Moving Data from one External to Another

I currently have a Seagate Momentus 500 GB HDD in an eSata-equipped acomdata encoslure. I use this drive for several purposes: (a) I store my backups/images for my Sony Vaio Z generated by Windows' Backup and Restore function here, (b) I store copies of certain file types from my Dell (like my iTunes library and my pictures) here, and (c) I use the HDD for programs that I don't care to load onto my Vaio's SSD (like some older games). For the third use, I plug the HDD into the Vaio via eSata into an expresscard adapter, and run the programs directly off of the HDD.

My question primarily concerns uses (a) and (c). I have ordered a larger Momentus HDD from Amazon (750 GB) and would like to migrate all of the data off of the 500 GB drive and onto the 750 GB drive. Essentially I am thinking of just copying and pasting all the contents of the 500 GB drive onto the 750 GB and using the larger drive going forward. However, for uses (a) and (c), I wanted to check and see if moving the backups/images and programs in this fashion would have an effect on their operation. Is my Vaio going to have trouble recognizing that I am now trying to backup to a new drive, and is it going to have trouble running the programs that I have migrated from one location to another?

 

I did some googling and it sounds like a copy and paste won't work for the programs because of the registries. They would need to be moved as well. Any suggestions for how to do this or am I going to have to reinstall?

Still not sure about the backups and images. My hope is that I can move the backup related files to the new drive and have my computer recognize the new drive as the place to put the backups going forward. I dont want to confuse windows with the new drive. Any advice is appreciated.

 

I think just copy then paste. after that remove old external hdd, go to disk management and change the drive letter of new one to old one, then start these game to see how it's going.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I will start there and see what happens. Regarding the copy and paste procedure, can anyone provide insight on how that procedure affects the hard drive of the host computer? If I plug the two drives into my Sony Vaio Z and copy from one external directly to the other external, is data copied to the Z's SSD during that transfer? I would like to avoid unnecessary writes to the SSD, so I can try to come up with a different solution if that's the case.

 

I don't think it's need caching here, just on the fly, but that's only my guess. You can use some process tracking program to prove it .

 

Thanks trieudoahong. Any particular programs you'd recommend? I'm doing some googling and finding lots of project management software.

 

You can use DiskMon tool here: DiskMon for Windows
There are much useful tool in sysinternals suite.

 

The easiest way to achieve what you want is to simply clone your external to the new one (and make sure that it shows up with the same drive letter as the existing external drive - when it is the only one attached to the system).

Good luck.

 

Thanks tiller. Are you thinking the copy and paste (with subsequently changing the drive letter associated with the newer HDD) won't work? That is what I was going to try first. I should receive a Lenovo Y470p this week with a traditional HDD (as opposed to my Sony's SSD), so I'm not so concerned about using the new Lenovo as the host for the copy and paste procedure (plus it's got eSata and USB 3.0 ports, which should make the transfer a lot faster than if I was doing the copy and paste through the Sony Z! ).

I could try cloning using EaseUS. I have traditionally avoided cloning because I didn't want to purchase Acronis, but EaseUS I believe is free. I suppose my absolute fall back option is still to just reinstall my programs on the external and use copy and paste for my files/pictures/music. I am not sure how windows backups/images will be affected, but I guess I can always just start a new backup procedure on the new drive and forget/delete the old images/backups from the old drive.

 

EaseUS todo backup is free, so is clonezilla and both will do what you want. EaseUS is more user friendly and that's what i've mostly used in the past, clonezilla is the one i normally use for OS partition cloning (live cd).

EDIT: Paragon and parted magic are also free utilities that you could use, you have a good range of options.

 

In case it helps someone, copying and pasting from one external to another, and then using Disk Management to rename the drive letter of the new drive DOES allow you to run the copied programs off of the new drive! Plugged it in and everything seemed to be working normal. The only thing that wouldn't copy were the Windows image and backups. I'll have to back up to the new drive separately.

Thank you all for your help and advice. I really appreciate it.