Transfer One Hard Drive To Another Hard Drive from Different OS

  author
Written By Nimisha Ramesh  
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh 
Published On October 28th, 2022
Reading Time 4 Minutes Reading

One of the biggest mistakes that people do while backing up their data is saving the original data and backup it in same machine. Ideally, a backup is defined as the process of safeguarding the data into a different storage medium which could be an external hard drive, pen drive, DVD, Tape etc. depending upon the capacity of data.

In this segment, we are going to discuss how transfer one Hard Drive to another Hard Drive from different OS  free methods that can be adopted to backup data on varied versions of Windows OS and then save it easily on other hard drive. Let’s get started!

Windows XP:

If Windows XP files and folders has to be backed up, then the ideal option available is to use the NTBackup utility. This free solution is meant for backing up and restoring the data on Windows XP Operating System. It backs up the data into a file that is saved with .bkf file extension.

The interface is absolutely easy to use and the best part is, within single interface, there is facility to backup and restore the data. Once you have the BKF file as output, it can be copied and saved to different hard drive. This is available for use on Windows XP by default but the limitation of using this medium is, it is meant for small sized data.

Windows Vista/Windows 7:

With Windows Vista and 7, there is a special mode for backing up the data. This is called Backup and Restore. Using this option, there are two types of backups that can be created:

File Backup and System Image.

If the File Backup is maintained, it will get saved into the Zip file. Here, the user is provided with provision to create normal and incremental backup of the data. With Normal backup, all the files are folders that are selected will be backed up. However, in the incremental backup, the changes after the last backup will take effect.

The other option is to make a system image wherein an image of the system’s hard drive is backed up. In this case, block by block backup will be generated. Therefore, the block that has changed will be backed up. At the time of creating this type of backup, Windows uses the technology called Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) that ascertains that while the backup is created, no changes to block being backed up is done. This facility is supported by the copy-on-write ability of NTFS. This means when the snapshot is taken, the only changed part of the file will be saved on the drive ad it will be linked to the changed file. When this happens, the snapshot will be linked to the old block only. Due to this reason, the backup created using this technique is considered efficient and takes less time also.

The image backup gets saved into VHD file. However, the user has to understand that this VHD file is different from the one that is created by Hyper-V on Windows while virtualization. The VHD file created as System Image or the Zip file as File Backup can be copied and saved to external hard drive.

Windows 8:

With Windows 8, an existing technology is redefined to improve the way how backups are taken. The Previous versions feature is changed as File History. To utilize this feature, it is necessary to connect an external storage device to the system. With this feature, you can back up the data on desktop, Libraries, Contacts, and Favorites. Other than this, if you wish to add any folder, you have to bring it to these directories.

When backups are created using this techniques, multiple versions of the files and folders will be created and how frequently the versions will be changed depends upon the settings done for the same. You can check out versions according to time and day and restore it accordingly. Here, if the external storage medium should be in continues connection with the source drive so that multiple version of the file or folder gets created on time.

Conclusion: All the methods shared above to backup hard drive to another drive are absolutely free and built in within Windows OS. Their restoration process is also simple. However, if there are issues while backup restoration, they can be fixed with solutions like BKF Restore Tool or trouble with external hard drives can be handled with Hard Drive Data Recovery solutions.

  author

By Nimisha Ramesh

Nimisha Ramesh is a dynamic professional known for her expertise in content and brand strategy. With a passion for crafting compelling narratives, Nimisha excels at creating content that not only engages but also aligns with brand objectives. Her strategic approach to content development and brand management has made her a valuable asset in reaching broader audiences and driving business success.