I'm pretty sure I already asked this question a few weeks ago, but I went to actually do it tonight..... and of course forgot the advice, and couldn't find the old thread.

I've got a 1TB hard drive (data, OS is on my SSD) and I purchased a 3TB drive that I would like to go there instead. I also purchased a 1TB USB drive.

So I was thinking that all I had to do was to copy *.* from the G drive (that's my data drive" to the USB drive, then take out the 1TB drive and replace it with the 3TB drive, and then copy *.* from the USB drive to my new 3TB "G" drive. And I was thinking that if I named it the same as before, G, that there shouldn't be any problems.

But IIRC someone here pointed out there still could be problems, and that there was another, better way to do it than copy *.*. But, I can't remember what.

Anyone have any suggestions on the easiest way to swap out a 1TB data hard drive with a 3TB data hard drive without having to uninstall and reinstall everything on the G drive?

Sounds like you're making it more complicated than it has to be.

You might want to look around for software designed for 'cloning' harddrives. That should make an exact copy of everything you've got, and not cause any problems. Thing is, I've never done it myself, so maybe someone with actual experience might be able to give you better help. I still recommend you should try reading up on it.

Is this the old thread?

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/switching_a_hard_drive_question/page1

YES! Thank you very much.

If a mod reads this thread you can go ahead and delete it as I will re-read that other thread to get the 411 on swapping data hard drives.

Thanks again, and my apologies for not being able to remember it or find it myself.

Ugh, just wanted to put this out there for anyone else considering self building. It's great, it's not really too hard, and it is somewhat cheaper, but...

unless you really really know what you're doing, when something does go wrong... you're out of luck.

That's where I'm at with this thing. None of my USB 3.0 ports are running at USB 3.0 speeds. My USB drive, when I plugged it into my laptop to copy some stuff, gave a warning that speeds could be faster using 3.0 and the light on the unit was white. When I changed it to the 3.0 USB outlet on the laptop, the light on the unit was blue, and no message came up saying it could be faster, thus I assume it was operating at top speed.

When I plugged it into ALL of my USB 3.0 ports (those on the front of the machine AND the back), on my self-built DESKTOP the WHITE light came on every time and the speed warning came up everytime. So, that tells me all of my USB 3.0 ports must be running at 2.0 speeds and.... well of course I have no clue how to fix such things.

Unless you're well versed in how to fix almost anything, perhaps it is best to stick with pre-builts that come with a warranty and tech service. I dunno, it's just something some folks might not think about when deciding whether to self build or not and you really should be aware of things like this. If you don't feel you can figure out what to do when you're USB ports are working but not at bull speed, or your hard drives or optical drives are working but installing any game is SLLLLLOOOOOWWWWWW because they're not working at proper speeds, then you might want to stay with pre-builts and warranties and tech departments. Just my $.02. I now know my USB ports aren't working at proper speeds, and I have suspected for some time that my optical drives aren't either because installing games on this brand new supercomputer is slower than doing so on my old one and it must be because my optical drives are probably running at, oh, I dunno SATA I speeds for example, and I have no idea how to check or fix it. If you too would be in this boat, you may want to avoid self-builds too. Just a warning.

There are undoubtedly risks to building your own. My counter would be that if you never try to fix these issues, you'll stay at step 1, and you'll always be dependent on others to build it for you.

Sites like TomsHardware will have people on the forums with tips to help you out. As long as you've bought roughly standard kit, someone else has already bought, and assembled that rig. Try posting something there.

I have no idea what's going on for you however. Perhaps your PSU is underspec, or there's some jumper setting you need to configure.

Good counterpoint Wpegg.

Well, it's done.

I just used COPY and PASTE to do it, so there may be problems, but so far so good. Now I've a shitload of room for my games on this new 3.0TB hard drive. LOL. I can probably install every game I own and still have some room left.... maybe. lol

Well, so far I've only encountered one "problem" after using copy and paste to copy the old G drive to my USB drive, then install and format the new G drive and copy and paste from the USB to the new G drive. I think I mentioned I have installed my games on the G drive.

Well, they are all working fine, no problem, but the icons aren't there anymore. The strange thing is that they're all there when I start the computer up. But as soon as I go into a game and come back out, all the icons on the G drive are gond and my screen is full the standard windows folded paper like icon for everything. Even when I hit "Refresh", it remains this way.

But if I restart the computer, all the correct icons come back until I go into a game again and then back out and then they're all gone again.

Any ideas?

Likely, some files didn't copy properly.
There may be an easier, less manual way, I don't know, but you could just re-create the shortcut.

For the USB 3 running at low speed, make sure that your motherboard actually has some USB 3 port (and if so, which one, it may not necessarily be all of them), and that the drivers are properly installed and updated (see your motherboard manufacturer website for the latest version)

By the way, did you know that you can just buy an adapter to convert a internal HDD into an external hdd? (its less pretty, but cheaper)

No, I guess I didn't realize you can just buy an adapter. As far as USB ports go, yes, my motherboard supports USB 3.0 and when I built it I ran the case wires for the 2 USB 3.0 front inputs to the USB 3.0 internal connecter. In addition, the motherboard itself has 2 USB 3.0 inputs on the rear.

I'm thinking maybe my USB drive is what's at fault.

Also I tried manually changing the icons but it would once again revert back to no icon immediately. It didn't even change when I selected the correct icon and gave the administrator OK. But, as I said, everytime I start up the computer, all the correct icons are there. Really strange.