[SOLVED] Putting new drive in place of old, want software paths to remain intact.

[wheresmabluetooth]

Hello all my situation is as follows,

For some background I have a C drive that has the OS and any program and program related files on it. I have a D drive I installed that I use exclusively for non program files formatted with a singular Basic Data Partition. I have my directories for Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, etc on here. I intend on replacing my laptops D drive with a larger SSD than what I currently have.

Additionally, I have this data backed up to an external drive via a mirror sync. Will I be able to preserve my paths if I were to: replace the laptop D drive, format and partition the new SSD the same way (again as the D drive), and then drag over my files as they are from the external drive?

 

[USAFRet]

If this is not the OS drive, probably.
Ensure the NEW drive ends up with the same drive letter(s) as the old drive, and the older/subfolder structure is identical, this should probably work.

Alternately, you could Clone or Image from old to new.

 

[wheresmabluetooth]

If this is not the OS drive, probably.
Ensure the NEW drive ends up with the same drive letter(s) as the old drive, and it should work.

Alternately, you could Clone or Image from old to new.

Ok thank you, do you know whether upon booting the computer with the new drive installed and the old removed, I would run into any issues with the files and directories no longer being present? For instance would Windows automatically just create these directories on the C drive. This would be before I transferred the files over and began the formatting of the new D drive. I'm curious what I would be greeted with when viewing my Desktop.

 

[USAFRet]

Ok thank you, do you know whether upon booting the computer with the new drive installed and the old removed, I would run into any issues with the files and directories no longer being present? For instance would Windows automatically just create these directories on the C drive. This would be before I transferred the files over and began the formatting of the new D drive. I'm curious what I would be greeted with when viewing my Desktop.

Unknown.

It might complain about them being missing.
Doubtul it would just recreate them on its own.

An easy workaround would be a docking station.
Put the NEW drive in that, copy everything over, power off and swap drives.

One thing...your Desktop will be blank. No idea what problems this may incur.

Complications like this are one of the many reasons I no longer recommend relocating those default Libs. Especially the Desktop.
There are many other, easier, ways to have your data elsewhere.

 

[wheresmabluetooth]

Thanks for the quick responses and advice, I know where to go from here and what to try out. 👍

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the quick responses and advice, I know where to go from here and what to try out. 👍

Good luck!