Question Can i clone/transfer the memory of 1 a Terabyte Hard Disk Into a 2 Terabyte Hard Disk?

[ashtekaros]

I want to transfer/clone the memory of a 1 Terabyte Hard Disk into another HDD with 2 TB. So, is this possible? will i have to re-install the windows and all my programs or they will be preserved through the the transfer/cloning and re-installation will be unecessary?

Thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

I want to transfer/clone the memory of a 1 Terabyte Hard Disk into another HDD with 2 TB. So, is this possible? will i have to re-install the windows and all my programs or they will be preserved through the the transfer/cloning and re-installation will be unecessary?

Thanks.

Is it possible?
Sure.

Some details, please.
What, exactly, is on this drive?

 

[ashtekaros]

Is it possible?
Sure.

Some details, please.
What, exactly, is on this drive?

its quite simple. im transferring the memory of one HDD to the other. but i dont want to reinstall all programs or reinstall the windows. the older HDD has 1 tb and the new one has 2 terabytes.

 

[USAFRet]

its quite simple. im transferring the memory of one HDD to the other. but i dont want to reinstall all programs or reinstall the windows. the older HDD has 1 tb and the new one has 2 terabytes.

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.

Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

 

[ashtekaros]

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.

Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

Im going to bring it to a tech. will him be able to do it even if the model of the HDD are different from each other?

Maybe i should just install the new HDD and keep it as a spare HDD. Instead of cloning the memory of my old HDD on it .

If it is risky to clone/transfer the memory. maybe its better to just avoid doing this. its just that i would prefer the 2 TB memory as my main one. but if it is risky to do that, i will keep it as a spare memory.

What is more recommended?

 

[Lafong]

Brand or model of the new drive should not matter.

Cloning can fail for whatever reason....maybe a 1 or 2 percent chance. The process is extremely unlikely to risk anything on the source drive, but you should certainly have your personal data backed up regardless, as a matter of course.

Imaging is another option to accomplish the same thing.

Your tech may have his own methods. We don't know what they might be.

The purpose of cloning is generally to save time. If you would be in a very high state of anxiety over a clone, you could avoid that anxiety by doing a clean Windows install to the new larger drive, and then reinstall and configure your applications. I have no idea how much time that would take. Cloning might save you 2 hours or 200. You would know better than anyone else.

 

[ICollectTransformers]

Im going to bring it to a tech. will him be able to do it even if the model of the HDD are different from each other?

Maybe i should just install the new HDD and keep it as a spare HDD. Instead of cloning the memory of my old HDD on it .

If it is risky to clone/transfer the memory. maybe its better to just avoid doing this. its just that i would prefer the 2 TB memory as my main one. but if it is risky to do that, i will keep it as a spare memory.

What is more recommended?

Cloning of drives is fairly straightforward but as mentioned if you are going to a larger drive make sure the portion for that drive is set to full size so that after the copy it won't be partitioned into 2 drives. if you are adding a 2 TB Samsung drive then the Samsung migration tool will do it quickly. Marcium reflect or HDclone will do very well too offering some additional options as well as a 1to1 copy still leaving the added additional space available to the main partition.

 

[ashtekaros]

Brand or model of the new drive should not matter.

Cloning can fail for whatever reason....maybe a 1 or 2 percent chance. The process is extremely unlikely to risk anything on the source drive, but you should certainly have your personal data backed up regardless, as a matter of course.

Imaging is another option to accomplish the same thing.

Your tech may have his own methods. We don't know what they might be.

The purpose of cloning is generally to save time. If you would be in a very high state of anxiety over a clone, you could avoid that anxiety by doing a clean Windows install to the new larger drive, and then reinstall and configure your applications. I have no idea how much time that would take. Cloning might save you 2 hours or 200. You would know better than anyone else.

if the clone is sucessful. i should format the older 1 TB Drive, correct?

I dont want to reinstall all my programs and do a clean windows installation. is that posssible?

 

[Lafong]

if the clone is sucessful. i should format the older 1 TB Drive, correct?

I dont want to reinstall all my programs and do a clean windows installation. is that posssible?

If the clone is successful, you can do whatever you want with the 1 TB. If you intend to reuse it, formatting would be a likely choice.

BE POSITIVE that the clone is in fact successful. Maybe use the new drive with the old drive totally disconnected for a few days. If you format the old drive, you can't go back to it...whatever was on it is all bye-bye.

A successful clone or a successful image restoration both yield the same result....you won't have to reinstall Windows or applications. The new drive would simply be a replica of the original...albeit with more capacity.

BUT......cloning and imaging can both fail. Know what you will do if that happens.