Question concerning second HDD

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Osga

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Oct 26, 2014
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This may be an easy question but after some research I found myself confused with some technical terms.
I plan on aquiring a new HDD to either replace my Samsung HD103SI or to add to my system. Problem is I lack an external Drive to backup the data on my current one. I Would like to know how I can transfer data from the old one to the new one without formating it (preferrably installing windows in the newer one also).
Also is there something to be picky about the new HDD? Or as long as it is from a good brand its ok?
 
Solution
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Add a new disc is keeping your old disk and just using the new one as additional storage.

cloning is to create a clone, so you would have software put an exact copy of all data from one drive onto the other one.

You have one of two options:
1) Reinstall windows.
Disconnect orignal hard drive, connect new hard drive and install windows and all of your programs to it.
Reattach old drive, and copy files you want from old drive to new drive.
Format old drive, use as storage

2) Clone
Connect new drive to computer and use clone software to copy your old drive to the new one.
Format old drive.
Use old drive as storage.

Option 2 is much quicker as you will not have to spend the hours of time reinstalling windows, all your programs, and...
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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Get a seagata baracuda or western digital caviar blue or black serries.

If you want to add to your system you just format the drive and move files.

If you you want to completely clone the current drive to the new one there is partition sofware from both EASUS and Paragon that can do this.
 
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Osga

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Oct 26, 2014
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Well this is where my iliteracy kicks in. I don't understand the difference between cloning and adding a new disk.
I'll try and explain what I want to do.
I have this Samsung HDD which is alsmost full and so poor in performance. It can't even hold half my steam library anymore.
I intend to add storage space to my system while also keeping my wallet healthy (which will be hard as I have other upgrades planned :p). So an SSD is out of the question for me.
Because it doesnt seem to be difficult to find a faster HDD than my current one I would like to use the new one as the main drive where I keep critical files and games and keep the other one merely for storage purposes (less important data) or maybe even use it with raid 1 if possible (again I have no idea what I am saying :x )
So in order to do this do I need to format the old HDD before I can send data to the new one? Can install windows on the new one and simply treat the other one as a second drive?
Thanks for your reply.
 
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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Add a new disc is keeping your old disk and just using the new one as additional storage.

cloning is to create a clone, so you would have software put an exact copy of all data from one drive onto the other one.

You have one of two options:
1) Reinstall windows.
Disconnect orignal hard drive, connect new hard drive and install windows and all of your programs to it.
Reattach old drive, and copy files you want from old drive to new drive.
Format old drive, use as storage

2) Clone
Connect new drive to computer and use clone software to copy your old drive to the new one.
Format old drive.
Use old drive as storage.

Option 2 is much quicker as you will not have to spend the hours of time reinstalling windows, all your programs, and reconfiguring everything. The only drawback is that you always run the chance of something going wrong or getting corrupted with the clone process.
 
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boosted1g

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FYI you can only clone or do a full complete reinsatll.
You can not reinsatll windows and then just move/copy your programs over.
Programs are installed to their respective folder, your user profile folders, registry keys, and other parts of the hard drive. It would take you significantly longer to do this then to just reinstall the program.
 
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Osga

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Oct 26, 2014
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I read in a thread cloning also takes several hours. How much time would it take to clone ~900GB of data?
Is the cloning Software straightforward?

Now for a different scenario: I plan on upgrading grafics cards so I would like to format HDD in order to avoid any conflicts between drivers (I'm changing from amd to nvidea). I have heard about partitions of the HDD but I have only a basic idea of how they work. Would partitioning the HDD (after installing a new one) prevent me from loosing data while being able to format windows? This might be easier to research, I just wanted to know to avoid waisting time reading about the wrong topic.
 
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boosted1g

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Cloning speed depends on pc and on hard drives.
If you have 2 slow 5400 rpm hard drives it takes more time, and a slow PC makes it worse.
Naturally the more data it has to move the longer it will take. Now that is data on the drive, not size of drive. It will take almost the same time to clone a 1tb drive with 800gb of data on it as it would take to clone a 3tb drive with 800gb of data.

I have used Easeus and paragon partition software for cloning, and both are pretty startigh forward.

Yes, you could create a second partition and install windows on it, then copy files over. Now this is files only, you will have to reinstall all programs. Most programs have their files spread throughout your PC and then makes registry key entries so if you could even get the data from the maker of the softwre to be able to transfer/copy every piece of the program, it would take much much longer to do this then just reinstall the program.
 
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