Windows 7: Hard Drive upgrade

I'm thinking of upgrading my hard drive from a 500 GB to a 2 TB. I have the Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate OEM edition.

I'm wanting to use this method of transfer:

1. Installing XXCLONE on my computer
2. Connecting the NEW drive to my computer via USB (Using a SATA to USB cable). Windows will read it as an external hard drive, for now
3. Using XXCLONE, backing up my current C:\ drive partition in its entirety to my new SATA III drive (the one stated in the previous step)
4. Physically uninstall my 500 GB Hard drive from my computer, and installing my new 2 TB hard drive
5. Booting up my computer and then use Windows 7 Disk Management to extend the partition out to the full 2 TB

Will this work? Or is there another solution? I have not tried to see if XXCLONE would recognize an external hard drive or not, but my guess is that it would.



My second question is this, regarding my copy of Windows 7. Will I have any problems in terms of licensing after the process is complete? If so, then how would I remedy this?

Lincensing and drivers. You may.only need to call MS, and download the correct drivers for the new hardware.

Ken J

Why not plug into onboard SATA and directly clone the old HD over to the new one?

If either are WD or Seagate, they offer an excellent free Acronis cloning/imaging app on their Support Downloads webpage for your model.

With just the HD change you may not have to reactivate. Wait to see. If you receive a non-Geniune after cloning, open an elevated Command Line and type slmgr -ipk followed by a space and the product key, then slmgr -ato.

What make is your 2TB drive?

The major HD manufacturers provide a means of cloning a drive to a new, larger one. If you're buying an OEM (bare) drive, the utility may be available for download.

WDC, for example, provides a version of Acronis True Image:

WD Support

The software would typically be run from a bootable CD, so you wouldn't need the external drive adapter.

This is the 2TB drive I'm looking at. Click here. I haven't actually made the purchase yet. My motherboard actually only supports SATA II, not SATA III, but I want to get this now for when I upgrade everything else down the line. Unfortunately, now's when I need a bigger hard drive. I wish i could wait longer for a price drop and a larger size, not that I'd actually NEED it. I heard that SATA III drives will work just fine with SATA II compatible motherboards.

You may have already considered this, but at any rate:

If I were willing to spend $170 on a boot drive, I think I would go with an SSD of 80 gigs or less and put my personal files on a spinning drive of some size or type.

I wouldn't say that if you had said you were going to spend $80 or whatever on a 1 TB Western Digital or Samsung spinning drive. I've kinda drawn a line in the sand that says I'm never going to pay more than $100 for a spinning drive again, considering the rise of SSD.

But if you are locked into a 1 hard disc system, then go for it. I agree with the others to do the cloning through an internal connector if at all possible.

I used Seagate DiscWizard to upgrade twice, cloning to larger HDD's and both times it worked flawlessly. Only one of the HDD's needs to be a Seagate. I also use it as an image back up to the old HDD, but have yet to need to do a restore. (what was nice with XP it was easy to have my OS and programs on C drive and data on D)

I've been tempted to take the special offer discount to upgrade to the full version of Acronis True Image but haven't as of yet.

[QUOTE=Hikertrash;1146415
I've been tempted to take the special offer discount to upgrade to the full version of Acronis True Image but haven't as of yet.[/QUOTE]

Well worth the expense to upgrade to full version of Acronis. I have bought about 10 copies for my clients and it sure saves them money when their hard disk crashes and all is not lost. a great warm fuzzy, that along with regular backups to their server and ABF's outlook backup program has saved my rear many times.

I buy my acronis from the ugr.com store where user group members get a really good price on acronis products.

No financial interests here. Just good products and service.

Rich

When upgrading to Acronis 10+ or higher with Universal Restore you can also reimage to any other hardware, an operation which can't be performed in most cases without a program like Paragon Adaptive Restore CD. These remove the drivers and prepare the image to start up on the new hardware.

For those who prefer freeware, Windows 7 has decent built-in Backup Imaging which can also schedule file backups. Others prefer free Macrium Reflect or Paragon 10 which offer more flexibility and features.

There is one caveat to using a SATA III drive on a SATA II motherboard. Some motherboard SATA controllers do not support auto speed negotiation and it will not see the drive. Others that have that feature will auto negotiate and run the drive at SATA II. I know that some Western Digital SATA III drives have a jumper to lock the speed to SATA II to over come the problem. I do not know if the Seagate drive has that option or not but you should check before buying.

Jim