# How to switch to bigger hard drive?



## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

I bought a bigger hard drive. I transferred my data to the other new one using clonezilla. Now, I don't know how to make the new one the boot drive. 

I tried going into my BIOS and choosing which disk to boot from (having unplugged my old disk to make sure it really was booting from the new one) and it says: "BootMgr is missing". 
In Windows Disk Manager the old/current drive is indicated to be: System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump and Primary Partition. 

The New one says that it's just: Primary Partition. 

What do I need to do to make the new disk be the one that the computer boots to?

I've included a picture of what all the drives/partitions look like.
Disk 0 is the current disk, Disk 2 is the one that I want to start using instead.


My Mobo is an Asus P8P67 Pro.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

You can open the case and switch the data cable with the 1 TB Disk 0 with the 4TB Disk 2 which will make the larger drive the boot drive. 
Or boot into *Setup* (Bios) go to the* Boot* tab and change the Boot order here. _Move_ the 1TB previous C: drive lower in the Boot order or remove it entirely, and _move_ the 4TB drive to First Boot Device.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

You need to clone the system, that is, make a clone of the partitions that are required for Windows to boot. In your case, you need to clone two partitions; C and the 450MB recovery partition from the old (source) to the new (destination) hdd. I haven't used clonezilla, so I don't know what features or options it has. If it has a system cloning option, then it should select at least the two source partitions I mentioned above. If it doesn't have a system clone option, but it has a partition clone option, then make sure you select the two partitions mentioned for cloning. I recommend you delete partition M (the first partition of the new hdd) to make that space unallocated, then clone partition C and the 450MB recovery partition to that unallocated space. The clone of partition C doesn't have to be the same size as C, you can adjust the size of the destination to suit your needs. However, leave the size of the 450MB recovery partition's clone the same as the source.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Update:
Comparing the occupied spaces of drive C and M, it seems you simply copied the contents of C to M, instead of a 1:1 clone. Partition M needs to be marked as active to make it bootable, it currently isn't active. A 1:1 clone of partition C takes care of creating the target partition and setting it as active. You may wanna shrink M and create space for the 450MB recovery partition and clone it to that space.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

You can clone a smaller drive to a larger one. The clone software should know the difference
However, I assumed when you said you _Copied Over _using Clonezilla that you actually _Cloned_ the drive and did not just copy it over but you weren't clear enough about that. 
Since the old C: Drive is *System, Boot, Active* and a *Primary* partition, those same attributes should be on the *M*: drive if it was cloned, and not just copied, but it is not, so, it won't be bootable.
Start again with Clonzilla, or better yet Macrium Reflect and *clone *the C: drive to the M: drive.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

I formatted the new drive into two partitions: M and N (Media), and then cloned C to M, and then cloned E to N (Media). I didn't notice until after that there was a 450M partition on the original drive, which Windows 10 must have added when I upgraded. 

So I should reformat M, and do a disk-to-disk clone? (That's an option in clonezilla, I just went with the partition-to-partion option twice). OR... I could save time by creating another partition after M that's 450MB? Then copy (or clone, what's the difference?) over the 450M recovery partition?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

EGD Eric said:


> I formatted the new drive into two partitions: M and N (Media), and then cloned C to M, and then cloned E to N (Media). I didn't notice until after that there was a 450M partition on the original drive, which Windows 10 must have added when I upgraded.
> 
> So I should reformat M, and do a disk-to-disk clone? (That's an option in clonezilla, I just went with the partition-to-partion option twice). OR... I could save time by creating another partition after M that's 450MB? Then copy (or clone, what's the difference?) over the 450M recovery partition?


I just had a look at Clonezilla Live screenshots and I have to say it's got quite an antiquated look, which I find quite limiting. Is there a particular reason why you'd prefer to use it? You'll have better results with Macrium Reflect as was suggested, and handy tutorials online on how to use it. The 450MB recovery partition is NOT required for Windows to boot. Its absence will not prevent Windows from loading. I suggest you delete partition M and then clone the two partitions to the unallocated space that's created after deleting M. There's no need to complicate this, I find it to be the easiest way, otherwise you're gonna have to shrink drive M, clone the 450MB recovery partition to the freed up space and mark M as active.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

I never said I prefer clonezilla, I was just asking for clarification on what I should do.

How do you mark a partition as active? If I understand correctly, if I clone the disk like you said I won't need to, but I'm curious.

I will try a full disk clone with Macrium tonight as suggested.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

EGD Eric said:


> I never said I prefer clonezilla, I was just asking for clarification on what I should do.
> 
> How do you mark a partition as active? If I understand correctly, if I clone the disk like you said I won't need to, but I'm curious.
> 
> I will try a full disk clone with Macrium tonight as suggested.


Yes, if you perform a 1:1 clone of the disk/partition, you won't need to mark the target partition as active because the 1:1 clones not only the disk/partitions' contents, but it also clones the disk/partition attributes to the destination, therefore, a clone of C will also be marked as active.

To mark partition M as active, you can use DispPart, which is a command-line disk partitioning utility included in Windows. To use it, open Command Prompt and type in the following commands (THE LINES IN UPPERCASE), pressing Enter after each one:

DISKPART

LIST DISK

This will list the disks attached to your system numbered from 0 just like you saw in Disk Management.

SELECT DISK #
Replace # with the number of the new disk that contains partition M.

LIST PARTITION
This will list the partitions existing on the selected disk.

SELECT PARTITION #
Replace # with the number of the M partition.

ACTIVE
This marks the selected partition as active.

EXIT
Quits DiskPart

EXIT
Quits Command Line.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

I tried cloning the whole disk last night. The problem I have now is that Partition 1 is stuck at its former size, because there's partitions to the right of it. The only one that can have more space is partition 3. The whole point of switching to another hard drive was so that partition 1 would have more space!

Edit: I'm using AOMEI partition assistant to resize the partitions without losing the data on them. I should know if this worked in about 9 hours.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

EGD Eric said:


> I tried cloning the whole disk last night. The problem I have now is that Partition 1 is stuck at its former size, because there's partitions to the right of it. The only one that can have more space is partition 3. The whole point of switching to another hard drive was so that partition 1 would have more space!
> 
> Edit: I'm using AOMEI partition assistant to resize the partitions without losing the data on them. I should know if this worked in about 9 hours.


Macrium Reflect let's you adjust the size of the destination partition as part of the cloning preparation, which comes in super handy when cloning a smaller disk to a larger one, or a smaller partition to a larger one


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

It only lets you do that for the last partition. The first and second partitions cannot be resized at all in Macrium. 

Anyway, I used partition assistant to resize them. The Recovery partition is now labelled a primary partition, partition 1 is still just a primary partition, not active, and so of course I can't boot off of this. Also, the 2nd partition is labeled a primary partition instead of a recovery, and PA made it 463 MB and won't let me set it to 450 for some reason. I don't know how important the recovery partition is, anyway. I didn't make it.

I just tried what Stancestans taught me about diskpart to make partition 1 be active, but it refuses to do that because disk 3 is a GPT. Apparently, you can only label an MBR disk as active, not a GPT. But you can't make a disk over 2TB be MBR! So people just never install windows on partitions > 2TB??


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

You can install Windows on a GPT disk that is larger then 2TB, you just have to use a GPT UEFI Boot Windows installer. 
Personally, I would wipe the new disk. Initialize it GPT, then Boot off of a Macrium Reflect Boot USB and do a Disk to Disk clone of the Disk 0, the previous C: and M: Drive. Swap the drives around and the larger drive will now be C: and M: Now you can Format M: if you already have it on another drive and resize it to be whatever you want it to be.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

EGD Eric said:


> I don't know how important the recovery partition is, anyway. I didn't make it.
> 
> I just tried what Stancestans taught me about diskpart to make partition 1 be active, but it refuses to do that because disk 3 is a GPT. Apparently, you can only label an MBR disk as active, not a GPT. But you can't make a disk over 2TB be MBR! So people just never install windows on partitions > 2TB??


To better understand the importance and purpose of the recovery partition, go to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...-environment--windows-re--technical-reference.

That's right, on a GPT disk, special IDs (GUIDs) are used to identify the different types of partitions. The ACTIVE flag/attribute is used in MBR disks to identify the boot partition. This is NOT required in a GPT disk, so it won't work with your new 4TB disk.

People DO install Windows on partitions/disks > 2TB. As spunk.funk said, you just need to install Windows from an UEFI source. There are two requirements to be met; first you need to *enable UEFI Boot* in your system's firmware (BIOS) setup utility, IF your system does indeed support UEFI. Secondly, you need an *UEFI Windows installation media* (DVD or USB flash disk). Windows 8 and 10 DVD media are already UEFI compliant. If you prefer to use a USB flash disk, which is faster than a DVD btw, you'll need to make it UEFI bootable. There's a small, free utility called _*Rufus*_ that'll make short work of preparing an UEFI bootable USB flash disk.

Your old disk is MBR-partitioned, while the new one is GPT-partitioned. This makes things a little complicated as far as transfering the Windows installation from the old to new is concerned. You cannot simply clone the Windows partition from an MBR to GPT disk and boot from it. While the cloning part is supported, as you've already seen, additional special partitions are required on the GPT disk. For a better understanding of Windows deployment on UEFI/GPT-based hard drives, go to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...configure-uefigpt-based-hard-drive-partitions.

You can still transfer the Windows installation, but it requires creating the required partitions described in the webpage I linked to. Creating these partitions manually and populating them with the correct contents is not a simple task. However, I have a workaround proposal that should get this done.

In a nutshell, you need to:
1. Enable UEFI BOOT
2. Boot from a Windows 10 DVD or UEFI bootable USB flash disk and start Windows Setup.
3. Delete ALL of the partitions on the new 4TB drive, except the MEDIA (data) partition.
4. Click the unallocated space that was created in step 3 and click New. Windows Setup will tell you something about needing to create additional partitions. This is what we want, instead of having to create those additional partitions manually. Click Ok and in a brief moment, the additional partitions will be created and appear. Confirm that the partitions created are the ones required for UEFI/GPT deployment of Windows, namely; System (EFI) partition, MSR, Windows and Recovery. The Windows partition will be automatically selected as the target partition for Windows installation.
5. Proceed with installation of Windows until it's completed (end up with the desktop of a fresh Windows 10 install).
6. Perform a full shutdown (instead of the hybrid shutdown which is enabled by default in Windows 10). To do this, *turn off fast-startup* on the new Windows installation.
7. Clone the old Windows partition to this newly created Windows partition, leaving ALL the other extra partitions unchanged and untouched. You can do this using a Macrium Reflect boot USB or from the old hdd Windows installation. Once this is done, you will essentially have made the 4TB drive GPT/UEFI bootable with your OLD Windows installation.

Caution:
I recommend you *disconnect* ALL the other hard drives except the new 4TB drive, to avoid confusion and expensive mistakes when performing the steps above, especially step 3. Only reconnect the other drives when needed, for example, before booting from a Macruim usb to clone the old Windows partition to the new one. For best results, you can delete the new Windows partition prior to cloning, then simply drag and drop the old one into the new drive's unallocated space.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

Thanks Stancestans, this is very helpful!

For step 7, Macrium reflect doesn't seem to have a partition-to-partition clone option, or at least none that I can see. Does it matter if I use clonezilla or any other tool?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

EGD Eric said:


> Thanks Stancestans, this is very helpful!
> 
> For step 7, Macrium reflect doesn't seem to have a partition-to-partition clone option, or at least none that I can see. Does it matter if I use clonezilla or any other tool?


Sure it does. You can't see it because it's not named so. To clone a partition, you still select the clone this disk option, and then you simply drag the source partition and drop it to the target disk. Alternatively, there are checkboxes for each partition on the source disk. Use them to select which partition(s) you want to clone.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

So I tried using Reflect to clone the partition. It said it couldn't because there was an error with the file system, and that I should do a chkdsk /r in the command line. So I did that, and it said that the volume is in use, do you want to schedule a chkdsk on boot? I said Yes, and now when I boot, I get a GUI telling me that Windows failed to repair the disk, and it gives me some options to reinstall from a USB, etc.. I don't have an image made (the plan was to make one after this). That partition might be screwed, I dunno. If I reinstall, I won't lose data, but I'll have to install all of the programs, which is a PITA. 

Sorry to be a PITA myself, but any idea how I can get out of this? I really feel like I screwed myself by doing that chckdsk.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Check Disk (chkdsk /r) searches all the sectors on the HDD, if it finds a bad one, it will try and move the data off of the HDD onto a good one near by, and mark that sector as _Bad_ and not put data on it again. However, if you have _Too_ many *Bad Sectors*, there well be no extra sectors near by to save the data to, and it will fail, as in your case. 
You can try to fix this drive to retrieve any data off of it you want to keep, but we do not suggest using this drive for Windows, this drive should be replaced ASAP. As soon as you get Windows and your programs the way you want them on the new drive, make a Macrium Reflect Image and save it to your external drive for backup.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

Since my data was already copied over to the new Media partition on the new drive, maybe I should just reinstall all my programs one by one on the new hard drive. But for some reason, I can't seem to boot from it anymore since this chckdsk fiasco. It's odd, because I was able to boot from it before, and the chckdsk was on the old hard drive, not the new one.

Edit: I tried unplugging the old hard drive, and it tries to repair the new one. 

I'm never using chckdsk again, you can be sure of that.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

OK that's weird... I can boot from my old windows installation again. I had actually succeeded in starting the repair once, but it was stuck at 31% forever, only to say that it couldn't repair. I was going to boot up and try and use my windows USB to "upgrade" when I got the message again, but this time it said: 100% repaired, and booted up windows as normal. I guess I should try to do the copy with reflect again, partition to partition.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

All of Stancestan's steps work up until step 7. As soon as I transfer everything over, the bigger drive won't boot. I'm greeted with a rapidly blinking dos cursor. I do Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart, and if I let it boot to the bigger drive again, I get that "can't repair windows" thing again. 

The only thing I can think of is that maybe my installation depends on the drive letters being C:/ and E:/ (media), but I'm worried about renaming them, because then I'd have to rename those on my original drive, and if I screw that up, I'll end up with no installation that I can boot to. 

I'm thinking more and more that I should just bite the bullet and install everything the old fashioned way. 










Though it'd be nice to know how to do this for next time I want to migrate.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

EGD Eric said:


> All of Stancestan's steps work up until step 7. As soon as I transfer everything over, the bigger drive won't boot. I'm greeted with a rapidly blinking dos cursor. I do Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart, and if I let it boot to the bigger drive again, I get that "can't repair windows" thing again.
> 
> The only thing I can think of is that maybe my installation depends on the drive letters being C:/ and E:/ (media), but I'm worried about renaming them, because then I'd have to rename those on my original drive, and if I screw that up, I'll end up with no installation that I can boot to.
> 
> ...










Macrium citing a filesystem error, the failed chkdsk, automatic repair attempts make me think your old drive has taken quite a beating. Bad case scenario would be a filesystem corruption, which should be corrected by running chkdsk. Worst case scenario is lots of irreplacable bad sectors and corrupted data, in other words, an imminently failing disk.

Since your data is safe, I suggest you do the following:
1. Turn OFF the computer and unplug the mains power cable (very important).
2. Unplug ALL hard disks except the OLD drive.
3. Turn the PC ON and enter BIOS setup. Revert whatever changes you had made in boot options. More specifically, if UEFI boot was initially disabled and now it's enabled, then disable it. Change the boot order so that the only connected hdd is the first boot device. Save changes and exit bios.The old Windows installation on the old hdd should boot just fine. Let us know if this is not the case.
4. Run CHKDSK /F /R and DO NOT interrupt it once the system has rebooted to perform the check, even if it looks stuck. Once it's finished, Windows should complete booting. 
5. Turn off fast-startup and shutdown.
6. Repeat step 1 above.
7. Connect the new 4TB drive, turn ON the PC and enter BIOS. Check the boot order and make sure that the old hdd is given a higher priority. Save changes and exit bios. The old Windows installation should load just fine. 
8. Open Disk Management and post a screenshot showing the partitioning of both disks.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

There actually is no UEFI boot option (AFAIK) in my motherboard's "bios" (My mobo is an Asus P8P67 Pro). When I chose which USB stick to boot from in the bios, it was shown as having 2 sticks, even though there was just one, something like this:

Kingston USB 
UEFI: Kingston USB 

So I chose the UEFI kingston USB. I figured this amounts to having "UEFI boot enabled"... just thought I'd check.

Someone on this thread seems to agree:
https://hardforum.com/threads/asus-p8p67-pro-and-uefi-booting.1584481/


I'm wondering if the problem is that I didn't use a boot USB in step 7. I did it from the old windows installation, with windows running. (I don't know how to set up a boot USB for this program. All I see on google are results for how to create a "USB rescue media".

I already did a chkdsk, and it caused me nothing but grief. Macrium didn't cite an error after the chckdsk finally completed. (I never actually interrupted chkdsk at any time).


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Boot into Setup (Bios) go to *SATA* or *Hard Drive mode*, If it was set to Legacy or IDE and it got changed to AHCI or verse visa, this would cause your computer to not boot properly. Change it back. 
Now go over to the *Security* tab make sure *Secure Boot *is not enabled or changed to _Setup Mode._ If UEFI Bios is set, you will need a UEFI USB installer, if you don't have that, change it to _Legacy_ Bios. After restarting, with the USB drive in, back in the Bios at the *Boot* tab, you should see Kingston USB (not UEFI) which you can now choose to boot from the USB and try Macrium again. 
As stated before, you old HDD has too many bad sectors to clone to the new drive, you should do a clean install.


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## EGD Eric (Mar 28, 2007)

Thanks. I gave up and did a fresh install. I'm gonna do a chkdsk /f /r on my old drive at some point, just to see if it can be fixed and used as a backup drive.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

EGD Eric said:


> Thanks. I gave up and did a fresh install. I'm gonna do a chkdsk /f /r on my old drive at some point, just to see if it can be fixed and used as a backup drive.


Once you've got everything off of the old drive, I suggest you erase all partitions on it, create a new one and format it, and before entrusting it for backup, run diagnostic tests on it, especially a full surface scan for bad sectors.


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## mlesniak (Oct 20, 2008)

I have use Clonezilla many times with good results in most cases.
I think the best option would have been a disk to disk clone rather than one partition at a time. The important thing is to be careful to get your source and target disks the right way around, so double check your disk makes and capacities before you start the clone job.
I've also used chkdsk a few times too. I'm assuming that you specified which disk letter you wanted to check. If you want to be cautious, you can always perform a check without the /f to fix any issues. Sounds like it's a bit too late now. I'm beginning to wonder if your original disk has some unrecoverable errors, which would explain a lot.


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