Transferring My OS's & Drives Help

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Ironarmygeneral

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Jan 21, 2015
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So I have four main disk drives. Two of them have an OS on them and I regularly switch between them upon boot for different features and applications (I have Windows 7 and Window 10).

My drive details are as follows:

- Corsair LS Force 60GB SSD: Windows 7 boot drive; 60GB
- Seagate 500 GB HDD: Windows 10 boot drive; 500GB
- Western Digital 1TB HDD: Spare mass storage drive, most of my application files and large files and folders go here that I use regularly; 1TB
- Toshiba USB3.0 1TB external HDD: Backup drive for whatever I need, also a transfer drive if I need a folder or file or something quickly transferred to another PC; 1TB

Then I also have a 500MB boot library and a 500MB backup, which I keep if I need.

Okay--so let me get on with my question. So my Seagate drive, which I use for my WIndows 10 OS, is in its beginning stages of death. Constantly blue-screens, and freezes on me, every few hours, and it doesn't fix itself until I completely shut down the system (which I have to do a button shut down). Anyway, I want to transfer my OS and everything on it (every last bit of it) onto another drive, which will be a new drive I am going to buy. I will probably be getting either a 2TB or 3TB HDD, or instead, a 1.2TB SSD. I want it all migrated onto the new drive. In the process, I also want all of my data on the Western Digital 1TB HDD to be transferred temporarily to my Toshiba external drive, which will eventually go onto another brand new 2-3TB internal HDD (which as for this, I can do myself.)

I was just wondering if anyone could give me some tips as how to transfer my OS efficiently and safely as possible, (and of course I am going to have a backup made and ready in case something does happen), and if you could give me any other tips, tricks, or advice, that would be perfect. Thank you!

My drive list is as follows:
JizpmA4.png
 
Solution
USAFRet


Its not that the new drive will be 'corrupted', but rather the data in the transfer.

But....
(adjust for your situation)

Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
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...
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That is what I'm asking about, I've never actually cloned a drive before and don't want to mess anything up. And of course, for the screenshot.
RQj8Lba.png

 
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As for the drive partitions, I know, I don't store anything there manually.

As for the topic there, that person has an entirely different situation, he's dealing with wanting to clone a drive's OS and only the OS because he doesn't have enough space--I have plenty of space, just need tips or a walkthrough on how to actually clone my Windows 10 drive to my new drive.

P.S. It's late where I am and so I will probably go to sleep now but will reply in the morning. Thanks
 
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That doesn't matter.
Just use the solution starting from "-----------------------------" line.
 
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That's my problem, is that I can't install anything new on that drive because it's dying, I was trying to find a way to clone it without installing anything new. By the time I would try installing anything on that drive, it will have crashed and blue-screened.
 
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Instead of the word "clone", think "Image".

You have a 1TB drive that is empty.

You can take an Image of each of the OS drives, and save those Images to that 1TB.
Then, you can apply whichever Image to whichever drive you choose.

Macrium Reflect can do this. You only have to install it on one OS drive, whichever works best.
Also, create a Macrium Rescue USB.
You can boot from that and tell it ...'This Image goes on That drive'

Now...for your D and F partitions.
Those should not have drive letters.
 
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My Windows 10 is not on my SSD. Windows 7 is. And that is why I want to move them... I am going to move them both onto new drives soon. Not just my Win 10, but my Win 7 too. Just my Win 10 first because it's the disk that is dying. Anyway, on the SSD, I don't store anything there except the OS itself and application shortcuts, and I store everything else on my 1TB Western Digital. And I also already said that I am moving everything onto my Toshiba drive (the empty drive in the pic) from the Western Digital drive, and then formatting the WD drive and making backups on it of both OS's. So I won't have space on there. As for the partitions, I didn't make those, nor did I give them drive letters. It happened when I backed up my system a few months ago.Not sure why or how but I never wanted to mess with them.
 
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Plus I am unable to change the partitions or remove them. partition F gives me an error when I try formatting it. D was successfully formatted but there is no option to get rid of the partition.
 
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You're makings things more complicated than necessary.
Boot into windows 7 and clone windows 10 drive from there.

You don't need to boot into windows 10 and install software onto windows 10 partition.
 
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I didn't know that, you guys made it sound like that so I didn't know.
 
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Given all drives are connected in the same system, you can "clone" from any of them to any other of them.

However...if the drive is currently having issues, a clone or image may not be the right answer.
You may be just moving corrupted bits from one drive to the other.

It might be worth a try, though.
 
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Eventually, yes. My final plan here is to end up with two brand new SSDs with one having my Win7 and the other Win10. Then, my WesternDigital 1TB drive as mass storage as usual, and then get rid of the old corrupted/dying drive that currently has Win10 on it (since it's dying and won't be good anymore). The SSD my Windows 7 is on currently... IDK yet, I might get rid of it when I copy the Os's over
 
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I think it's more of a physical issue with the drive, since it's old, so I'm not too worried about corrupting another drive. So what would be the best way to simply just clone the drive to another?

 
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Its not that the new drive will be 'corrupted', but rather the data in the transfer.

But....
(adjust for your situation)

Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
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 as necessary.
Delete the 450MB Recovery Partition, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
-----------------------------


You can 'clone' between any two drives.
Just be sure that if you do this with an OS drive, that it is the only drive connected when you first boot up after the cloning process.
 
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