How do I replace a HDD without extra cables?

[felixthemaster1]

Basically, I am replacing my silly seagate green storage drive with a 2TB WD black. I want to transfer over all my data but I don't have a sata power cable free so I was thinking of unplugging one of my other drives temporarily.

I can't unplug my main SSD since windows is on it, nor my secondary since I have all my programs on there which may start when windows is booted. My third drive is just for downloaded files so I was thinking of removing that and using the cables for the drive but does windows forget the drive? If I plug it back in will it remember what letter the drive was and all the settings? I hope my new drive won't take the letter of the unplugged drive since I would then need to reassign all the letters which might cause issues with programs and shortcuts.

 

I could use a molex to sata adapter but I don't know if my  one molex cable has enough power left since all my case fans are daisy chained to the one Molex cable.

[knight_40k]

I think windows will remember. It's been a while since I've done it though.

[alphadragon]

Basically, I am replacing my silly seagate green storage drive with a 2TB WD black. I want to transfer over all my data but I don't have a sata power cable free so I was thinking of unplugging one of my other drives temporarily.

I can't unplug my main SSD since windows is on it, nor my secondary since I have all my programs on there which may start when windows is booted. My third drive is just for downloaded files so I was thinking of removing that and using the cables for the drive but does windows forget the drive? If I plug it back in will it remember what letter the drive was and all the settings? I hope my new drive won't take the letter of the unplugged drive since I would then need to reassign all the letters which might cause issues with programs and shortcuts.

 

I could use a molex to sata adapter but I don't know if my  one molex cable has enough power left since all my case fans are daisy chained to the one Molex cable.

I think in Win7 and up windows remembers your drives and letters, but don't quote me

[IdeaStormer]

Depends. The new drive might get the same letter after you remove the old one, when the old one comes back it might get the next highest letter. Either way you can change the drive letters if it gets messed up or out of the order you want, use the Disk Management for that.

 

At this point I just always label my drives so I know which is which and could care less about drive letters.

[R2D2_WD]

Hi, Felix

 

If you unplug your old drive and later plug it again, it should get its old drive letter, if available. So, what you should do is unplug the old drive, plug the new one, give it a different drive letter and, if you switch the drives again, all should be working fine.

 

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/137 – more about drive letters from the WD web page

 

Hope this helps

[Maxibonbits]

You can change the drive letter with Windows Disk management tool. So don't worry about the drive letters.

[felixthemaster1]

Hi, Felix

 

If you unplug your old drive and later plug it again, it should get its old drive letter, if available. So, what you should do is unplug the old drive, plug the new one, give it a different drive letter and, if you switch the drives again, all should be working fine.

 

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/137 – more about drive letters from the WD web page

 

Hope this helps

Hi, I can't unplug the old drive first since I need the old and new ones plugged in to transfer all the data. To do this, I'd have to unplug a third drive to free up a sata power cable. I'm wondering if the new drive would take the letter of the third one I unplugged.

 

You can change the drive letter with Windows Disk management tool. So don't worry about the drive letters.

What about icon settings and other things? Do I need to remove all the favourites in the windows explorer so that there won't be any errors when I unplug the third drive? 

[Maxibonbits]

What about icon settings and other things? Do I need to remove all the favourites in the windows explorer so that there won't be any errors when I unplug the third drive? 

The links for your favourites should work so long as the drive letter is the same, and the folder structure is the same after the files have been copied.

[felixthemaster1]

The links for your favourites should work so long as the drive letter is the same, and the folder structure is the same after the files have been copied.

I mean, after I take it out obviously the links wouldn't work so I hope there is no error unless I click on them (which I won't)

[MoonSpot]

How much data are you moving, and is cloning an option.  Get an external enclosure and use USB to power since you've maxed the sata connectors.

[R2D2_WD]

Hi, I can't unplug the old drive first since I need the old and new ones plugged in to transfer all the data. To do this, I'd have to unplug a third drive to free up a sata power cable. I'm wondering if the new drive would take the letter of the third one I unplugged.

When you put the new drive (I presume it is a brand new one), give it a drive letter that differs the drive letter of the unplugged drive. When you plug back your old drive, it should get back its letter, since it will not be used by another drive.

MoonSpot has a point, cloning may be a nice solution. You can try with SATA to USB cable. I have done this recently and worked just fine.

[felixthemaster1]

How much data are you moving, and is cloning an option.  Get an external enclosure and use USB to power since you've maxed the sata connectors.

About a TB.

 

 

When you put the new drive (I presume it is a brand new one), give it a drive letter that differs the drive letter of the unplugged drive. When you plug back your old drive, it should get back its letter, since it will not be used by another drive.

MoonSpot has a point, cloning may be a nice solution. You can try with SATA to USB cable. I have done this recently and worked just fine.

Ah, brilliant solution! And I really don't need to clone, it's just simple file transfer.

[felixthemaster1]

don't quote me

You can't tell me what to do!