What's the Best Way To Move To A New HDD

[ReptilianPeon]

I have quite the quandary. I'm undecided as to which option is the best. Here's the situation:

I have a PC which I purchased almost five years ago now. I want to get a new HDD before it's too late as I fear it may or may not have long left (I use several external HDDs for back-up already). The HDD came with OS pre-installed. We (meaning my father) have an adapter which can turn internal HDDs into an external storage device if need-be (presumably by means of USB) and discs with copies of the Windows OS on them. Do I either:

1. Purchase the new HDD and attach it as external storage first to install the OS (i.e. Windows for now) from a CD or download - whilst the old HDD is still in the PC.

OR:

2. Remove the old HDD first, add the new HDD in and use the disc drive to install OS that way. Afterwards I back up using the aforementioned appendage.

OR:

3. Buy a HDD with an appropriate OS already on it (if possible) and back-up as required once the new HDD is in the PC.

I hope that made sense. Thanks in advance. I'm still rather cautious when it comes to operating on PCs.

[Jackalope]

Use something like Ghost to image copy it.

[ReptilianPeon]

I've never heard of Ghost to image. I'll look into it. At first I want to only copy the necessary files for the OS as I'd like to have a tidy up of my files. I assume picking and choosing which areas to clone will be possible? I'll take a look in more detail tomorrow as it's getting late!

[Jackalope]

Not as far as I know, it isn't. Image backups are bit-for-bit images of the original. Do your cleanup after cloning the disc.

Your other best option IMO is to restore from a Windows Backup system image.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Pay somebody.

[Angrboda]

Depending on the PC, some come with a restore partition already on disk. If that is the case, probably the best is to clone the disk using disk cloning software and use the restore/recovery partition to reset the operating system to its original state. As Cathooloo noted, you can't really only do a partial restore. Some disk manufacturers provide disk cloning software for the purchasers of their disks to use for just this type of situation. The software and details of which products they apply to can usually be found at the disk manufacturer's web site.

[Minimalist]

I just did this back in August.

I had an old computer which got fried but the HDD was okay.  As with you, the OS was on it but it was Windows 7 and I was moving to Win 10.  I bought a new machine with Win 10 and kept the two HDDs from my old one.  Like you, I have USB converters for the disk drives so I can read them.

Once I had the new machine set up the way I wanted it I put my old system drive in one of the USB converters and copied any files I wanted to the appropriate location.  Then I put the old drive in a cabinet in case I decide I need something else later.

[johan]

1. Boot from the existing drive
2. Hook up the new drive externally with a USB adapter
3. Use drive cloning software to clone the old drive to the new drive. Make sure you clone all partitions.
4. Remove the old drive, install the new one and Bob's your uncle.

[popeyespappy]

If you're running Windows I'd:

1. Do a fresh Windows install on the new hard drive.
2. Update all your drivers.
3. Let windows do its gazillian updates.
4. Defragment the new drive.
5. Reinstall whatever other programs you use.
6. Migrate your files (documents, pictures, music, ect...) from the old hard drive to the new one.

Imaging a 5 year old Windows install is going to slow things down move a bunch of problems you don't even know you have to your new drive...

[zebo-the-fat]

I would recommend getting an SSD, I replaced my spinning rust drive last year and the difference in boot up time is amazing. From off to the login screen is about 8 seconds (windoze 10 pro) or about 6 seconds (linux mint)