Want to move Old C: Hard Drive to a new Hard Drive

andrew0222 · Apr 2, 2016

I want to know how I can move all my stuff from C: Drive to a new and bigger hard drive I'm getting and make the new drive the primary drive meaning C: Drive

BadActor · Apr 2, 2016

Use Macrium Reflect Free to clone your old HDD to your new one. It's fairly simple to ise and shouldf have no problems migrating to a larger HDD.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

After you clone the drive, you can either swap the SATA connectors or change the boot priority in the Bios.

andrew0222 · Apr 2, 2016

So will cloning my old HDD to my new one, make my new drive the C: Drive?

Gillerer · Apr 2, 2016

In order to have the OS boot from the new drive you need to either:

1) clone the old system drive to the new drive using special cloning software. Most cloning programs can resize partitions as needed; or

2) install Windows on the new (empty) drive, then copy user files to it (including game installations; once you have the new system running you need to have Steam/Origin etc. check the integrity of the game files to get the games to appear in the new system).

Option 1) is more straight-forward, but 2) has the benefit of "starting over" - use it if you've had persistent problems with your current Windows installation.

andrew0222 :

Whatever drive you boot from becomes the C: drive.

Which reminds me: if you decide to go with option 2) and install Windows to the new drive, be sure to disconnect all other drives for the duration of the installation. Also, if you wish to reuse the old system drive as a data drive, you should format it to make sure it no longer affects booting.

andrew0222 · Apr 2, 2016

Okay, and will all my shortcuts still be there?

BadActor · Apr 2, 2016

Cloning will create a mirror image of your old drive. It will become the C: drive after swapping the SATA cables or changing the BIOS settings to boot from what ever drive letter it gets assigned when you installed it (usually D, E, F). You can easily change the drive letter back to C: if you desire.

andrew0222 · Apr 2, 2016

So, if I clone my old drive to my new drive, and I swap the sata connector to the new drive, I am done? Also can I take out the old hard drive after all that?

BadActor · Apr 2, 2016

andrew0222 :

Yes, unless you decide to keep it for extra storage.

andrew0222 · Apr 2, 2016

One more question. What will the old drive be because my old hard drive is split in two so it's C: Drive and D: Drive. Does this mean the Drives will get pushed on letter since my new drive will be the C:?

BadActor · Apr 2, 2016

Windows will automatically reassign drive letters.

Gillerer · Apr 2, 2016

Drives other than boot drive will automatically get letters in order D:, E:, F:. Somehow Windows usually manages to put them in wrong order if you have multiple physical drives. Once drives have been assigned letters, they'll remain the same, but you can change non-boot drive letters in disk management.

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Want to move Old C: Hard Drive to a new Hard Drive

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andrew0222

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andrew0222

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andrew0222

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