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General discussionHard drive question(12 posts)(12 posts)
(12 posts)
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Posted March 22, 2017
Hi all,

My current PC has a 128 Gb SSD hard drive for programs, and a 1 Tb data drive that contains my documents and GOG games. Since I've been buying lots of GOG games, the 1Tb hard drive is getting close to being full, so I need to replace it with a 2 Tb or 4 Tb hard drive. So I was wondering, can I just do the following?

1) Add the 2 Tb hard drive
2) Mount it in Windows (should be done automatically)
3) Format it as NTFS
4) Copy-paste the entire contents from the 1 Tb drive to my new drive
5) Unmount (and physically unplug) 1 Tb drive
6) Change the 2 Tb drive letter in Windows to be what the 1 Tb one was

Will this work, or will it mess up the registry settings for the GOG games I have installed and moved?

Thanks in advance for the advice :)
Posted March 22, 2017
avatar
Irenaeus.: Hi all,

My current PC has a 128 Gb SSD hard drive for programs, and a 1 Tb data drive that contains my documents and GOG games. Since I've been buying lots of GOG games, the 1Tb hard drive is getting close to being full, so I need to replace it with a 2 Tb or 4 Tb hard drive. So I was wondering, can I just do the following?

1) Add the 2 Tb hard drive
2) Mount it in Windows (should be done automatically)
3) Format it as NTFS
4) Copy-paste the entire contents from the 1 Tb drive to my new drive
5) Unmount (and physically unplug) 1 Tb drive
6) Change the 2 Tb drive letter in Windows to be what the 1 Tb one was

Will this work, or will it mess up the registry settings for the GOG games I have installed and moved?

Thanks in advance for the advice :)
Yep that should work.
Posted March 22, 2017
avatar
Irenaeus.: Hi all,

My current PC has a 128 Gb SSD hard drive for programs, and a 1 Tb data drive that contains my documents and GOG games. Since I've been buying lots of GOG games, the 1Tb hard drive is getting close to being full, so I need to replace it with a 2 Tb or 4 Tb hard drive. So I was wondering, can I just do the following?

1) Add the 2 Tb hard drive
2) Mount it in Windows (should be done automatically)
3) Format it as NTFS
4) Copy-paste the entire contents from the 1 Tb drive to my new drive
5) Unmount (and physically unplug) 1 Tb drive
6) Change the 2 Tb drive letter in Windows to be what the 1 Tb one was

Will this work, or will it mess up the registry settings for the GOG games I have installed and moved?

Thanks in advance for the advice :)
Yes you can, but the result in not always perfect ( sometimes you can lose file attributes or have issues with some files when copying ).

Cloning it ( taking an image of the 1tb and applying it to the 2tb) might be preferable
Posted March 22, 2017
Yeah, I'd also say that would work, though I am not very familiar with Windows anymore.
But, I highly recommend splitting the process of copying the files over into smaller ones. For example, copy all games from A to D, then from E to H, and so on, instead of copying over all at once. In case of a power failure, for example, you'd deal with less problems.
Maybe there is even an application out there that can ensure that your files will be healthy and not corrupted during the process, for whatever reason.
Posted March 22, 2017
Would things like File Permissions be more reliable if I performed the copy from a Linux boot? The same PC has a small 250 Gb hard drive with Mint installed.
avatar
Urnoev: Yeah, I'd also say that would work, though I am not very familiar with Windows anymore.
But, I highly recommend splitting the process of copying the files over into smaller ones. For example, copy all games from A to D, then from E to H, and so on, instead of copying over all at once. In case of a power failure, for example, you'd deal with less problems.
Maybe there is even an application out there that can ensure that your files will be healthy and not corrupted during the process, for whatever reason.
I can md5 check all of both hard drives, and compare the resultant lists :)
Post edited March 22, 2017 by Irenaeus.
Posted March 22, 2017
avatar
Irenaeus.: Would things like File Permissions be more reliable if I performed the copy from a Linux boot? The same PC has a small 250 Gb hard drive with Mint installed.
No.

Let window do it. Only drop into Linux if yor hit problems with file paths. Once recovered a machine where a vast number of files had readable but not moveable file paths.
Posted March 22, 2017
OK, thanks to everyone for the tips - I'll now buy a shiny new 2 Tb Hard Drive :)
Posted March 22, 2017
Yes, what you want to do is possible. Two useful hints though:

*) When you partition the drive in Windows you need to make a GPT partition if you bought a drive that is bigger than 2 TB if you want to make the full drive a single partition since a MBR partition can only have 2 TB.

*) Copy all files in Windows using Teracopy. That is a handy utility that will automatically check your files by calculating checksums while copying. If Teracopy confirms that all files were copied ok then you can be sure everything is all right.
Post edited March 22, 2017 by Geralt_of_Rivia
Posted March 22, 2017
Nothing to do with anything, but I just had a thought that Hard Drive would be a good title for the next Mad Max movie :D
Posted March 22, 2017
Just want to add that some hard drive manufacturer have programs offers cloning programs for free. As example, Western Digital gives you a free copy of Acronis True Image:

http://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=3682#acronis18

I know that Seagate offers a program called DiscWizard for free and Toshiba also has a similar program for free. Unfortunately these free programs will check for the brand, so you can't use the Western Digital version of Acronis True Image if not a WD hard drive is involved.

Edit: Just a warning, before doing anything better make a backup of all your important data by hand and read the instructions very carefully. Btw, why not just keep the old drive for programs and use the other drive for all the other stuff?
Post edited March 22, 2017 by DukeNukemForever
Posted March 22, 2017
avatar
DukeNukemForever: Edit: Just a warning, before doing anything better make a backup of all your important data by hand and read the instructions very carefully. Btw, why not just keep the old drive for programs and use the other drive for all the other stuff?
I was going to say "physical space in my PC box", but I could always dispose of the 250 Gb hard drive with Mint on it - I don't use it for anything these days. Good idea :)
Posted March 23, 2017
avatar
Irenaeus.: Hi all,

My current PC has a 128 Gb SSD hard drive for programs, and a 1 Tb data drive that contains my documents and GOG games. Since I've been buying lots of GOG games, the 1Tb hard drive is getting close to being full, so I need to replace it with a 2 Tb or 4 Tb hard drive. So I was wondering, can I just do the following?

1) Add the 2 Tb hard drive
2) Mount it in Windows (should be done automatically)
3) Format it as NTFS
4) Copy-paste the entire contents from the 1 Tb drive to my new drive
5) Unmount (and physically unplug) 1 Tb drive
6) Change the 2 Tb drive letter in Windows to be what the 1 Tb one was

Will this work, or will it mess up the registry settings for the GOG games I have installed and moved?

Thanks in advance for the advice :)
Why not keep your 1tb drive in the machine and get an external drive to back up all your data out to? There is little value in keeping everything in the machine, me I only have one 500gb ssd in the actual machine for os and installed items. Then when I need anything else I just pop the external drive in and copy over. I actually have more than one for backup and such like. I get the feeling you want to clone the drive as the games are all installed? Probably not the best method, save the actual installers and only install when you need to.
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General discussionHard drive question(12 posts)(12 posts)
(12 posts)