installation onto a new HDD moving stuff around

[MajorFoley]

Hey guys, my HDD is on its last stretch before dying, as S.M.A.R.T checking is failing. Luckily i still have a month warranty left and the store is going to give me credit enough to get a Toshiba 3TB HDD.

With ease to do backup, i have made a Backup image of my OS drive which is about 350gb in size. I also have another 1TB and a 2TB seagate. The problem is that i want to move the stuff from my 2TB HDD to my 3TB (so all my games and such) and move the OS to the 2 TB but then im concerned how it will affect my programs because the HDD letters wont be the same. So i kinda want my 2TB (which is currently the F:\ Drive) To become the new C:\drive when loaded with the image and the 3TB to become the new F:\drive (which will contain all my steam/origin games on it)

How can i do this with minimum fuss?
This also means the 1TB E:\ drive will remain unchanged

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You should be able to assign the F drive letter to the 3 TB drive. I don't game and make all installs on C, but as far as I know your stuff will still work if the drive letters are the same as they were before the change--even though the drives themselves have been changed.

 

[MajorFoley]

You should be able to assign the F drive letter to the 3 TB drive. I don't game and make all installs on C, but as far as I know your stuff will still work if the drive letters are the same as they were before the change--even though the drives themselves have been changed.

So what i should do is (cos i have a spare hdd to boot windows off) is launch windows, format the 3TB, copy everything over from the 2TB, wipe the 2TB change the 3TB drive letter to F:\ and then install windows on the 2TB?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

That sounds about right.................but:

When it comes time to install Windows to the 2 TB, disconnect all other drives.

 

[MajorFoley]

That sounds about right.................but:

When it comes time to install Windows to the 2 TB, disconnect all other drives.

And this should work with minimum fuss? My replacement drive just came today so im concerned.

Also i somehow lost 50GB on my HDD after compressing a couple of videos using fraps. Before i had the videos i had about 300gb space left on the 2tb but then when i deleted the videos i only got back upto 260gb .
Whats up with that (i checked the recycle bin and all). Is there a way i can check what was modified quickly on the HDD?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

That sounds about right.................but:

When it comes time to install Windows to the 2 TB, disconnect all other drives.

And this should work with minimum fuss? My replacement drive just came today so im concerned.

Also i somehow lost 50GB on my HDD after compressing a couple of videos using fraps. Before i had the videos i had about 300gb space left on the 2tb but then when i deleted the videos i only got back upto 260gb .
Whats up with that (i checked the recycle bin and all). Is there a way i can check what was modified quickly on the HDD?

Initialize the new 3 TB drive as "GPT" rather than "MBR". If you choose MBR, you won't be able to utilize over 2.2 TB of it.

I'm assuming your motherboard does in fact support 3 TB drives.

Install as usual. It's important that you disconnect any other hard drive.

Re space, download something like TreeSize Free. It will show you what is taking up space on your hard drive.

TreeSize Free - Quickly Scan Directory Sizes and Find Space Hogs

 

[MajorFoley]

That sounds about right.................but:

When it comes time to install Windows to the 2 TB, disconnect all other drives.

And this should work with minimum fuss? My replacement drive just came today so im concerned.

Also i somehow lost 50GB on my HDD after compressing a couple of videos using fraps. Before i had the videos i had about 300gb space left on the 2tb but then when i deleted the videos i only got back upto 260gb .
Whats up with that (i checked the recycle bin and all). Is there a way i can check what was modified quickly on the HDD?

Initialize the new 3 TB drive as "GPT" rather than "MBR". If you choose MBR, you won't be able to utilize over 2.2 TB of it.

I'm assuming your motherboard does in fact support 3 TB drives.

Install as usual. It's important that you disconnect any other hard drive.

Re space, download something like TreeSize Free. It will show you what is taking up space on your hard drive.

TreeSize Free - Quickly Scan Directory Sizes and Find Space Hogs

Why? whats the difference between GPT and MBR? Will I need to change any other settings?
Motherboard is a asus p8z68-v, just says on page support for drivers over 2.2tb

 

[gregrocker]

When you plug in the 3tb drive it should ask you how you want to format a new hard drive. Choose GPT to utilize all the space. It should be supportable by your BIOS, but make sure you have the latest BIOS version from PC or Mobo maker to be sure.

If you already formatted MBR then you can back up the data and Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk - Windows 7 Forums

Once you confirm you've copied all files from 2tb to 3tb, then unplug the 3tb and delete all partitions during the booted
Clean Reinstall Windows 7 or before applying the backup image using the imaging program's boot disk making sure to choose to transfer Track0 MBR, Active flag and use Auto drive letter so it maintains C.

Once you get the OS up and running you can change the 3tb partition drive letters if needed to match your previous lettering scheme. Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums. If there is any question post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

 

[MajorFoley]

When you plug in the 3tb drive it should ask you how you want to format a new hard drive. Choose GPT to utilize all the space. It should be supportable by your BIOS, but make sure you have the latest BIOS version from PC or Mobo maker to be sure.

If you already formatted MBR then you can back up the data and Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk - Windows 7 Forums

Once you confirm you've copied all files from 2tb to 3tb, then unplug the 3tb and delete all partitions during the booted
Clean Reinstall Windows 7 or before applying the backup image using the imaging program's boot disk making sure to choose to transfer Track0 MBR, Active flag and use Auto drive letter so it maintains C.

Once you get the OS up and running you can change the 3tb partition drive letters if needed to match your previous lettering scheme. Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums. If there is any question post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

Looking into GPT more it seems a bit more complicated than first thought. I believe im running my stuff off a SSD which im sure is using MBR so really i shouldn't have any problem making the 3TB GPT right? just plug in go to disk management and format as GPT? and since 2TB can be done with MBR i shouldn't have any problems with the image im going to use either right?

Also with regarding to the lettering of the HDD parts couldn't i do it before installing the image since the image would likely turn the 2TB into a c:\ boot drive anyway? So couldn't i just give it a different letter, change the 3TB to f:\ and it should all be fine?

 

[gregrocker]

Sounds fine.

 

[MajorFoley]

Sounds fine.

Whoa that was extremely quick!

but yeah i will be formatting the 3TB today so pretty much here is my plan

1. Plug in 3 TB and boot windows off SSD
2. Format 3TB in disk management as GPT
3. Copy all stuff from 2TB (which is games etc) to the 3TB
4. Change the lettering of the 2TB (which i think i might have to do AFTER re image because some programs are automatically open from the 2TB on windows boot and cant be shut down, not sure yet)
5. Turn off computer and unplug all drives except 2 TB
6. Put in WinPE disk to load todo restore
7. plug in device that has image of computer
8. Restore image onto 2 TB
9. Get all data i missed getting when hard drive was returned
10. Wipe it clean again to become a storage drive again

Should work fine right?

 

[gregrocker]

I don't know because I don't use Todo. But the drive letter is completely irrelevant. You want any settings offered to be Auto drive letter, MBR and Track0 copied, either C or System Reserved (if you have it) marked Active.

If Win7 doesn't start unplug all other drives, confirm Partition Marked Active
then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

 

[MajorFoley]

I don't know because I don't use Todo. But the drive letter is completely irrelevant. You want any settings offered to be Auto drive letter, MBR and Track0 copied, either C or System Reserved (if you have it) marked Active.

If Win7 doesn't start unplug all other drives, confirm Partition Marked Active
then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Well im pretty sure when i did the image it contained both the main drive and system reserve and i believe todo uses a winPE format, just confirming a few things with them but might have to wait a few hours to get a reply back from them

 

[gregrocker]

Trial and error is okay with images since you can delete the target drive and start over, just don't touch the source drive.

You can check the available settings yourself to see if any of those are present.

In the app we recommend Macrium Imaging this is all automated based on the image it detects.

 

[MajorFoley]

Trial and error is okay with images since you can delete the target drive and start over, just don't touch the source drive.

You can check the available settings yourself to see if any of those are present.

In the app we recommend Macrium Imaging this is all automated based on the image it detects.

I have 2-3 copies of the image 1 on the 2TB and 2 on separate externals as a precaution. The hard drive the image was based on has already been returned so i cant use macrium imaging unless your just telling me to use the restore feature from it?

 

[gregrocker]

I'd stick with the imaging program that has worked for you in the past. I was just giving an example of how one program handles the settings which might be Manually set in yours.

 

[MajorFoley]

Wait if an image was MBR can it be restored on a GBT or will the Hard drive revert to a MBR hard drive when the image is restored?

 

[gregrocker]

You must initiate the hard drive first in Disk Mgmt. If there is no OS then the Win7 installer or imaging app should initiate it GPT when installing or imaging a UEFI image, or MBR if not.

If you need to manually initiate the HD you can run Convert GPT to make it GPT or Convert MBR to make it MBR. I would run that command after running Diskpart Clean Command.

 

[MajorFoley]

You must initiate the hard drive first in Disk Mgmt. If there is no OS then the Win7 installer or imaging app should initiate it GPT when installing or imaging a UEFI image, or MBR if not.

If you need to manually initiate the HD you can run Convert GPT to make it GPT or Convert MBR to make it MBR. I would run that command after running Diskpart Clean Command.

So should I just initiate GPT regardless then install the image using the winPE disk?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'm not sure you can restore an image of an MBR partition to a GPT disc.

Greg??

As I understand it, you have an image of an MBR disc and intend to restore it to a new 3 TB boot drive. Correct?

If you insist on using a 3 TB drive as a boot drive made bootable by the restoration of an MBR image, I'd think you would not be able to use all of it--only 2.2 TB.

You can have MBR and GPT disks on the same system, but you can't have MBR and GPT partitions on the same disk.

Are you locked into the idea of a 3 TB boot drive?