1. If you don’t have a mechanism for plugging in an external 2.5” drive, buy something like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IDE-SATA-to-USB-2-...1QQcmdZViewItem

2. XXClone is small, free and can clone a hard disk to an external USB disk or to an internal disk. Only the professional version will do cumulative backups but this is perfect if an exact clone of the drive is needed. Get it here http://www.xxclone.com/index.htm Click ‘Download’ in the left pane and select the freeware package version. It is intended for single installations (not multiple boots) that use BOOT.INI.

Here are a few tips on running the program:
It’s best to close down any other running programs before starting. Make sure you select the correct Target Volume. Before clicking Start to do the cloning process, go to the Cool Tools Tab > Make Bootable and tick/run all three ‘options’ (Write MBR, Write Boot Sector and Write BOOT.INI). There is a ‘Duplicate Volume ID‘ option, which may be required by some AV programs that check for changes.

3. When you insert and boot the cloned disk, XXClone starts up and displays a Congratulations message, indicating that the cloning was successful.

4. You still have the original drive with its recovery partition intact.

When you have finished, it has cost less than Ł10 for the cable, about Ł50? for the HDD and about 1 hours work.