moving my operating system from an older drive to a newer one
moving my operating system from an older drive to a newer one
Is it possible? When you start with a new drive, the second one should appear as a normal data source. I haven’t done this in a while and I used a smaller clone to test. On Windows 10, it can be really frustrating because the system keeps choosing the old drive even after cloning. I’d suggest removing the old drive once you finish cloning, though I’m not sure that’s the only solution.
You misunderstood the need to adjust the BIOS settings. Changing the boot order wouldn't actually help and could lead to a complete failure since the new drive's letters wouldn't update if the old one was still active. Additionally, the SATA port used for booting can influence performance based on the specific configuration. If the original drive wasn't correctly connected to the wrong SATA port initially, it's simpler to physically replace the drive instead of altering settings.
Why avoid Diskgenius? If you were me, I’d set up a UEFI USB boot drive, rearrange the boot sequence from my motherboard, then open Diskgenius, clone the entire disk to a fresh one. Don’t overlook creating a new MBR for your new hard drive.
Use the minitool partition wizard free version to copy the old disk to a new one. Connect only the new disk and leave the old one disconnected, then check if it boots. If it works, link both drives, power on the machine, select the new drive as the boot source in the Windows boot manager, and format the old disk for storage. If no boot manager is available, adjust the boot sequence in the BIOS settings. For details on changing the boot order, search online with your computer model or type.
I've relied on Macrium Reflect for many years and it consistently functions well. However, I've encountered an issue with one of my copies, which means even if you can copy the system while it's running, I wouldn't suggest doing so. It's not a major concern since you can set up a bootable WinPE environment and start the program from USB, keeping your original system idle during the process. The only preparation needed before using Macrium Reflect is to ready your drive—either initialize it as GPT or MBR, depending on the original HDD format. After initialization, the first boot should use a fresh, single drive to rearrange the letter layout. If you'd like, you can also clear certain entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices after the system starts.
Cloning issues often arise when switching between MBR and GPT disks, as the GPT disk may revert to MBR if the process is attempted incorrectly. This limitation applies specifically to drives larger than 2TB (actually 2.2TB).