Transferring to new storage drive

[N8man3]

Hi all,

In my PC, I currently have a SSD with Windows 7 and some games on in, and a 1tb WD black HDD that I have been using as storage for my other games and music, etc. However, it has some bad sectors on it, so I went ahead and got a new 1tb WD black HDD. My old storage drive is still functional, so I was thinking that I would simply install the new storage drive, and just cut and paste everything from the old drive to the new one. However, my intuition tells me that it won't be that simple. Again, the SSD that has the operating system is fine... I just want to transfer the files from my old HDD to my new one. Can someone walk me through what I need to do? Thanks!

 

[The_Man12]

You can do that of course! It's that simple. However, if you're a bit more insecure when it comes to your files like me, you can do it using robocopy (this involves using the command prompt), so, if you want to go the safe route then do it this way:

1. Open Command Prompt as an administrator
2. Type in
robocopy D:\ E:\ /mir /xj /copyall
D: is the old drive
E: is the new drive
Change the drive letters to fit your scenario
3. Done

What this will basically do is just copy all your files from your old HDD to the new one, keeping the same directories and everything. Robocopy is a better and safer way for doing this though, it literally stands for "Robust File Copy". Sometimes I've found that this simple copy and paste thing can miss some files or even folders, it depends on your situation.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @N8man3!

I'd not recommend you use backup or cloning utilities, but just simply copy/paste the personal data from the old WD Black to the new one. Keep in mind that all the software that was on it would need to get re-installed on the replacement WD Black. It's not really recommended to use such utilities when transferring data from a hard drive with bad sectors to a new drive. I'd simply plug the new WD Black - initialize it and then partition & format it through Disk Management.

Afterwards copy the personal files from the old WD Black to the new one and make sure you re-install any program/software that was previously loading from the HDD.

Keep us posted if you have more questions!
SuperSoph_WD