Swapping Out Drive

[+Zagadka Subscriber²]

Alrighty. My system is set up c: (SSD - apps), D: (HDD - storage), E: (external USB - backups)

 

All well and good. Unfortunately, D is dying, and Windows is set up to store user, appdata etc on D. I want to swap in a new SSD in its place. Is there a specific way to do this without reinstalling Windows/everything? I've got the raw data backed up, but I'm concerned about the Windows system.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

What? I read that as your D:\ drive is failing, not your SSD...

 

So your Windows drive should be fine.

[+Warwagon MVC]

You should be ok, once you move the appdata folder over to your new D drive.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

The process sounds like it should be straightforward, given what you have told us about the system.

1. Connect new SSD to computer, where it gets assigned a new letter (E:\, F:\ or whatever)
2. Copy files from old, failing HDD (D:\) to new SSD (whatever it gets assigned)
3. Power down.
4. Open system.
5. Disconnect old failing HDD and remove it.
6. Install new SSD in place of old HDD.
7. Power up system and login as usual. 
   You may receive error about profile missing and a default profile being used by Windows.  That's fine.
8. Run Disk Manager (filename: DISKMGMT.MSC) or DiskPart (filename: DISKPART.EXE) and assign drive letter D:\ to the new SSD. 
9. Restart for changes to take effect.
10. Verify everything now works as expected (files are where they are expected on D:\, and anything else you normally use the system for)

I'd suggest putting aside the old, failing HDD for a while, just in case there are some files on it which didn't get copied over for some reason.  If after using the system for several weeks (months?) without needing anything from it, you can RMA it if still under warranty, recycle it, etc.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky