Question Upgrading HD - Best Way w/o Starting from Scratch

[howaboutme]

Hi all...New here. Thanks in advance for your guidance.

I have a desktop that has 2 HDs. One is a SSD drive that is my C drive. The other is a traditional HDD that is my D drive. My C drive is what I have Windows installed on and some programs that can't be moved to the D drive. My D drive (larger capacity) serves as my file storage drive where I save all of my files. That includes pathing all of the "My Documents", "My Pictures", etc to.

My issue is that my C drive, the SSD that Windows is installed on, is running out of space. That is with just the bare essentials needed to run Windows and other software that doesn't reside on D. I need/want to upgrade that drive to something larger. What is the most recommended way to do that w/o starting from scratch?

Is it using a mirroring tool? If so, what happens to D? Will Windows recognize D as it was prior? What happens to software installed on D? Are there registries on C that will get messed up when upgrading the SSD drive? Or is a fresh install from scratch for both C and D better? I'm pretty handy with moderate computer knowledge and am not afraid to do anything. I'm just not familiar with this process and want to be fully prepared for what is to come.

Thoughts?

 

[howaboutme]

And you can't just "move" software.
(except games, mostly)

You would Uninstall it, then install on the new larger C drive.

Windows 11 allows you to do it for some. I haven't figured out if it' just games or not.

 

[USAFRet]

Windows 11 allows you to do it for some. I haven't figured out if it' just games or not.

Its not due to Win 11.
Rather, it is the application in question.

Some do. Most complex ones do not.

 

[Lafong]

You can accept most defaults with Macrium.

The image file will have a gibberish name by default, like

33d4edh44csli6dss3779sx.mrimg

Note the .mrimg extension.

Be sure to include ALL partitions on the current C in the image file. There may be 4 or more. Include them with a checkmark in the available box and proceed to next step.

Total mouse clicks maybe a half dozen?

3 or 4 steps all involving WHAT disk, WHAT partitions on that disk, backed up to WHERE.

You'll see several "next" choices, a "finish", and "run this backup now". Say OK.

Sit back and wait to finish; could be a half hour?

Next step would be to swap drives and boot from the USB rescue media you made.

It will load Macrium quite SLOWLY. You'll see the same interface as if you were looking at Macrium on your hard drive. Use available menus to restore to the new drive.

 

[howaboutme]

Hi all...

I'm in the process of creating the rescue CD on a USB. Which option do I select?

 

[USAFRet]

What device are you using for this RescueUSB?

 

[howaboutme]

What device are you using for this RescueUSB?

Ah I see. So that's the destination? I'm using a USB thumb drive so that would be the 4th option at the bottom?

 

[howaboutme]

Next question regarding imaging. I am selecting all of this (circled in red) but not the 2nd one, which is my D drive. Am I getting this right?

 

[USAFRet]

Ah I see. So that's the destination? I'm using a USB thumb drive so that would be the 4th option at the bottom?

Yes.
The Removable USB Flash drive

 

[USAFRet]

Next question regarding imaging. I am selecting all of this (circled in red) but not the 2nd one, which is my D drive. Am I getting this right?

Correct.

 

[howaboutme]

Getting 2 errors. First one:

2nd one after I say "OK":

Then it crashes and I have to force quit. Thoughts?

 

[howaboutme]

I tried another USB stick and I got different errors:

Failed to generate WinPE WIM:
Failed to clean the staging area.

Then reformated USB to NTSF and got the following error:

Failed to generate WinPE WIM:
The WIM could not be mounted.

I'm stumped.

 

[USAFRet]

Then it crashes and I have to force quit. Thoughts?

Never seen those before.

 

[howaboutme]

Weird. I've tried a few things. I found something on the net about turning of antivirus, same. Apparently, it tries to download Windows PE (not sure what that is) and that's where it gets hung up. Is there another option?

 

[howaboutme]

It worked! I'm not sure I did anything, I just kept trying, restarted computer, etc.

It says rescue media created successfully.

How do I confirm the computer can boot from the USB? Can I try that on my main computer? I assume something pops up asking me to confirm or not? Thanks!

 

[Lafong]

You use a boot menu.

Access by rapping a certain key during a reboot with the USB stick in a port.

Key might be F2 or F11 or delete.

You've probably seen that on screen text message very early in a reboot, telling you which key to press to access menu.

Should bring up a menu and you'd choose the USB stick then.

Confirm it will boot. Useless if it won't.

It should boot slow and eventually show you the Macrium interface.

 

[howaboutme]

You use a boot menu.

Access by rapping a certain key during a reboot with the USB stick in a port.

Key might be F2 or F11 or delete.

You've probably seen that on screen text message very early in a reboot, telling you which key to press to access menu.

Should bring up a menu and you'd choose the USB stick then.

Confirm it will boot. Useless if it won't.

It should boot slow and eventually show you the Macrium interface.

Right. Thank you.

Can I do that on the computer I am working on w/o anything negative happen?

 

[Lafong]

Right. Thank you.

Can I do that on the computer I am working on w/o anything negative happen?

Sure.

The "computer I am working on" isn't the computer on which drives will be swapped???????

Boot it up with the menu. Confirm yes or no it leads you to the Macrium interface.

You better get acquainted with it because I assume you will be actually swapping the drive within days if not minutes/hours.

 

[howaboutme]

The "computer I am working on" isn't the computer on which drives will be swapped???????

Yes, it is the one I am going to swap but I'm not sure what the difference is? Even if I tested it on another computer, the situation would be the same because both computers would be fully functional. I did check disk management and the partition style is master boot record..... Thank you.

 

[Lafong]

Yes, it is the one I am going to swap but I'm not sure what the difference is? Even if I tested it on another computer, the situation would be the same because both computers would be fully functional. I did check disk management and the partition style is master boot record..... Thank you.

"What the difference is" between what and what??

In one case, Windows and your hardware boots from your hard drive.

In the other case, Windows and your hardware boots from the stick. Your HD is not involved.

The stick contains the bare minimum of Windows necessary to boot.

 

[howaboutme]

"What the difference is" between what and what??

In one case, Windows and your hardware boots from your hard drive.

In the other case, Windows and your hardware boots from the stick. Your HD is not involved.

The stick contains the bare minimum of Windows necessary to boot.

Right. Thank you.

I'm just trying to confirm if I can boot from the USB to test it w/o doing damage to the computer before I attempt the swap. In other words, can I boot from USB, see that it works and then reboot back from the C drive after confirming?

 

[Lafong]

Right. Thank you.

I'm just trying to confirm if I can boot from the USB to test it w/o doing damage to the computer before I attempt the swap. In other words, can I boot from USB, see that it works and then reboot back from the C drive after confirming?

Yes.

Booting from the stick isn't going to affect your HD. Reboot from the HD to re-confirm if you want.

You can disconnect the current C before even attempting a boot from the stick if that would ease your anxiety. It boots or it doesn't.

If you boot successfully from the stick, cancel out/shut down and do the swap.

NOTE: if you boot quickly from the stick, beware. That would be a sign you are booting from the HD and your menu choice was bogus. It should boot slowly from the stick. Might take a minute....noticeably slower than HD boot.

 

[howaboutme]

Yes.

Booting from the stick isn't going to affect your HD. Reboot from the HD to re-confirm if you want.

You can disconnect the current C before even attempting a boot from the stick if that would ease your anxiety. It boots or it doesn't.

If you boot successfully from the stick, cancel out/shut down and do the swap.

NOTE: if you boot quickly from the stick, beware. That would be a sign you are booting from the HD and your menu choice was bogus. It should boot slowly from the stick. Might take a minute....noticeably slower than HD boot.

Thank you very much! I am creating the image now and will attempt the swap tomorrow.

 

[Lafong]

Did you boot successfully from the stick???

After you get the image done, I'd do a couple of things to ease your mind a bit.

1; There is such a thing as "verify" for an image file. You might check Macrium's "Backup" menu for "auto verify image". It might be checked by default?? Verification doesn't mean it will restore successfully, but it means the image is readable and not corrupted.

2; locate it wherever you saved it. Check the size of the file. I think your existing drive has about 116 GB occupied, so the image file might be 60 to 75 GB????

 

[howaboutme]

Did you boot successfully from the stick???

After you get the image done, I'd do a couple of things to ease your mind a bit.

1; There is such a thing as "verify" for an image file. You might check Macrium's "Backup" menu for "auto verify image". It might be checked by default?? Verification doesn't mean it will restore successfully, but it means the image is readable and not corrupted.

2; locate it wherever you saved it. Check the size of the file. I think your existing drive has about 116 GB occupied, so the image file might be 60 to 75 GB????

I have not tried the stick yet. I did verify the image and it's fine. The image file is about 95GB.

The rest is tomorrow! Thank you all for your help and advice. I appreciate it.

 

[howaboutme]

It worked!

It took a while for me to realize that I had to plug the bootable USB in the back and not the front. Prior, Macrium wasn't reading the drive. 45 minutes later, I think we're good.

One issue that I have and have read to be common. My C drive does not display the correct max volume. It is still the old C drive volume.

How do I update that to reflect the new size? Thanks!