Replacing my harddrive with a new one

[Smokie]

Hey everybody , so I currently have two 250gb wd black sata ii 7200pm HDDs in my pc I am planning to replace them with one single 1tb wd blue sata iii 7200rpm so now my question  is about the Windows can it be  cloned from the old hard drive onto the new one? ( I've Windows 10 x64 pro retail) or will I need to do a clean install? & if I choose to do a clean install I'll need to download the Windows 10 setup from the Microsoft site as I don't have the Windows setup DVD ( as I upgraded from Windows 8 to 8.1 then to 10) &  either burn it to a DVD or make an usb installation I was able to find my Windows lisence serial key through Magicjellybean keyfinder software so can I remove the old HDDs do do a clean install & use that lisence key or will I need to remove the Windows from the previous HDDs first ? & then install it onto the new HDD

[Samppa221]

 

Hey everybody , so I currently have two 250gb wd black sata ii 7200pm HDDs in my pc I am planning to replace them with one single 1tb wd blue sata iii 7200rpm so now my question  is about the Windows can it be  cloned from the old hard drive onto the new one? ( I've Windows 10 x64 pro retail) or will I need to do a clean install? & if I choose to do a clean install I'll need to download the Windows 10 setup from the Microsoft site as I don't have the Windows setup DVD ( as I upgraded from Windows 8 to 8.1 then to 10) &  either burn it to a DVD or make an usb installation I was able to find my Windows lisence serial key through Magicjellybean keyfinder software so can I remove the old HDDs do do a clean install & use that lisence key or will I need to remove the Windows from the previous HDDs first ? & then install it onto the new HDD

 

 

You can copy it with a cloning program ( i use aomei backupper) and then just extend the windows partition to the full 1tb from the 250gb

 

Remember to follow your posts!

[CaptainZul]

you can use a cloning program (Aomei backupper, easeus etc.) but I would highly recommend 2 HDDS instead of 1HDD so you have a backup if 1 of them fails.

[Smokie]

& what if I want to do a clean install ? will the Windows need to be formated from the old HDDs or the serial key removed from a command in CMD?  & I don't plan on using my old HDDs anymore I'll just sell them & save up some money & buy a 250gb SSD

[Samppa221]

& what if I want to do a clean install ? will the Windows need to be formated from the old HDDs or the serial key removed from a command in CMD?  & I don't plan on using my old HDDs anymore I'll just sell them & save up some money & buy a 250gb SSD

You can re format and empty them later you can do a clean install if you have your windows's product key.

[Smokie]

You can re format and empty them later you can do a clean install if you have your windows's product key.

& if I want to clone  I'll need to plug in the new HDD as a slave drive & clone the OS onto one patition of it then remove the old HDDs & then boot up the system & the patition I cloned the OS to will automatically be re named the C drive? Or will I need to go disk management?

[Samppa221]

& if I want to clone  I'll need to plug in the new HDD as a slave drive & clone the OS onto one patition of it then remove the old HDDs & then boot up the system & the patition I cloned the OS to will automatically be re named the C drive? Or will I need to go disk management?

There is no "slaving" on sata drives. so you just plug them both in and boot into the old hard drive clone it to the new one and unplug the old drive after the clone  or change from your bios to boot to the new drive.

[Smokie]

There is no "slaving" on sata drives. so you just plug them both in and boot into the old hard drive clone it to the new one and unplug the old drive after the clone  or change from your bios to boot to the new drive.

 

So I installed the new 1tb HDD into my computer and made two partitions one 200gb for the Windows & the other one is 300gb to back up my files so anyway when I backed up my stuff & cloned the Windows onto the partition & then un plugged my old HDDs & booted the pc with only the new HDD & set it as the boost priority in the BIOS but my pc failed to boot saying '' Recovery at the top , Your PC/Device needs to be repaired Error code 0xc000000e) so I guess I'll need repair disk how do you suggest I do that?

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey Smokie,

 

You should be able to clone your old drive easily and everything should remain the same. The remaining space should be visible as unallocated space in Disk Management which can either be allocated as a separate partition or merged with the other partition with the "extend" option. A tool that I can recommend is Acronis True Image WD Edition: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=oZdn9S

Then you can easily boot your computer from your new drive, connect the old one and format the old partitions if you don't need them.

 

Captain_WD.

[Smokie]

 

Hey Smokie,

 

You should be able to clone your old drive easily and everything should remain the same. The remaining space should be visible as unallocated space in Disk Management which can either be allocated as a separate partition or merged with the other partition with the "extend" option. A tool that I can recommend is Acronis True Image WD Edition: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=oZdn9S

Then you can easily boot your computer from your new drive, connect the old one and format the old partitions if you don't need them.

 

Captain_WD.

 

Never mind I downloaded the Windows 10 from Media creation tool or what ever & then made an USB install disk & used it to install my Windows onto the new HDD & download & reinstalled my softwares , now if I want to use those drives as partitons how do you suggest that I mean the Windows is installed in one of the old HDD wouldn't that lead to OS confusion or will it just ask me for a dual boot?

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

 

 

 

That's a great option with the only downside being you having to reinstall everything. Kudos for going this way.

Now you have to go to BIOS and configure the boot priority settings so that the top choice is your new drive. Then, after you have booted to the OS simpyl navigate to Disk Management and delete the old OS partition alongside with the old system recovery partition. After that you shouldn't have any problems.

Feel free to post a screenshot of Disk Management with all drives plugged in if you need help with the partitioning/formatting procedure.

 

Captain_WD.

[Smokie]

I

 

 

That's a great option with the only downside being you having to reinstall everything. Kudos for going this way.

Now you have to go to BIOS and configure the boot priority settings so that the top choice is your new drive. Then, after you have booted to the OS simpyl navigate to Disk Management and delete the old OS partition alongside with the old system recovery partition. After that you shouldn't have any problems.

Feel free to post a screenshot of Disk Management with all drives plugged in if you need help with the partitioning/formatting procedure.

 

Captain_WD.

 

So I booted up my pc with the old HDDs & I didn't had to go to BIOS it started normally & in my computer/This pc I saw the old partition where the Windows was installed on the previous HDD it got renamed as ''Local Disk I'' I went to disk management & deleted it & backed up my data from the old HDDs onto the new one & then formatted all old HDDs partitions & then un plugged & removed the old HDDs as I don't need them I'll sell them & add some more cash & buy a 250gb SSD

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Great job! If you are selling a storage drive I'd make sure it is completely clean from data so nobody else has access to it in the future. Several passes by a wiping program with zeros and ones should do the trick just fine.  

 

Captain_WD.