And I would be able to clone it to the C: drive and change the boot order back to C: and reboot.
Does that seem right?
You're confusing me, not for the first time.
"Clone it to the C: drive and change the boot order back to C: and reboot"??????
What does "it" refer to in that sentence?
I would think you would clone FROM C to some yet unpurchased drive that will end up in your closet until needed. Not TO C.
Why would you need to change the boot order?
I'm just not following you.
My assumption was that you would:
1: Go buy a drive to clone your existing good hard drive to, let's call the new drive WD50
2: Clone your existing good drive to WD50.
3: Confirm that WD50 will in fact boot your PC AFTER the existing good drive is disconnected.
4: If it does boot your PC, disconnect it, put it in the closet and reconnect and continue to use your existing good drive.
5: If your existing good drive fails in some way, remove it completely.
6: Get WD50 out of the closet and connect it to the same cables the existing good drive was connected to. It will be C when you boot it.
7: Hope it boots as it did in your test in step 3 and if so, carry on. If not, go to Plan B.
Where am I going wrong in my assumptions?