Clone your Windows OS from a failing drive to a new drive

If you have been experiencing error messages stating that the hard drive that holds your Windows operating system is failing, you can take the following steps to move your Windows OS installation to a new hard drive without reinstalling. This preserves your OS, applications, and settings. If you are comfortable doing it yourself, here’s a straightforward process to do it yourself:

1. Prepare the New Drive

• Connect the new hard drive to your computer. For internal drives, use an available SATA port or, for laptops, use a USB-to-SATA adapter.

2. Select Cloning Software

• Use reliable disk cloning software like:
  • Macrium Reflect (Free): Very popular and reliable for cloning.
  • AOMEI Backupper (Free): This is also a good choice with straightforward options.
  • EaseUS Todo Backup (Free): User-friendly with clear options for cloning.

3. Initiate the Cloning Process

• Open the chosen software and select Disk Clone or Clone Disk (terminology varies).
• Select the current failing hard drive as the source disk.
• Select the new hard drive as the destination disk.
• Note: Some tools will give you options like “Sector by sector” or “Optimize for SSD” if you’re cloning to an SSD—use this for performance improvement on SSDs.

4. Start Cloning

• Verify that the source and destination are set correctly. Initiate the cloning process and allow the software to complete it.
• Cloning can take time, depending on the size of the data.

5. Change Boot Priority (If Necessary)

• After cloning, shut down your computer and disconnect the old hard drive.
• Enter your BIOS/UEFI (usually by pressing F2, Delete, or Esc during boot).
• Set the new drive as the primary boot device.

6. Verify the Migration

• Boot into Windows on the new drive and check if everything functions as expected.
• Run chkdsk or sfc /scannow to check for any file integrity issues post-migration.

Additional Tip:

If the old drive is in very bad shape, you might want to avoid a direct clone, which could bring corrupted data over. In such cases, create a backup image first, then restore that image to the new drive.

This approach lets you move everything without a full reinstall, keeping all your settings, software, and configurations intact.