[SOLVED] Cloning two HDDs to new ones and keeping them working?

[Shaun Kennedy]

I plan on upgrading my primary (system) and secondary (games) HDD to newer/larger variants, and to save hassle reinstalling my system and software, I'm just going to clone my old HDDs to the new ones, the old HDDs will then just be formatted and used as backups. How can I ensure that they will both be the correct drive letter once I swap them out (so that application filepaths are all correct? Are there any issues I need to be careful/aware of when performing this kind of cloning?

Also a separate question, but is cloning a System HDD to a SSD much different than HDD -> HDD, I ask because I haven't fully decided if i want to replace it with a larger storage capacity HDD, or a faster SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

Do them one at a time.

And for the secondary drive, no cloning needed. Copy/paste, and swap drive letters around so the new drive has the same drive letter as the old one.

An SSD is highly recommended for your OS drive. SATA HDD -> SATA SSD, no problem.

For your OS drive, this:

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Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
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.
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