Want to replace a laptop HD but can't even get Acronis installed

I bought a WD Black hard drive to replace the drive in my Toshiba laptop. I installed the the WD drive in a Inateck USB external enclosure and plugged into the laptop. I tried to install Acronis True Image WD Edition but it doesn’t recognize the WD drive and won’t install the software.

I then tried installing the new WD drive into the laptop and moving the old laptop drive into the USB enclosure. But I get startup errors and Windows 8.1 won’t run.

How do I a clone the laptop drive to make the new WD drive a bootable clone that I can install/replace in my laptop? Thank you

Hello jm345, welcome to the Community. As you already noticed Acronis wont recognize the hard drive inside the enclosure and Windows wont allow you to boot from a USB drive. I recommend to connect both drives to a desktop PC and clone your drive from there. 

"Hello jm345, welcome to the Community. As you already noticed Acronis wont recognize the hard drive inside the enclosure and Windows wont allow you to boot from a USB drive. I recommend to connect both drives to a desktop PC and clone your drive from there. "

Thanks for the reply. But I don’t have access to a desktop PC. Are you saying there is no way to clone a new hard disk for a laptop without needing a desktop PC? Why isn’t that requirement made known before I purchased the new HD?

I suppose if you are willing to pay for the full Acronis software it will work the way I need it to?

Is there other software that will allow me to clone the laptop’s HD to the new HD in the USB enclosure?

Thanks