Question Clone 2 non OS hard drives onto one larger new drive (SSD)

[tytds]

I have 2 hard drives that are currently/close to failing and would like buy a bigger drive to replace them. I would like to move all the data from both drives into the newer drive. What is the safest and most efficient way to do this? Of course, merging program file folders is allowed

The two drives I currently have are just extra drives to save games. I have a 3rd drive with my OS installed, to be untouched. The drive im buying is gonna be 4tb+. The 2 drives I have are 1 tb each. Game drive 1 has drive letter F and game drive 2 has drive letter D

 

[USAFRet]

If they are just secondary drives, no clone is needed.

Create two top level foldes on this new drive....Drive A and Drive B.
Copy from these potentially dying drives to those folders.

Not all at once, and NOT "Move".
Copy/paste

 

[USAFRet]

Please show us the Disk Management window with all drives in the system.

 

[tytds]

Please show us the Disk Management window with all drives in the system.

Disk 1 and Disk 4 are to be replaced. So all I have to do is create folders on the new drive - "Drive A" and "Drive B" and copy all contents from Drive A to drive a folder, then do the same for Drive B?

 

[tytds]

Please show us the Disk Management window with all drives in the system.

https://imgur.com/a/4U86tlk

View: https://imgur.com/a/4U86tlk

 

[USAFRet]

Test first.

Power OFF.
Physically disconnect Disk 4.
Power UP.

Does it boot correctly?

 

[tytds]

Test first.

Power OFF.
Physically disconnect Disk 4.
Power UP.

Does it boot correctly?

What is the purpose of disconnecting Disk 4 and rebooting? I am just looking to replace my drives

 

[USAFRet]

What is the purpose of disconnecting Disk 4 and rebooting? I am just looking to replace my drives

Because Disk 4 contains a System Reserved partition.
This is quite likely the boot partition.

Disconnecting it and attempting to boot without it is a test, to verify that the system works without that Disk 4 being connected.

 

[tytds]

Because Disk 4 contains a System Reserved partition.
This is quite likely the boot partition.

Disconnecting it and attempting to boot without it is a test, to verify that the system works without that Disk 4 being connected.

Yes my PC boots fine with disk 4 disconnected

 

[USAFRet]

OK, good.

Then all you need do is to copy the data from the old drive to the new one.

 

[TerryLaze]

If the drives have files on it that other apps need to function and they expect them to be on certain drive letters, then you can also go to drive management of windows go to Action->create VHD make two VHDs of the sizes of the old disks and copy all your stuff into those, then you can attach those VHDs whenever you want them to whatever drive letter your software expects and have everything work right.

If it's just lose files though then copying everything to folders is way enough.

 

[tytds]

If the drives have files on it that other apps need to function and they expect them to be on certain drive letters, then you can also go to drive management of windows go to Action->create VHD make two VHDs of the sizes of the old disks and copy all your stuff into those, then you can attach those VHDs whenever you want them to whatever drive letter your software expects and have everything work right.

If it's just lose files though then copying everything to folders is way enough.

Ok, so I go to Disk management -> created virtual hard drives of same size old disks, assign the same letter as those drives and copy contents from old drive.
Do I copy one by one the drives ? Click ctrl+a to copy all the contents and paste to those virtual drives?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Just clone partitions from old drives to separate partitions on new drive (or create partitions manually on target drive and copy data to them).
Then assign appropriate drive letters to cloned partitions and done.

If you do the way USAFRet suggested, then drive letters get messed up and some of your software may not work anymore.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, if drive letters need to be maintained, copy or clone into 2 different partitions.