Hello, I currently have the Caviar Black 750 gig hdd, and i was thinking about getting a new hdd, maybe a F3 1 tb. How do you transfer everything from one hdd, including the os, to another? also, how do you transfer some files from the storage hdd to the boot drive, like the os?
treefrog07
Splendid
- Jul 7, 2008
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WD has some utilities on its website, including a version of Acronis that will allow you to "clone" you existing HDD to the new HDD. Cloning makes the newly cloned HDD bootable and you can select it as the first boot device in your BIOS. After successful boot from the new HDD, you can use windows explorer to copy/paste files and folders from the storage HDD to the new HDD.
WD's free utility is called Acronis True Image WD Edition and it can do LOTS of good stuff, including cloning. BUT it will only make a clone TO a WD drive - they are happy to help you move all your data to one of their drives, not a competitor's. A complete clone, by the way, will be EVERYTHING - OS (all files in the right places so it can completely take over as your boot device), applications, Windows Registry, data files etc. Thee is NO need to copy anything else manually after.
If you buy a new HDD from Seagate instead, their utility is almost the same and it's called Disk Wizard. If you buy a Samsung Spinpoint, check their website first to see if they offer such a free-download cloning utility.
As I said, a cloning operation would copy EVERYTHING from source drive to destination. However, you asked also a general question of how to copy a file from a "storage hdd" to a "boot drive". You do that exactly as you would do any other file copy. Make sure the receiving drive has a place for the file (that is, MAYBE you want to create a particular folder to put it in, but maybe you will put it into an existing folder). Go to the source drive and find the file(s), highlight it (them) and press CTRL-C (keyboard shortcut for a Copy operation). Or, right-click on the file and choose Copy. Now go to the destination drive and find the folder where you want it to go. Click on the folder name, then press CTRL-V (keyboard shortcut for Paste), or use the top menu line to choose Edit ... Paste. This will COPY the file(s). If you want to get rid of it on the old location, go back there and Delete it. You can combine these two operations into one. Right-click on the file and choose Move instead of Copy. When you Paste it in the destination, it will be deleted from the source.
You can always highlight files, then hold down the right mouse button while you drag them to the new folder. When you release the button you'll have a choice of whether this is a Copy or Move operation.
If you buy a new HDD from Seagate instead, their utility is almost the same and it's called Disk Wizard. If you buy a Samsung Spinpoint, check their website first to see if they offer such a free-download cloning utility.
As I said, a cloning operation would copy EVERYTHING from source drive to destination. However, you asked also a general question of how to copy a file from a "storage hdd" to a "boot drive". You do that exactly as you would do any other file copy. Make sure the receiving drive has a place for the file (that is, MAYBE you want to create a particular folder to put it in, but maybe you will put it into an existing folder). Go to the source drive and find the file(s), highlight it (them) and press CTRL-C (keyboard shortcut for a Copy operation). Or, right-click on the file and choose Copy. Now go to the destination drive and find the folder where you want it to go. Click on the folder name, then press CTRL-V (keyboard shortcut for Paste), or use the top menu line to choose Edit ... Paste. This will COPY the file(s). If you want to get rid of it on the old location, go back there and Delete it. You can combine these two operations into one. Right-click on the file and choose Move instead of Copy. When you Paste it in the destination, it will be deleted from the source.
You can always highlight files, then hold down the right mouse button while you drag them to the new folder. When you release the button you'll have a choice of whether this is a Copy or Move operation.
Great, DustinM! OP will need that Clonezilla, because my search of the Samsung site failed to find any free cloning utility for their drives.
OP, watch for one thing when you do this. I have NOT used Clonezilla. The Seagate version of Acronis I used has some default settings for the size of the new Partition it creates on the Destination drive to hold the clone copy. Sometimes it is NOT what you want, especially if you want to use up ALL the new drive's space in one Partition. So check what it says it will do and, if necessary, look for menu options to change it manually.
One more thing that's important: as you start making a clone copy, be SURE you identify the Source Drive and Destination Drive correctly. Doing it backwards is a disaster!
OP, watch for one thing when you do this. I have NOT used Clonezilla. The Seagate version of Acronis I used has some default settings for the size of the new Partition it creates on the Destination drive to hold the clone copy. Sometimes it is NOT what you want, especially if you want to use up ALL the new drive's space in one Partition. So check what it says it will do and, if necessary, look for menu options to change it manually.
One more thing that's important: as you start making a clone copy, be SURE you identify the Source Drive and Destination Drive correctly. Doing it backwards is a disaster!
DustinM
Distinguished
- Jul 13, 2010
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Western digital makes good drives, and I have never run into a case of clonezilla having problems copying contents of one manufacturers drive to a different manufacturers drive.
Regardless of what you use it should go perfect, as long as you follow Paperdocs precautions.
Regardless of what you use it should go perfect, as long as you follow Paperdocs precautions.
If you think the Samsung F3 is more what you want, don't let WD"s free Acronis make you change your mind. It appears Clonezilla will do the transfer / clone thing well for you.
Two small comments on your WD specs. SATA 6.0 Gb/s is almost meaningless for mechanical hard drives. SATA 6Gb/s is really good for SSD units but there are NO mechanical drives (i.e., spinning platters and heads on arms that move) that can actually use all of the communication speed of SATA II (now properly called SATA 3Gb/s), and there are not likely to be any soon. On the other hand, a HDD with 64 MB of on-board cache is useful. For certain types of file access jobs that much cache actually does speed up the performance compared to a 32 MB cache. don't know whether that would make the WD unit's performance match the F3's, though.
Two small comments on your WD specs. SATA 6.0 Gb/s is almost meaningless for mechanical hard drives. SATA 6Gb/s is really good for SSD units but there are NO mechanical drives (i.e., spinning platters and heads on arms that move) that can actually use all of the communication speed of SATA II (now properly called SATA 3Gb/s), and there are not likely to be any soon. On the other hand, a HDD with 64 MB of on-board cache is useful. For certain types of file access jobs that much cache actually does speed up the performance compared to a 32 MB cache. don't know whether that would make the WD unit's performance match the F3's, though.
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