate (a clone) of the hard drive in my laptop, but since it only holds a single hard drive, I'm not sure how to accomplish it. I know I can create an image on the external drive, then recover that image to a new internal drive in the laptop, but if I choose to go that way, do I have to first format the new drive, and do I have to recover each partition? My hard drive came partitioned into a C: drive (OS) and a D: drive (recovery). The recovery point I have created included both partitions, but the D: partition has an indicator next to it that looks like a circle with a line through it, and the C: partition has a check mark next to it. I also know that there are some hidden partitions on the drive. The computer is a Dell XPS M1530.
The question is this: How can I best make an exact duplicate of the drive I currently have in the computer -- one that if installed into the computer would boot up and have everything on it that the original contains?