How to Copy Data From One Hard Drive to Another

Copying data from one drive to another is not that difficult. This article should help you with installing a secondary (slave) internal hard drive in your PC and explain how to move files from one to the other. I kept it as basic as possible. I have done this 5 or 6 times myself and figured it out on my own, so this should be easy for anyone with minimal technical skills.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Two hard drives
• Phillips and/or flathead screwdriver
• a table to work on

1. Disconnect your computer from it's power source after turning it off.
2. Refer to your owners manual to see how to access the inside of your PC. The screws/snaps, etc are different from computer to computer. It's best to work in an area where you DON'T have carpet to avoid a static build up and minimize the risk of shocking a component, which can destroy it. Touch a metal piece of the computer's frame before you touch anything else to ground yourself.
3. Once you have the side panels off you can easily see your hard drive. You should also see at least one other set of identical multi-colored wiring harnesses. This is for attaching a second drive commonly referred to as a slave drive.
4. Carefully unpack your new hard drive. Look it over carefully and you will see a set of pins with a white cap on one. There should be 4 sets of two pins one set will be covered by that white cap. Printed on the hard drive near these pins will also be some text telling you which pin set to put the cap on to make it a slave drive. Hard drives are shipped as master (primary) drives, so you will have to move this cap to it's new home to make this your secondary drive.
5. After you have moved the cap you're ready to install your drive. Carefully remove the screws holding your primary drive in place so you can pull it out and review which wires are plugged in where. Don't remove any of them!
6. Using the currently attached drive you can easily see where to plug in the secondary set of wires to your new drive.
7. Now all you need to do is put your old drive back in it's slot and screw it back in. Then repeat the procedure for the new drive.
8. Make sure you put all the covers back on and screw them down. Throw away any leftover hardware...you didn't need it anyway ;)
9. It's time to plug everything back in and turn your system back on. Once it has restarted, you should get a Windows notice letting you know that the system has found new hardware. Just click on it to let it do it's thing.
10. Now you should be able to click on My Computer and you'll see C drive, which is your original hard drive and you should also see D drive, which is your new drive. Double click the D drive icon. This will open a window on your desktop just like when you click on My Documents.
11. Now you can drag and drop items on to your new hard drive. NOTE: Once you drag and drop an item from C drive to D drive, it will still be on C drive. It doesn't move it. It copies it. So once you've moved the item it's a good idea to see if it works. Example: drag a folder of photos from C to D and then click on the folder in D to open it and make sure your photos are actually there. Once you've confirmed that they are, you can delete the folder from C drive.
12. That's pretty much it for installing and copying files from one internal hard drive to another. Your other option is an external storage drive. These are much easier to use. They just plug in to a USB port and the computer finds them the same way they find your camera when you transfer photos. You'll still have to delete the files from C drive after you COPY them to your new drive.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't work in a room with carpet. Especially if it's dry. You run the risk of transferring a static shock to your PC's components while you're touching things inside. Always touch the metal frame or something metal to ground yourself before touching the innards of your computer.