[SOLVED] Will I be able to clone a hard drive if I just copy it's contents to another?

[xslabs.sai]

I have a laptop with a 500gb 5400rpm drive. I got a new 500gb drive at 7200 rpm. I want to replace the slower one with the faster one. I have a PC to which I can connect both the hard drives and copy the data. Will copying the contents work in my laptop? Can I use it as a boot drive? (booting, games and all). Also, there's no partitions, I kept only one partition to make it simple.

2.5" 500 GB 5400 RPM Old Drive: HGST HTS545050A7E380
2.5" 500 GB 7200 RPM New Drive: ST9500420AS

If it doesn't, then can anyone tell me a free software to clone it?

Thanks for the help!

 

[USAFRet]

Just "copy" won't work. There are specific tools to do this.
And there IS more than one partition, you just don't see it.

How much space is consumed on your current 500GB drive?

 

[xslabs.sai]

Just "copy" won't work. There are specific tools to do this.
And there IS more than one partition, you just don't see it.

How much space is consumed on your current 500GB drive?

Yeah, I meant that I only created one partition. There is the "System" Partition as well.
I only installed Windows and a few other programs, so I only consumed about 49 GB. (416/465 gb left)

Can you help me with the tools? I need freeware. Thank you so much!

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, I meant that I only created one partition. There is the "System" Partition as well.
I only installed Windows and a few other programs, so I only consumed about 49 GB. (416/465 gb left)

Can you help me with the tools? I need freeware. Thank you so much!

If it is only "Windows and a few other programs", the best way forward is just a new install on the new drive.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

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But you won't see a whole lot of performance difference between a 5400RPM HDD and a 7200RPM HDD.

We can go through the whole cloning this if you want, though.

 

[xslabs.sai]

If it is only "Windows and a few other programs", the best way forward is just a new install on the new drive.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

But you won't see a whole lot of performance difference between a 5400RPM HDD and a 7200RPM HDD.

We can go through the whole cloning this if you want, though.

I hava really slow i5 2540M laptop, and last time I reinstalled (less than a month ago) it was crazy slow and took more than 3 hours to set everything up.

So, I'd prefer to go through with the cloning as the old 5400 RPM drive did make noises while running games (it was ripped from a broken PS4 from 2015) and I suspect that it's nearing the end of it's lifespan. Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

Adjusted for your particular 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, the old 5400RPM and the new 7200RPM
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing 5400RPM

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Put the 7200RPM in the laptop

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.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

 

[xslabs.sai]

Adjusted for your particular 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, the old 5400RPM and the new 7200RPM
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing 5400RPM

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Put the 7200RPM in the laptop

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.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

Is there anyway to not remove all drives? My PC has an m.2 SSD and to remove it, I have to remove the graphics card and my PC does not have an iGPU. So, I need to remove the GPU, remove the m.2 SSD, reinstall the GPU, then clone the drives, then remove the GPU again, then install the SSD again.

If it's not possible, then I'll have to wait for a internal HDD to USB adapter and then try again. Is there any way? Thank you!

 

[USAFRet]

Is there anyway to not remove all drives? My PC has an m.2 SSD and to remove it, I have to remove the graphics card and my PC does not have an iGPU. So, I need to remove the GPU, remove the m.2 SSD, reinstall the GPU, then clone the drives, then remove the GPU again, then install the SSD again.

If it's not possible, then I'll have to wait for a internal HDD to USB adapter and then try again. Is there any way? Thank you!

Hang on....WHAT drives are in this?
I thought is was only the 5400RPM HDD?

Ignore the above steps for now.
Give us a FULL rundown of what physical drives are in this laptop, and what is on each.

Also, the details on the PC with which you want to do this procedure.

 

[xslabs.sai]

Hang on....WHAT drives are in this?
I thought is was only the 5400RPM HDD?

Ignore the above steps for now.
Give us a FULL rundown of what physical drives are in this laptop, and what is on each.

Also, the details on the PC with which you want to do this procedure.

Ah, I was talking about my PC, as there's no way to install 2 hard disks on one laptop, except the SATA to USB adapter of course.

My laptop has only the one 5400 rpm drive inside it. The new 7200 RPM drive is sitting on my desk.

I wanted to connect the 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm to my PC and just use the software to clone them. As for the drives installed on my PC: (totally seperate from my laptop)
1x 120GB m.2 SSD, boot drive
2x 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM WD Drives
1x 500GB 2.5" 5400RPM Seagate Drive

I wanted to disconnect 2 of them and install my laptop's HDD and the new 7200 RPM HDD and clone them, disconnect them and put my PC drives back in.

 

[USAFRet]

OK then yes.
The M.2 in the desktop is what you leave in...it has Windows and is needed to run the PC.
You wouldn't be taking it out.

As a test, verify the system boots with ONLY the M.2 drive connected.
Assuming it does, then you can connect the two laptop drives, and proceed on with the above steps.

Just be sure of which drives you're working with for the clone operation.

 

[xslabs.sai]

OK then yes.
The M.2 in the desktop is what you leave in...it has Windows and is needed to run the PC.
You wouldn't be taking it out.

As a test, verify the system boots with ONLY the M.2 drive connected.
Assuming it does, then you can connect the two laptop drives, and proceed on with the above steps.

Just be sure of which drives you're working with for the clone operation.

Thank you SO much!!
Your help is appreciated. I'll be doing the procedure in a few days, I'll let you know if I have doubts.
Again, thank you so much.