Replacing a Hard Drive - Need More Space

A

Arvind

Member
Hi all,

I have two internal hard drives, C and D: -
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)

Now and again I do some video editing, photography, and I intend to install some games, but am worried that my C drive will become full fairly soon. The C drive has 231GB free and the D drive has 478GB free. I know it may sound a lot of space but I want to kind of future proof it. I also want to keep D as storage and install software etc onto C. Excuse my ignorance, but how can I replace the C with a higher capacity drive without losing everything that's on there currently? Or will I have to wipe everything, install a new drive, and reinstall Windows and all my other software?

Thank you.

Full spec: -
Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I would suggest you have two main options.

The first is simply to add more storage. You could add, say, a 2TB hard drive, and move anything that doesn't need to be super-fast from the D drive onto that. Alternatively, and more expensively, you could get a large SSD, probably a SATA one.

The second is to replace that second 1TB drive with a larger one, a 2TB (or even 4TB) M.2 SSD. You then buy a simple M.2 enclosure and use it as a removable drive, like the world's highest quality USB drive. (I have a couple of these and wouldn't be without them.)

Either way, don't replace your primary drive. It should only contain your OS and programs. There should be no data (files, games, projects) on it. Ideally you want it no more than about half full, which is where you are now. I'd makes sure that anything on that drive that shouldn't be there is moved off, and leave it as it is.

Above all and axiomatically, make sure everything is properly backed up, including offsite (e.g. cloud) backups.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top