Jump to content

How do I replace a hard drive?

Myxtro
By Myxtro
in Storage Devices
 Share
Go to solution Solved by SupaKomputa,
1 minute ago, Myxtro said:

Yes basically. Should I reinstall al the programs currently on D:\ on the new drive?

No, as i said as long as the drive letter and structure is the same it will work.

Only reinstall if you want to change the drive letter, like C to D.

Assuming the new HDD will replace the old one, you can change it to D when you unplug the old one.

Posted

The current hard drive in my desktop pc is getting old and it makes a lot of 'scratching' noises on intense usage, so I want to replace it with a new one. I also have an SSD on which windows 10 is installed, this hard drive is only used for storage, installed programs and games.

 

What would be the best approach for replacing a hard drive in my case? I know how to physically install the drive, but how do I copy the current hard drive onto the new one, etc?

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1222938-how-do-i-replace-a-hard-drive/
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

You can install the new drive and then copy the data from one to the other (standard drop and drag since it's just data).  Or clone it with software (some drives come with cloning software access).  What drive did you buy?

 

Most people just drop and drag since it's not an OS drive.

"Do what makes the experience better" - in regards to PCs and Life itself.

 

Onyx: Ryzen 7 7800X3D / Gigabyte B650 AORUS Pro AX / ASRock Taichi 7900xtx OC / G. Skill Flare X5 6000CL36 64GB (4x16GB) / Samsung 980 1TB x3 / Super Flower Leadex V Plat Pro 1000 / EK-AIO 360 Basic w/ Silent Wings fans / Fractal Design North XL (black mesh) / LG - UltraGear 45" OLED QHD 240Hz / Mackie CR5BT / SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro / Cherry MX Board 3.0 / Logitech G502 - https://valid.x86.fr/my9nnr

 

7800X3D - PBO +200, CO -30 all cores, 4.90GHz all core, 5.05GHz single core, Cinebench 23: 18401 multi, 1779 single

 

Khaleesi: Ryzen 5 5600X3D (+200, -30) - ASRock B550M Pro4 - G. Skill Ripjaws V 16GB 3200CL16 - Asus Prime 9060XT 16GB - Samsung 980 1TB + Crucial MX500 1TB - Cudy AX3000 PCIe Wifi 6 - EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2 - Thermalright Frozen Notte RGB 360 White V2 - NZXT H6 Flow RGB White - LG 34" 3440x1440

 

NAS/Plex/Game Server  Ryzen 9 5900XT 16c/32t - Gigabyte B550M AORUS Elite AX - TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan 64GB 3200CL16 - MSI 1050Ti 4GB - Crucial P3 Plus 500GB + TeamGroup MP44L 2TB (Game) + WD Red Plus 4TBx2 (Plex) - TP-Link AC1200 PCIe Wifi - EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2 - Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE - ASUS Prime AP201 - Currently Hosting: Enshrouded x2, Hytale, Icarus, Windrose, Project Zomboid, Dune Awakening.

 

Sage: Ryzen 7 7800X3D (+200, -30) - Gigabyte B650 Gaming X V2 - ASRock Steel Legend 7900GRE - G. Skill Flare X5 32GB 6000CL32 - TeamGroup MP44L 2TB - Super Flower Leadex Platinum SE 1000w - NZXT H5 Elite

 

Emma: i9 9900K @5.2Ghz - Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 5 - MSI 6900XT Gaming X Trio - G. Skill Ripjaws V 32GB 3200CL16 - 750 EVO 512GB + 2x 860 EVO 1TB (RAID0) - Super Flower Combat FG 850w - Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate 360 - Fractal Design Define R6 - TP-Link AC1900 PCIe Wifi

 

GF Rig: Steam Deck 512GB OLED, Vizio 43" 4K TV

 

Extra parts: ASUS 6650XT - Gigabyte 1080Ti - Cooler Master Q300L - Gigabyte 450w PSU - Super Flower Leadex V Plat Pro 850w

 

OnePlus Ecosystem: 

OnePlus 11 5G - 16GB RAM, 256GB NAND, Eternal Green. OnePlus Watch 2 - Radiant Steel, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 - Eternal Green

3D Printing: 

Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, AMS, AMS2 Pro (thank you MicroCenter!)

Other Interesting Tech:

- 2021 Volvo S60 Recharge T8 PHEV Polestar Engineered - 415hp/495tq 2.0L 4cyl. turbocharged, supercharged and electrified.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

If it is only a data drive then copy and paste, if you have games and programs you will want software to do it for you, Macrium Reflect and Aomei Partition Assistant are my go to cloning programs.

Main Desktop: CPU - i9-14900k | Mobo - Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX | GPU - PNY Gaming OC RTX 5080 16GB | RAM - Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 64GB 6400mhz | AIO - Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360mm | PSU - Corsair RM1000X | Case - Hyte Y40 - White | Storage - Samsung 980 Pro 1TB Nvme /  Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 4TB Nvme / Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB Nvme / Samsung 870 EVO 4TB SSD / Samsung 870 QVO 2TB SSD/ Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD|

 

TV Streaming PC: Intel Nuc CPU - i7 13th Gen | RAM - 16GB DDR4 3200mhz | Storage - Crucial P3 Plus 1TB Nvme |

 

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra - Black 256GB |

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
4 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

You can install the new drive and then copy the data from one to the other (standard drop and drag since it's just data).  Or clone it with software (some drives come with cloning software access).  What drive did you buy?

 

Most people just drop and drag since it's not an OS drive.

Will the installed programs and games still work if I drag and drop? (considering a lot of programs install stuff on the C drive aswell).

 

I haven't bought a drive yet so I can't tell anything about clone software.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

-= Topic moved to Storage Devices =-

COMMUNITY STANDARDS   |   TECH NEWS POSTING GUIDELINES   |   FORUM STAFF

LTT Folding Users Tips, Tricks and FAQ   |   F@H & BOINC Badge Request   |   F@H Contribution   |   My Rig   |   Project Steamroller

I am a Moderator, but I am fallible. Discuss or debate with me as you will but please do not argue with me as that will get us nowhere.

 

Spoiler

Character is like a Tree and Reputation like its Shadow. The Shadow is what we think of it; The Tree is the Real thing.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.  ~ Winston Churchill

Reputation is a Lifetime to create but takes only seconds to destroy.

Docendo discimus - "to teach is to learn"

 

† † †

† CHRISTIAN MEMBER †

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Check the data cable, spray the connection with a contact cleaner.

To replace, all you need to do is install the new one and just copy the old hdd content.

After that, you can just unplug the old hdd and store somewhere safe, as a backup.

Ryzen 5700g @ 4.4ghz all cores | Asrock B550M Steel Legend | 3060 | 2x 16gb Micron E 2666 @ 4200mhz cl16 | 500gb WD SN750 | 12 TB HDD | Deepcool Gammax 400 w/ 2 delta 4000rpm push pull | Antec Neo Eco Zen 500w

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
2 minutes ago, Myxtro said:

Will the installed programs and games still work if I drag and drop? (considering a lot of programs install stuff on the C drive aswell).

 

I haven't bought a drive yet so I can't tell anything about clone software.

As long as the drive letter and the folder structure the same, it would work.

You don't need to clone it. Just drag and drop. Only clone if you need the partition to be exact such as for windows drive.

For the programs in C, you can't move it to HDD you need to reinstall and specify a new location.

Ryzen 5700g @ 4.4ghz all cores | Asrock B550M Steel Legend | 3060 | 2x 16gb Micron E 2666 @ 4200mhz cl16 | 500gb WD SN750 | 12 TB HDD | Deepcool Gammax 400 w/ 2 delta 4000rpm push pull | Antec Neo Eco Zen 500w

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
5 minutes ago, Myxtro said:

Will the installed programs and games still work if I drag and drop? (considering a lot of programs install stuff on the C drive aswell).

 

I haven't bought a drive yet so I can't tell anything about clone software.

Installed programs won't work usually. If I understand you, you installed say Photoshop on D:\ instead of C:\?  *see @SupaKomputa and his comment above, it may work like that, I haven't done it personally.

 

For games, if they are part of a "library" like for Steam, you just repoint Steam to where they are.  Otherwise you may need to reinstall regular games.

"Do what makes the experience better" - in regards to PCs and Life itself.

 

Onyx: Ryzen 7 7800X3D / Gigabyte B650 AORUS Pro AX / ASRock Taichi 7900xtx OC / G. Skill Flare X5 6000CL36 64GB (4x16GB) / Samsung 980 1TB x3 / Super Flower Leadex V Plat Pro 1000 / EK-AIO 360 Basic w/ Silent Wings fans / Fractal Design North XL (black mesh) / LG - UltraGear 45" OLED QHD 240Hz / Mackie CR5BT / SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro / Cherry MX Board 3.0 / Logitech G502 - https://valid.x86.fr/my9nnr

 

7800X3D - PBO +200, CO -30 all cores, 4.90GHz all core, 5.05GHz single core, Cinebench 23: 18401 multi, 1779 single

 

Khaleesi: Ryzen 5 5600X3D (+200, -30) - ASRock B550M Pro4 - G. Skill Ripjaws V 16GB 3200CL16 - Asus Prime 9060XT 16GB - Samsung 980 1TB + Crucial MX500 1TB - Cudy AX3000 PCIe Wifi 6 - EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2 - Thermalright Frozen Notte RGB 360 White V2 - NZXT H6 Flow RGB White - LG 34" 3440x1440

 

NAS/Plex/Game Server  Ryzen 9 5900XT 16c/32t - Gigabyte B550M AORUS Elite AX - TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan 64GB 3200CL16 - MSI 1050Ti 4GB - Crucial P3 Plus 500GB + TeamGroup MP44L 2TB (Game) + WD Red Plus 4TBx2 (Plex) - TP-Link AC1200 PCIe Wifi - EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2 - Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE - ASUS Prime AP201 - Currently Hosting: Enshrouded x2, Hytale, Icarus, Windrose, Project Zomboid, Dune Awakening.

 

Sage: Ryzen 7 7800X3D (+200, -30) - Gigabyte B650 Gaming X V2 - ASRock Steel Legend 7900GRE - G. Skill Flare X5 32GB 6000CL32 - TeamGroup MP44L 2TB - Super Flower Leadex Platinum SE 1000w - NZXT H5 Elite

 

Emma: i9 9900K @5.2Ghz - Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 5 - MSI 6900XT Gaming X Trio - G. Skill Ripjaws V 32GB 3200CL16 - 750 EVO 512GB + 2x 860 EVO 1TB (RAID0) - Super Flower Combat FG 850w - Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate 360 - Fractal Design Define R6 - TP-Link AC1900 PCIe Wifi

 

GF Rig: Steam Deck 512GB OLED, Vizio 43" 4K TV

 

Extra parts: ASUS 6650XT - Gigabyte 1080Ti - Cooler Master Q300L - Gigabyte 450w PSU - Super Flower Leadex V Plat Pro 850w

 

OnePlus Ecosystem: 

OnePlus 11 5G - 16GB RAM, 256GB NAND, Eternal Green. OnePlus Watch 2 - Radiant Steel, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 - Eternal Green

3D Printing: 

Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, AMS, AMS2 Pro (thank you MicroCenter!)

Other Interesting Tech:

- 2021 Volvo S60 Recharge T8 PHEV Polestar Engineered - 415hp/495tq 2.0L 4cyl. turbocharged, supercharged and electrified.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Solution
1 minute ago, Myxtro said:

Yes basically. Should I reinstall al the programs currently on D:\ on the new drive?

No, as i said as long as the drive letter and structure is the same it will work.

Only reinstall if you want to change the drive letter, like C to D.

Assuming the new HDD will replace the old one, you can change it to D when you unplug the old one.

Ryzen 5700g @ 4.4ghz all cores | Asrock B550M Steel Legend | 3060 | 2x 16gb Micron E 2666 @ 4200mhz cl16 | 500gb WD SN750 | 12 TB HDD | Deepcool Gammax 400 w/ 2 delta 4000rpm push pull | Antec Neo Eco Zen 500w

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
Just now, SupaKomputa said:

No, as i said as long as the drive letter and structure is the same it will work.

Only reinstall if you want to change the drive letter, like C to D.

Assuming the new HDD will replace the old one, you can change it to D when you unplug the old one.

Thanks for clearing that up!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Storage Devices

×