Changing Primary Hard Drives

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I have a new PC with Windows 7 Pro 64bit and other programs installed and working on a 500GB drive, currently partitioned into a C: primary partition drive for Systems and OS etc, and a D: partition drive for all my data files (graphics, audio etc etc). I also have a 1 TB drive installed in an external case to use as a Backup only drive. I have now received a new 1TB drive which was intended to be the primary drive but delivery was late and so I used the 500GB drive at first.

Now I want to physically replace the 500GB drive with the new 1TB drive. What steps do I need to take, and in what sequence, in order to do this without re-installing any OS , System, and Data files – i.e. just copy both everything on the C: and D: drives to the new drive partitions. As soon as I mount the new 1TB drive it will have to take on drive letters after all other drive letters currently allocated???!!!

I also have Acronis 2010 backup S/W but have not used it yet and the external 1TB drive is presently empty awaiting it’s first backup – Image copies of the primary C: and D: drives.

If anyone has similar experience or knowlege of this scenario, I’d really appreciate tips or suggestions. Thanks, Arthur

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Hi GrayEagle,

First be sure to create the bootable CD/DVD with Acronis so you can boot from your DVD drive to create and restore your image backup. Also check your BIOS to make sure your DVD drive is first in the boot priority list. Next, boot from the Acronis CD/DVD to create your backup on the external drive. Then swap out your 500 GB drive for the 1 TB drive, and boot from your Acronis CD/DVD to restore your image backup from your external drive. Do not reformat or erase anything on your 500 GB drive until you have successfully restored the backup to your new 1 TB in case of restoration failure. Best to have the means to create another image backup if needed. When you have finished the restore to the new drive, you should be able to reboot with your new drive and see it as drive C and Drive D.

The image backup is perfect for restoring your old system on a new drive when you have a drive failure, or for doing what you want to do now.

You can reformat and add the 500 GB back into your computer or leave it as is and store it away as a quick replacement for your new one. Have you considered the possibility of keeping your 500 GB drive as your system drive and installing the 1 TB to be your data drive? That way you will have your OS and most of your data on two different physical drives, a real advantage when (not if) your 500 eventually fails. Your data on partition D could be moved to the 1 TB and you could then remove the D partition unless you want to keep it.
Just a thought.

Hope this helps.

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Just in case it helps, I detailed some experiences in this thread. 

The cloning was accomplished by software freely download from Seagate’s website. This software (a cut down Acronis TI) will run on any PC with a Seagate or Maxtor HD (more details on the site). 

The lesson to take away, I suppose is that HD manufacturers often supply disk cloning utilities to help migrate to their drives.

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