Replacing hard drive with cloned drive

[LilAnn]

I cloned my failing Seagate 500gb to a new 1TB. This drive is called S in my scheme of things. It houses all my software except operating system (SSD drive). I thought I could just pull old one out and put new one in--except that Win 7 won't let me change drive letter to S--making all my software inaccessible. How do I get access to my new cloned drive?

 

[lonewolf7]

Unfortunately you have to reinstall every software on the new drive. You can work with movies, music etc. like this, but not with programs, they need to be installed.

 

[LilAnn]

What if i have a backup on a home server? Could I restore it to the new drive?

 

[lonewolf7]

You can restore anything from anywhere to anywhere, but programs. Programs/software's needs to be installed, you cannot copy/paste it.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Unfortunately you have to reinstall every software on the new drive. You can work with movies, music etc. like this, but not with programs, they need to be installed.

Are you sure? I've done exactly what the OP has described in the past with no problems. I was using XP at the time so I'm sure it could work for win 7. His registry entries are intact. As long as he can make the new drive letter S, all should be well.

OP: give this a try. I could have sworn there is a command line option to do this, but I can't remember what it is, so editing the registry is the next best thing.

http://superuser.com/questions/347228/cant-change-drive-letter-to-previously-used-drive

 

[Y0GI]

Put the old drive back in the computer and change the drive letter to something else, like "T". Take it out and install the new drive. Assign the drive letter "S" to the new drive. That's it.

Yogi

 

[LilAnn]

It would have worked had I asked the community for help before I foolishly tried to do it on my own. Some of my programs work, but some of them will need to be re-installed. Before I contacted the community, I had already tried to boot computer with new drive (old drive out--but didn't change the drive letter). This caused check disc errors and I think that might have caused some funk with registry. I know better now! Thank you all for your help!

 

[lonewolf7]

Glad to hear that. Have fun.