Transfer data to a bigger storage drive.
Transfer data to a bigger storage drive.
I recently upgraded my SSD and faced some issues when trying to move my existing Windows installation from the old drive to the new one. I wanted to transfer it without having to reinstall, while still keeping the old drive for extra space. Initially, I thought about setting up a fresh partition layout on the larger disk using Windows' built-in tools. That seemed like a solid idea, but it turned out those settings weren't available in that interface. Eventually, I booted into a Linux ISO, configured the partition types there, created the necessary file systems, and copied over the files. I disabled the EFI system partition on the old drive by assigning it an invalid partition type and then restarted. The Windows bootloader struggled to recognize the new disk, triggering a reboot after what felt like a startup repair. Once that happened, I logged in successfully. Unfortunately, Explorer kept crashing repeatedly around the one-second mark, likely due to a conflict with core Windows DLLs caused by the sudden partition changes and GPT GUID updates. After another failed attempt, I switched back to the Linux ISO. There, I completely rewrote the partition table on the new disk using `dd`, then used `gparted` to assign fresh GUIDs and random partition types to all partitions. Finally, I changed the partition types in Windows to "Linux Filesystem" to prevent any further issues with the bootloader. After rebooting, everything functioned properly, and I was able to access the desktop. The only remaining task was resizing the old Windows partition using the Windows partition manager, which worked perfectly. TL;DR: In a Linux environment, I used `dd` to clone the old disk directly, then adjusted partition types with `gparted`, ensuring Windows would run smoothly.