Easy way to move data and apps to a bigger Hard drive

[Nvidiaguy07]

Upgrading my small HDD to a 2TB HDD. I have steam installed on it (like 400GB worth), with dropbox and skydrive, origin, desura, and some other crap on there.

If it were just data id just copy it over, but i dont want to break things by moving them (like dropbox and steam). Im also worried about losing my save data for games that dont use steam cloud (stupid GFWL).

Whats the easiest way to just move everything to a new hard drive, so the OS thinks that the drive (E: in this case) has just gotten bigger?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Clone it? Macrium Reflect, CloneZilla, Parted Magic, Easus Partition Manager/clone tool?

 

[corkyg]

Yeah - clone the drive. You will need to use software that allows for proportional cloning - piece of cake with Acronis TI 2012. Recommend using bootable media created by the clonewar4e - then it is neater,l faster, and slicker using a Linux-based GUI, and no reboot necessary.

When done, just swap the drives and enjoy. You can then put the old drive away and have a full bore, emergency reserve drive ready to go.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

thanks for the responses. I think i have an acronis live rescue cd somewhere (probably 1-2 years old), will that have the utility that i need to do this? or do i need to buy the full program?

How long should it take to move about 600GB of data? Any chance ill do this whole process, and for whatever reason the drive will show up as a different letter or something like that?

 

[lakedude]

You don't need to buy anything. Just copy and paste the entire partition with GParted, which is free and included in many live Linux distros.

I suggest Puppy Linux.

Screen of GParted:

http://gparted-livecd.tuxfamily.org/screens/gparted_1_big.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BEZJmKqxYs

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

You don't need to buy anything. Just copy and paste the entire partition with GParted, which is free and included in many live Linux distros.

I suggest Puppy Linux.

Screen of GParted:

http://gparted-livecd.tuxfamily.org/screens/gparted_1_big.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BEZJmKqxYs

thanks, didnt know it was that easy. Im pretty sure i have some live linux cd's around, so ill just use one of those. It is bundled with the latest version of ubuntu right?

And my process should be:
power down PC
hook up new HDD
turn on and boot into ubuntu live cd
go to gparted and clone the drive
power off computer
remove old drive
power on computer, and then im all set right?

 

[lakedude]

thanks, didnt know it was that easy. Im pretty sure i have some live linux cd's around, so ill just use one of those. It is bundled with the latest version of ubuntu right?

And my process should be:
power down PC
hook up new HDD
turn on and boot into ubuntu live cd
go to gparted and clone the drive
power off computer
remove old drive
power on computer, and then im all set right?

Looks about right. Make sure you don't mix up the from and to...

Also there is something about the way Windows boots that will not work with a cloned drive...but don't panic.

I did my SSD this way and it did work (using right now, yeah, I know, will do a clean install eventually), but there was an extra step that involved a W7 disk at the end.

It is like the install knows it is on the wrong drive. A W7 disk will fix it in just a few seconds...

Searching for more specific information...

Okay if the clone does not boot do a "Startup Repair" while the clone is the only drive in the machine:


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S

 

[lakedude]

You can use GParted to resize the partition too if you want...

 

[corkyg]

"Also there is something about the way Windows boots that will not work with a cloned drive...but don't panic."

That is not true. If done properly it is never a problem. All my drives on 4 computers are clones - never even a hiccup.

 

[lakedude]

That is not true. If done properly it is never a problem. All my drives on 4 computers are clones - never even a hiccup.

So what do you mean by "properly"? You say to do it "properly" but don't share what that means??

Rather than spend $50 on Acronis, Gparted is free and it works except sometimes there are MBR or drive letter issues. Those are easy and quick to fix so the whole thing gets done for free with Gparted.

Also trying Gparted for free will not hurt anything. If you can get it to work, great, if not you can always go buy Acronis.

If you Google "windows 7 clone does not boot" you will find a lot of people with a lot of different software that have boot issues after a clone. I guess none of them did it properly...

 

[corkyg]

Proper cloning means to do it from bootable media - not from Windows. You are correct about GParted as a freebie - so is Macrium Reflect. The only reason I use Acronis is that I have done so for the past 18 years. I can clone a 500GB drive in about 12 minutes.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Proper cloning means to do it from bootable media - not from Windows. You are correct about GParted as a freebie - so is Macrium Reflect. The only reason I use Acronis is that I have done so for the past 18 years. I can clone a 500GB drive in about 12 minutes.

that seems ridiculously fast. How long would it take if i used gparted? Still havent gotten around to actually moving the data over yet.

 

[corkyg]

No idea about Gparted. When I clone, it is usually my Lenovo T510 to an external case via eSATA. That is about as fast as USB 3. Or, I can do it internally, SATA to SATA. I use a 320 GB drive in that machine, and it takes about 8-10 minutes booting from an Acronis prepared thumbdrive.

If you clone the OS drive, when finished, remove either the source drive or the new drive. Don't have two boot drives in the system.

I prefer to clone my source drive to a target drive. When done, I replace the source with the target. I put the source away in a static-proof bag. That is always a ready-to-go system backup. Sort like having a spare tire.

 

[lakedude]

I can clone a 500GB drive in about 12 minutes.

Assuming my math is correct I don't think anyone can clone a full 500GB hard drive in much under about an hour and twenty minutes with any software.

Lets do the math:

500GB / 100MB/s transfer rate = 5000 seconds

5000s / 60min/s = 83 minutes

Now if the 500GB drive was only an eighth full...

 

[corkyg]

Who said anything about a "full" drive? Allowing any drive to exceed 60% of capacity is, in the long run, foolish, and that will probably lead to more drive failures.

I never let any of my drives exceed 50% of capacity. There are many good reasons for that. I don't worry about math. I just go by the clock.

If I clone using USB2, it takes about an hour. Using eSATA cuts that to about 10-12 minutes.

Anyway, your math is correct, . . . according to my Keuffel & Essert sliude rule.

 

[who?]

macrium reflect claims it cloned my 1TB drive in minutes. I'm not sure I believe it.

 

[corkyg]

macrium reflect claims it cloned my 1TB drive in minutes. I'm not sure I believe it.

No reason to doubt it. When we say a 1TB drive we mean the size of the drive, not the drive contents. A 1TB drive containing less than 500GB of data should indeen clone in minutes. The exact timereally depends on the transfer connection.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Looks about right. Make sure you don't mix up the from and to...

Also there is something about the way Windows boots that will not work with a cloned drive...but don't panic.

I did my SSD this way and it did work (using right now, yeah, I know, will do a clean install eventually), but there was an extra step that involved a W7 disk at the end.

It is like the install knows it is on the wrong drive. A W7 disk will fix it in just a few seconds...

Searching for more specific information...

Okay if the clone does not boot do a "Startup Repair" while the clone is the only drive in the machine:


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S

one month later and im finally getting around to doing this. My only concern is that after cloning, my drive letter will change, and all my programs will have borked shortcuts.

I should have mentioned this before but this is NOT my system drive, its the drive i have steam and other apps installed on.

Right now the drive i want to clone is E: So im going to go through the process and see what happens, but i have a bad feeling about having it showing up as a different drive letter after the clone.

 

[heymrdj]

one month later and im finally getting around to doing this. My only concern is that after cloning, my drive letter will change, and all my programs will have borked shortcuts.

I should have mentioned this before but this is NOT my system drive, its the drive i have steam and other apps installed on.

Right now the drive i want to clone is E: So im going to go through the process and see what happens, but i have a bad feeling about having it showing up as a different drive letter after the clone.

Drive letters only get borked when trying to do it from within Windows while Windows is running. Use a LIVECD (acronis, Gparted, whatever), do the clone, unplug the old drive (the one that was cloned) and move the new one (the one you cloned to) to the old drive's SATA plugin. Boot up and you're done, Windows will never even know the difference.