Windows 10: Change HDD

Hi All

I have the following drives on my system

C: SSD - Operating system (windows 10 64bit) and some programs (the ones I am unable to store elsewhere)
D: HDD 1tb - Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Vidoes etc
E: SSD - Programs
F: HDD - 2tb Storage
G: External
H: HDD - 3tb Storage

As drive D is only 1tb I wish to change this to a 6tb WD Black HDD. The folders Documents, Pictures etc that are by default installed along with the operating system into the C drive. I then changed the location the target was the D drive. What would be the simplest way of replacing the new drive as drive D.

Regards

Kevin

:)

 

HDD Change

Hi! My computer got a free upgrade of Windows 10. I am having problems with my HDD and I'd like to change it. What should I do? Do I need to install Windows 7 again (I don't have any installation cd or something) or is there anyway that I could install
Windows 10 again.

 

HDD change

I tried the second one. It worked until downloading updates, then this:

 

Hi, do you use disk imaging routinely as we strongly recommend? (So many advantages- even if a disk fails you can restore the content/partitions from your image saved on external storage).

E.g. Macrium Reflect (free).

If you do, the task is easy.

Macrium is well supported with videos and help. There are other such programs.

 

Hi dalchina

So you are saying, do a disk image with Macrium Reflect

1. Save it to an external storage device
2. Shut down the system change D drive to the new 6tb WD Black HDD
3. Boot up the system. I take it that I will have to go into Disk Management and set the drive as D drive?
4. Restore the image to the D drive
5. Hopefully windows will find the Documents, Pictures, Video, etc folders

Regards

Kevin

 

That should work - you lose nothing by trying it..

And disk imaging everything (special option for Windows to include all pertinent partitions) is recommended anyway.

 

You should also make recovery media within Macrium so you can "Boot up the system" on those occasions when your C drive is kaput. If you can't boot--for whatever reason---you can't restore anything.

The recovery media will contain Macrium and you will be presented with the standard Macrium interface when you boot from the recovery media.

You should confirm that the recovery media WILL IN FACT boot your PC.

 

Well after doing a image of the old 1tb D drive, replacing the drive with a 6tb drive and restoring the image. I ended up with 3 partitions? I manage to get one merged with where the image was using the initialize. I do not get that option for the other partition, what I do not want.

Kevin

 

We need to see a screenshot of disk management, with the columns widened to show all the data:
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of Windows 10 General Tips Tutorials

 

3 partitions shown sounds right.

If you look in Disk Management, is one labeled "recovery partition", about 450 mb; another labeled "EFI system", about 100 mb; and the third labeled C??

Should be about like that.

I don't follow your last 2 sentences. You may have seen a bunch of "unallocated space" that you could add to C if desired.

 

- except KevinUK was aiming to replace drive D: - data only from his first post. So it shouldn't contain system partitions. Assuming that the 3 partitions refers to what's on D only.. maybe..

At this point we definitely need a screenshot as @NavyLCDR said..

 

My apologies, I forgot to add the screen capture. It is only a storage volume, please see the my original post.

 

Looks like a 2048 GB D partition with 3541 GB unallocated.

Have you tried to add the 3541 to D?

Did that attempt fail?

 

Yes, there is no option to initialize the partition? It must be something to do with Macrium Reflect, when it finished I had 3 partitions one of which where the old D drive files where was approximately 1tb (same size as the original HDD). The only thing I can think of is reformatting D drive and doing it again.

Kevin

 

The unallocated space is NOT a partition.

What do you want to do with that unallocated space?

Add it to D?

Make a separate partition?

If you are unable to do either of those things through Disk Management menus, then you likely need to wipe it all out and initialize the entire drive as GPT (if it is now initialized as MBR). That would mean deleting the D partition, so the whole thing is "unallocated space".

You seem to have an Asus X99 motherboard, which should be new enough to accept a 6 TB drive.