I'm planning to get a Samsung F3 1TB drive soon to serve as a data hard drive. Right now, I'm running on a single WD 640GB drive that has a boot/system partition © and a larger data partition (D). Basically, I would like to copy/clone everything on the current D: partition to the new drive (which will just have one large partition), and have the new hard drive take over as the new D. In terms of software, what would be the best way to go about doing this? Is it possible to do it within Windows, or would I need to resort to a Linux live environment?

There's no need to clone it since it isn't an operating system. Just copy it over.

Right, the only reason why you'd ever need to "clone" a volume is if it has specific boot data that is kept on the hard disk outside where the file system resides. Otherwise, if its just data, you can use anything even a copy/paste.

Right, the only reason why you'd ever need to "clone" a volume is if it has specific boot data that is kept on the hard disk outside where the file system resides. Otherwise, if its just data, you can use anything even a copy/paste.

OK. But I would expect that initially Windows would assign a new drive letter other than D to the new drive. How do I prevent this and have the new drive seamlessly take over as the new D drive without ever losing access to my data?

OK. But I would expect that initially Windows would assign a new drive letter other than D to the new drive. How do I prevent this and have the new drive seamlessly take over as the new D drive without ever losing access to my data?

Sure it will.

1. Connect the "new" hard disk.
   
2. It will get a drive letter, let's say "G:".
   
3. Copy all files from D: to G: (please note that if you use copy and paste dates of folder will change), a better idea is to use the NTbackup or a more suitable copy app, like XCOPY or ROBOCOPY, or STRARC.
   
4. Go to Disk manager.
   
5. Remove the drive letter from drive D:
   
6. Assign the now free D: letter to drive G:
   
7. Assign another letter to the (orphaned of the D: letter) drive
   

Rather obviously don't keep a few tens of Word and Excel files open while copying.

(actually you should be running NO other app but the copying tool and Disk Manager until you have perforemd the copy and the re-name).

jaclaz

Great, thanks for the tip. Should I do this in safe mode, or is it OK to do it in Windows?

No need for safe mode.