OS transfer to new HDD

Ryan Blauser

Reputable
Feb 11, 2015
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I am current 40 GB away from running out of space on my old WD green 640GB HDD. Im looking to replace this with a seagate 2TB HDD at 7200 rpm. How would i go about transfering my OS and files and what not?
Thank you.
 
Solution
The simplest and most cost effective way is to get some medium that you can back up your old system and data to: CD/DVD, USB or new HDD. Then, after you have backed everything up, you use the original windows disk to restore the old system onto the new 2 TB disk. Now, when you do this you will have an exact replica of the 640 GB disk. You will have to use a program like Partition Wizard to resize the 2 TB disk or create a new partition to allow you to access the 1.3 TB of other storage.
Use Clonezilla to make a bootable pre-OS on a CD/DVD/USB. http://clonezilla.org/
Shut down computer and install the new drive in computer.
Start the computer and enter the Boot Menu (F12 usually). Select your Clonezilla media (CD/USB etc)
Use Clonezilla to clone the old drive onto the new drive, and simutaneously expand the partition to fill the remaining space on the new drive.
Restart and enter BIOS(F2, DEL, F10 depending on your computer) and set the 2TB HDD as the first boot option. Save and restart.
Your system should now be running on the new hard disk.

Write back if you need any help with the above steps, or if you need help understanding the procedure.
Assuming you are not upgrading any other hardware, this should work.
 
The simplest and most cost effective way is to get some medium that you can back up your old system and data to: CD/DVD, USB or new HDD. Then, after you have backed everything up, you use the original windows disk to restore the old system onto the new 2 TB disk. Now, when you do this you will have an exact replica of the 640 GB disk. You will have to use a program like Partition Wizard to resize the 2 TB disk or create a new partition to allow you to access the 1.3 TB of other storage.
 
Solution
A 640 GB drive has only 596 GB of actual space. Meeting the "keep 15% free requirement", the max you should have on there is 506.6 GB. If you have much more than that, it's likely that the drive as quite fragmented.

You might want to take this opportunity to clean out your OS and install anew. We set up all our systems with a 128 GB partition for the OS and then the rest as per customer needs / wants . Makes things easier going forward as your next clone or OS upgrade involves only the 128 GB partition. In house we do fresh installs of the OS every year over the XMas => NY holiday to keep everything snappy and at top performance levels.
 
The WD drive entitles you to a copy of Acronis True Image downloadable from WD support site. Acronis is great at cloning from one disk to another.

1.Download the WD clone tool
2.Hook the Seagate up in your PC (borrowing teh sata connector and power from your CD drive if its sata works for me.
3.Boot normally.
4. Run the tool. Copy all partitions, porportionally sized, make bootable.
5. When tool complete shut down and remove the old drive and replace with the new one. Or leave both drives in the PC and change the boot order in the BIOS to boot off your new drive.

GL