Migrating to a bigger hard drive

saverio · Aug 10, 2010

Hi all,

I have recently purchased a larger drive than my existing 300gb unit, which I would like to move to a new build.

I have tried to restore the disk image to my larger drive but the recovery disk cleverly assigns the 300gb drive as the drive to install on.

Is there some simple way in which I can tell the disk image to install onto the bigger hdd without having to do a clean install, which I was holding back till SP1 came out?

Many thanks in advance.

Kirsch · Aug 10, 2010

Unplug the 300GB disk, install the disk image onto the larger one

DeaconFrost · Aug 10, 2010

Whatever software you are using is probably cloning the partition and isn't giving you an option to increase the size. That's fine, because you can use something like PartedMagic to resize (increase) the partition size on the new drive.

saverio · Aug 11, 2010

thanks for your replies, DeaconFrost, I was just using the W7 recovery disk method after I burnt it onto a cdr.

Kirsch, I'll give that a try, and if it works I can then erase the original 300gb drive with command line after re-attaching it.

I was rather hoping that it would have given me the choice of where to install as I had used command line to wipe the 300gb drive!

DeaconFrost · Aug 11, 2010

You shouldn't need a command line to do anything of what you are trying to accomplish.

Kirsch · Aug 11, 2010

DeaconFrost said:
You shouldn't need a command line to do anything of what you are trying to accomplish.

After he installs on the larger drive he is going to use the 300GB drive as a secondary (i'm assuming), and sounds like OP is fond of using the command line to wipe and format the secondary drive, which is completely fine

saverio · Aug 30, 2010

well, after much trying it dodn't work!

The disk image would only install happily back onto the 300gb volume it was created from - most bizarre.

Looks like it may be a re-install from scratch and use easy transfer for the various accounts.
Oh well...

Ztruker · Aug 30, 2010

What program did you use to create the disk image with?

I'm guessing they are both SATA drives, is this true? If so, try these steps:

1. Disconnect the new drive
2. Connect only the old 300GB drive and restore the image to it. Boot and make sure all is well.
3. Connect the new drive.
4. Clone the old 300GB drive to the new drive.
5. Remove the 300GB drive and connect the new drive where it was connected.

System should boot and run okay. If not, run Startup Repair from install DVD up to three times.

6. Connect the old 300GB drive and format it from Windows Explorer or Command line. Make sure it is not set as Active (from Disk Management), only the new drive should be active.

saverio · Aug 31, 2010

thanks Ztrucker.

I'm creating the disk image with Windows7 backup and restore function.

the drives are both SATA.

I have now rebooted from the old 300gb drive. The disk image is saved as a 150gb file size so why it won't fit onto a 500gb drive I have no idea.

I put the recovery disk I had created and booted from it. Located the disk image and tried to restore it onto the 500gb drive and it said that there was an error and the image could not be restored.

But, I never made the 500gb drive active, before doing any of this, I just assumed that the recovery disk would do all the necessary stuff for me.

Phone Man · Aug 31, 2010

I see from your specs you use a lot of WD drives. Is either of the two drive (old and new) a WD?

Jim

saverio · Aug 31, 2010

yes Jim, all are WD drives. I want to move the image off the 300gb drive to a bigger 500gb WD drive.
The aim is to use the 300gb drives in another machine for work, and use the current system (home and family) as my family pc - so it doesn't need as much grunt as the new rig - email, net browsing and MS office.

All drives were bought at the same time.

Phone Man · Aug 31, 2010

Good you are in luck. Go to WD and download this free software and also the manual. It will allow you to "clone" the drives. It will copy one drive to the other and works great. Just read the manual and you should be good to go. There is an option to erase the original drive but it is better to let the files stay until you are sure the new drive is OK.
WD Support

Jim

jimbo45 · Aug 31, 2010

"Seemples"

Assuming you can mount both Disks temporarily at the same time.

1) Use our Windows install disk or GPARTED to create a partion size you want to install your OS on and another partition say "E" of sufficoient size to temporarily hold an image of your first Disk.

2) use Acronis -- you can get a TRIAL version to image your original disk --use Maximum compression. If you have an external USB drive to put the image on even better. You should find that your 300 GB partition will probably fit on to 170 GB or even much less depending on how full your HDD is.

3) Now RESTORE the image to the target partition --

4) delete the image file if its not on an external HDD.

5) Use GPARTED to shift around partition sizes and / or merge partitions.

6) set the boot sequence for your new drive

7) boot and delete the data from the old HDD.

Acronis and GPARTED make bootable media too so if you hose it all up you can re-start by booting the bootable media and running the restore again.

Cheers
jimbo

3)

gregrocker · Aug 31, 2010

saverio said:
But, I never made the 500gb drive active, before doing any of this, I just assumed that the recovery disk would do all the necessary stuff for me.

Can't make the 500gb target HD Active before reimaging because you need Unallocated Space to reimage to, not a partition.

Try wiping the 500gb using Diskpart first: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

Or reimage to 300gb and clone to 500gb using free WD cloning app Phoneman linked to.

Unfortunately, Win7 Backup Imaging is not fully reliable in cases like this. If you cannot afford to lose your backup image then save a second one using Macrium or free Paragon 10.

Ztruker · Aug 31, 2010

I would try cloning the old 300GB drive to the new 500GB drive without using any backup image. A program like HDClone Free will do this as will others, like Macrium Reflect Free.

Just install the new 500GB drive along with the existing 300GB, use either of the above programs (or any other you like) and see if that does it for you.

I don't know if the backup software included with Windows 7 will clone a HD from one to another if the 2nd is a different size. HDClone and Macrium will.

karlsnooks · Aug 31, 2010

First, Win 7 Backup & Restore is perfectly reliable for cloning. I've done it several times.

That said, then since you have WD disks, then you will find their Clone software excellent.

Other approaches are:

________________________________________
DISK – COPY/CLONE/PARTITION/BACKUP/RESTORE SOFTWARE

PARTITION WIZARD (a favorite of many SevenForum contributors)
Free download. Move/resize/delete/etc partitions.
Go to their web page and download the “bootable CD” version.
Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software â€“ Partition Wizard Online

MACRIUM REFLECT
Macrium Reflect Backup and Hard Disk Imaging for Windows 7, Vista, XP and Server 2003/2008
Hard disk image and backup software.

PARAGON BACKUP AND RECOVERY SOFTWARE
Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Advanced Edition - Overview
Backup & Recovery Free Edition
Based on the commercial backup and recovery software from Paragon.

EASEUS DISK COPY
Free hard disk copy, disk clone, partition copy, backup.
EASEUS Disk Copy: Free Disk Copy, Disk Clone, Partition Copy Software. Sector by Sector for hard drive backup freeware.

WINDOWS 7
Backup & Restore (WIN | type back | Enter)
Disk Management (DiskMgmt.msc)
Disk Partitioning (DiskPart)
________________________________________

gregrocker · Aug 31, 2010

karlsnooks said:
First, Win 7 Backup & Restore is perfectly reliable for cloning. I've done it several times.

Hi Karl -

Wasn't aware Win7 backup imaging utility can be used for cloning. How is it done?

I'm not sure about "perfectly reliable" either since it seems that more than half of the experts around here won't rely on it.

I would still have a second backup image if you can't afford it to fail during reimage to another HD.

karlsnooks · Aug 31, 2010

________________________________________
DISK - CLONE A DISK
Use the Create & Restore steps listed below when you want to replace your hard disk with one of same or larger size.
________________________________________

________________________________________
DISK - CREATE AND RESTORE A SYSTEM IMAGE
CREATE A SYSTEM IMAGE BACKUP
• START | type Backup your computer | Enter key
• In left-hand pane, select Create a System Image
• select where you want to save the backup | Next
• Select the drives you want to backup | Next
• Start Backup button
• Finish button after completion

CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE DISC
START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button

RESTORE A SYSTEM IMAGE BACKUP
• Boot from the System Repair Disc you created.
• Connect the external drive with the backup image
• NEXT button (change language if desired)
• Restore your computer using a system image
that you created earlier radio button
• NEXT button
• Use the latest available system image radio button
• NEXT button
• Format and repartition discs checkbox
• NEXT button
• FINISH button
• YES button
________________________________________

On Windows 7, this is the only way I've cloned.

gregrocker · Aug 31, 2010

OK I understand now that you were using "Cloning" generically to include "reimaging" which are the steps that are given there.

I consider "Cloning" to be the direct imaging from one HD to another.

It would be interesting to hear how others feel about Win7 Backup Imaging's reliability as compared to other free Imaging software. I like to promote Win7's features but feel I cannot recommend Backup Imaging as being as fully reliable as most other major Win7 features.

karlsnooks · Aug 31, 2010

Greg,
The win 7 backup & restore is 100% reliable.

The problems are as they have ever been since the dinosaurer days of computers- failure to read and follow instructions to the letter and operator malfunction. I can guarantee failure with any backup/restore/clone software out there in the hands of certain users. The software itself is nearly always solid, although I did run across problems with one very well known company when they first migrated from software for XP to software for Vista.

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