Transferring Entire Hdd

have a functional but "old" PC with 1TB drive, mostly full.

have a new PC with much better stats in all aspects, x/c that the HDD is only 750G. currently transferring key 700G or so of my files via USB drive intermediary. hoo boy, this is slow: i am averaging like 7G/hr! how can i speed this up?

1) some "patch cord" (firewire?) to connect the two PCs directly sans USB drive? or even a USB-to-USB cord? even if same slow USB speeds, at least it will cut things in half, since current process is 2 steps (xfer TO usb drive then xfer back OUT).

[old PC cannot access wifi, so don't suggest air transfer or via cloud!]

2) just open up PCs and swap the actual HDDs? this is ideal for 2 reasons: a) get the bigger drive on the new PC, and b) already have all the files loaded.

it's just that i'm a tech lightweight/home user and am paranoid about trying that. are there startup/initialization routines that need to be done when installing a drive? it won't be as easy as plug-and-play, right? and when doing said initialization, do i risk WIPING the files? i know the last time i attempted this (like 30 years ago!), it all started with "format drive".....

i was willing to "make do" with the smaller drive on the new PC to keep things simple, but it feels like a waste to just push the bigger one aside. and now that i face like 5 STRAIGHT DAYS OF WORK(!) moving the files, it also feels stupid.

suggestions?

 

If the new PC has an empty drive bay then the best answer by far is to mount the old drive as a data drive. No need then to move or transfer anything at all,

 

Hopefully this will help -

 

it doesn't have an "empty" one; i'd need to swap a drive out (LAPTOP, btw).

it has a 128G windows/boot drive and a 750G data drive. i was thinking of swapping for the latter. but of course i should be swapping for the FORMER -- would end up with a full 1.75T drive space and only pitching 128G.

THAT, however, requires reinstalling windows, and i don't even have source files/CABs. i predict a MAJOR mess attempting that. i think the 1TG/750G swap is about the limit of my abilities here.

 

btw, back to "transferring files" for a moment -- the old PC cannot see our wifi after some annoying "upgrade" we had here (other thread), but it works at school and at starbucks so the modem, etc., is working fine. is there some direct way to slave it to the other PC and air transfer files then?

i'm used to a maximum of 4-5G/hr when DLing over wifi, so i haven't really looked into this. strikes me that it may be even SLOWER than the 7G/hr i'm getting over USB.

 

OK, then next best imo is to get a USB3 3.5" caddy for the old drive. Using a memory stick to c&p is crazy.

 

ok, i watched the video. what gets me is that "format drive" stage -- can u not drop in a drive ALREADY LOADED with files? is such a drive, by definition, ALREADY "formatted" and will thus just show up in windows like plug and play? or is "formatting" PC-specific, i.e. binding it to the CPU or the specific copy of windows or w/e?

as i said, the actual boot/windows drive is separate, so we're just talking about 2 data drives here. i was thinking a physical swap was all i needed until i started seeing things about "formatting" and "initialization" and "drive allocation".

oh, and btw, are drives even standardized across laptops these days? i know this was an issue when i tried doing something similar a decade ago.

source of the 1TB is an HP2000; target is a dell XPS-L521X. if the drive isn't even compatible from the gitgo, it'll save me a lot of time debating whether to attempt it.

tx again!

 

If the 1Tb drive in the old machine is also a 2.5" then yes you could just physically swap the two data drives, boot up and see what you get. I have been assuming though that the drive in the old machine is a standard 3.5" HDD in which case a swap would not be possible of course. Now we know what the old machine is - HP2000 - you can give it a try.

 

why would the HP ever have had a 3.5"? i didn't know such laptops ever existed.

i'm not talking about "size", tho -- aren't (or weren't) HDDs custom-made to the models in question? back when i had an inspiron, i thought it was the case that i could only put in another "inspiron"-compatible drive. like others wouldn't even FIT, in terms of case/frame, etc.

or was that RAM?

in any case, the drive in question here is a toshiba MQ04ABF100 (1TB). it is to replace a seagate ST9750420AS (750G). in addition to size, toshiba shows much faster read/write/search times...despite being only 5600 rpm (seagate is 7200).

 

How were we to know it was a laptop you were talking about? In the OP you said it was an "old PC", which normally means a desktop, not a laptop. Anyway, I can't see any reason not to try swapping the data drives though you will doubtless find some things not working. But if it were mine I would still go for the trouble free option and get a USB caddy

 

sorry for the confusion. i did say the "new" one was a laptop, and kept making comparisons to the "old" one. i never considered anyone would jump to "one of each".

in any case, "some things not working" is fine; it's "drive blanked out" i'm worried about. video tells me to "create and format" the drive in order to get it seen. and even the current drive in there has "99M: system, active, primary partition" on it next to the rest of the 750G (under disk management). where did that come from? from this very "create and format" routine?

seems like the diff between and "recognize drive as new", i.e. blank, and "recognize drive as-is" is a critical one, and potentially fatal.

 

Your worries are largely unfounded. If you put the 1Tb data drive in place of the existing one Windows should simply recognise it, give it a drive letter and provide access to its files. There will be no requests to format it etc. But for the life of of me I cannot understand why you don't initially just go for the USB caddy option as that would give you access to both old and new drives without any side effects at all.

 

on last point: the whole point of having a laptop is to GO PLACES WITH IT. i'm not gonna be carrying around some USB peripheral with me!

perhaps as an additional/second drive in the future, just for home use. but for now, i just want to get the better of the 2 drives INSIDE the machine.

on the first point: boy, i hope so. a week ago i thought i could drop it in and it would just magically appear a la plug and play. that VIDEO u posted is largely the reason i started thinking elsewise!

(that, and this weird 99M partition. guy in vid doesn't have that. my old drive doesn't have that. why do i on the new one?)

 

I don't mean permanently!! Just for long enough to enable you to decide what you want on your data drive, fix it, and avoid all this c&p nonsense. Transferring stuff between connected drives is as quick as is possible.