Changing hard drives

[Ares82]

Ok so I'm not entirely sure this is the correct forum for this question, just the one that made most sense to me. If it's not, mods please accept my apologies and move it where appropriate.

Now on to the question. My single 500GB hard drive is becoming a wee bit too crowded, and I am buying a new 1 TB internal hard drive to replace it.

What I'm not particularly too fond of, is having to reinstall all of my programs on the new drive. So was wondering if there's a way to just move windows and all my other installed programs from the old drive to the new one.

 

[GrahamFX]

new hdd

As far as programs go I am afraid not. It is a security issue with windows tthat people/ users can not share or move over programs like files.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Why not use the 1TB as a secondary drive? Move some files over to the 1TB to open some space.

 

[strollin]

You can use software like Acronis True Image to clone your 500G drive to the new 1TB drive. There is also free software like Macrium Reflect that will let you do it. You need to make sure whatever software you use allows you to make an image of your current drive. A simple copy will not work.

 

[MindoverMaster]

There is a full fledged free version of Paragon: Paragon Backup & Recovery 2011 (Advanced) Free free download - Software reviews, downloads, news, free trials, freeware and full commercial software - Downloadcrew

It's meant for backups, and images. You need to make your own Boot CD, provided by Paragon.

 

[Ares82]

Why not use the 1TB as a secondary drive? Move some files over to the 1TB to open some space.

Well the reason I'm doing this is because I've been doing a lot of gaming, and most of them I bought through Steam. And I have a LOT of them. I've read horror stories about people trying to move their Steam folder to any drive other then the C:\ drive. So that's why I wanted to make the 1 TB my primary and keep the 500 GB one as a secondary for other stuff.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Not move your games, move your other files.

 

[NTI Corporation]

The best option really would be an imaging/cloning software. Copy your entire drive and restore it on your 1TB hard drive without reinstalling individual pieces. There are a lot of software manufacturers out there that provide cloning/imaging software and some of them are free to try. You would just go with the one that works best for you. At the end of the day, you would be amazed how simple the whole process can be.

 

[MyGodAL3X]

+1 for MoM's more over only your files, i tried to move a couple of my steam games when i was on windows but i lost them, but a image/clone of your drive should work fine, it did for me when i restored my pc after losing those games

 

[Ares82]

Moving the other files really makes no sense in my case, because the other files really just take up a small fraction of the hard drive compared to games (did I mention I have a lot of games?). So it wouldn't free up as much as I would like.

I think cloning seems like the best solution here.

Thanks a lot for the input to all of you.