Hard disc won't boot from USB

[whiteshadow]

I am upgrading the hard disc in my laptop from 400Gb to 1Tb.

I understand that to avoid problems the new empty drive should be installed in the laptop and my old drive attached externally via USB and then cloned. I will be using Acronis True Image Home and is it they who suggest the above setup.
The problem is that after setting my BIOS to boot from "external device" (my old hard disc), it hangs at the Windows start up screen and I am so far unable to clone my disc.
When I return my old hard disc back into my laptop it boots as normal. I am using Windows 7 32bit

Any ideas anyone?

[smirnoff_rules]

im sure this can not be done , u cant clone a drive without software and making an image http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-ad...om-clonezilla/

[cunny]

Cant you copy the hdd to dvd(s) then restore?

I'd do a clean instal of your operating system anyway

[Cod3waX]

yea do clean install then usb ur old hdd to save of info u want or get a hdd docking station

[alistairlee]

Don't you need an Acronis boot CD to start, you would with Ghost.
Al

[magic94]

Do a clean install connect the USB drive left click on the start logo and select open windows explorer you can then open the files on the USB drive and copy and paste them across onto the new drive. I don't think you can do this for program files the programs on the USB will need to be installed on the new drive but all your files, downloads photo's and music can be transfered