[SOLVED] I am lost trying to migrate win 10 to another drive.

[Joel89]

Just got a new 2tb barracuda. I'm trying to install my windows from my current drive we will call (C to my new drive we will call (X, So (C is like 14 years old and has my windows 10 installation on it. I have created a System Image Backup of my (C to (X however when I boot my usb to do recovery option my (X does not show up with the backup nor does it show up in BIOS. When I initialized (X I selected MBR. When I chose a backup drive I selected (X.
MSI 970 Gaming MOBO
FX-8350
Gigabyte 980ti
2x8 Patriot Viper 3 11866mhz
(C 1tb Main drive Windows 10
(X 2tb Target Drive
(C (alternate) Windows 7 (I have a launch option that let's me choose which OS to load. It is a different hard drive)
(Z 1tb Storage
Trying to get this sorted out by tonight. My responses will hopefully be immediate.
Thanks for looking!

 

[USAFRet]

That system image thing won't work.

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.
This migration will probably be easy, with the right tool.

 

[Joel89]

That system image thing won't work.

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.
This migration will probably be easy, with the right tool.

I just realized what I did when I wrote the drives LOL.

https://imgur.com/wvfYtFB

View: https://imgur.com/wvfYtFB

That's the link to the pic. I am trying to get rid of C: all together. But I really don't want to have to purchase a new windows 10 key. The space taken up on the 2tb is the back up i created. Some 150gb of it or something.

 

[USAFRet]

That's the link to the pic. I am trying to get rid of C: all together. But I really don't want to have to purchase a new windows 10 key. The space taken up on the 2tb is the back up i created. Some 150gb of it or something.

If all you are doing is swapping drives, you do not need a new license key.

Either a clean install on the new drive, or a clone operation.

Clean install:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Cloning:
-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new drive
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 drive
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new drive
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the drive
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.
-----------------------------

 

[Joel89]

If all you are doing is swapping drives, you do not need a new license key.

Either a clean install on the new drive, or a clone operation.

Clean install:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Cloning:
-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new drive
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 drive
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new drive
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the drive
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.
-----------------------------

I'm giving it a shot, Thanks!

 

[Joel89]

If all you are doing is swapping drives, you do not need a new license key.

Either a clean install on the new drive, or a clone operation.

Clean install:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Cloning:
-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new drive
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 drive
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new drive
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the drive
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.
-----------------------------

Should I reformat my X drive to remove the system image I put on it?

 

[USAFRet]

Should I reformat my X drive to remove the system image I put on it?

No need.
Either way will wipe out whatever is on there.

So which plan are you going with?

 

[Joel89]

No need.
Either way will wipe out whatever is on there.

So which plan are you going with?

The simplest and easiest way seems like I should download Macrium. I think that I would run into issues with 1st option you reccomended since I no longer have the physical key for my installation. You gave me 2 options. If this was your pc, Which of those would you choose?

 

[USAFRet]

The simplest and easiest way seems like I should download Macrium. I think that I would run into issues with 1st option you reccomended since I no longer have the physical key for my installation. You gave me 2 options. If this was your pc, Which of those would you choose?

Again, you do NOT need the license key for a clean install. Assuming Win 10, of course.

Which would I do? Depends on why I'm doing it.

Does the current install work to your satisfaction? No issues with it?
Just wanting to swap to a larger, newer drive? Clone the thing over.

Current install is borked up?
Time for a fresh install.

 

[Joel89]

Again, you do NOT need the license key for a clean install. Assuming Win 10, of course.

Which would I do? Depends on why I'm doing it.

Does the current install work to your satisfaction? No issues with it?
Just wanting to swap to a larger, newer drive? Clone the thing over.

Current install is borked up?
Time for a fresh install.

Do I have to select ALL of the partitions on C or can I just select the OS partition? Seems a bit silly to select all the recovery partitions from over the years.

 

[USAFRet]

Do I have to select ALL of the partitions on C or can I just select the OS partition? Seems a bit silly to select all the recovery partitions from over the years.

Select all, and then manipulate what you don't need later.
At a minimum, you'll also need the EFI partition.

 

[Joel89]

Select all, and then manipulate what you don't need later.
At a minimum, you'll also need the EFI partition.

I got it. Cloned over nice. I do have one issue although it's not really an issue. So when I cloned the 1tb to the 2tb it kinda like cloned over all 1tb to the 2tb. Is there going to be a problem with saving stuff and installing programs? I did allocate the 1tb of the 2tb that was not allocated as the OS. I had no other choice but to make it a different drive(?). So now the new OS is C and is 1tb and the other 1tb is D. It's only confusing because it looks like there are 2 drives when there is only 1. It's not that big of an issue but is there a way to combine them?

 

[USAFRet]

In the steps above, it referred to that situation.
"If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger ...."

It shows how to manipulate the size of the partitions on the Target drive.
If you want, you can redo it, taking that into account.

Or, leave the second 1TB partition as just another drive letter.

Either way.


Or, to possibly "combine", show us a screencap of the current Disk Management window.

 

[Joel89]

In the steps above, it referred to that situation.
"If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger ...."

It shows how to manipulate the size of the partitions on the Target drive.
If you want, you can redo it, taking that into account.

Or, leave the second 1TB partition as just another drive letter.

Either way.


Or, to possibly "combine", show us a screencap of the current Disk Management window.

I think that second partition screwed me. I can't boot and when I use my flash drive to do repairs or anything like that my drive doesn't show up how ever when it asks me if I want to locate a driver to install my drive shows up in the windows explorer. Only other thing I can seem to do is reinstall windows. Pain in the neck

 

[Joel89]

I think that second partition screwed me. I can't boot and when I use my flash drive to do repairs or anything like that my drive doesn't show up how ever when it asks me if I want to locate a driver to install my drive shows up in the windows explorer. Only other thing I can seem to do is reinstall windows. Pain in the neck

Also it does show up in the bios. Twice. I have tried both of them to no avail

 

[Joel89]

Ok so after what seemed like a decade, I was able to use another pc and format the drive. Clean install of 10. 1 partition. Works beautiful. Was able to salvage my product key by logging into my outlook account. All is well. Thanks USAFRet for your help. Thanks for your service as well. It's always nice when a vet helps vet. Have a good day/night!