Asklemmy

CloneZilla. Command line scary? RescueZilla. Both free, easy to use, and I use them in an enterprise business and have for many years if you want some proof they're safe and reliable.

Quick note: If it's your OS drive: Clone it. Shut down. Disconnect source drive before turning back on or you'll have boot issues and be scratching your head why.

CloneZilla has worked well for me in the past

The CloneZilla website has a good walkthrough for doing a Disk to Disk image using their tools.

I used to work at Staples as a tech supervisor and did a ton of data transfers but hated their software. I also didn't quite trust these third-party utilities (although I'm sure they're fine), so I made this guide on using GNU tools (specifically gParted) to clone a drive safely, as well as getting it to boot back into Windows afterwards (you do need a Windows install disk. I always carried around a Ventoy with both Ubuntu and Windows on it). It was designed for my not-very-techy techs to be able to follow (Staples' tech program is a joke)

This is probably a bit more complicated than the other listed methods, but I personally trust it way more. If you have some linux experience that's great, otherwise this is a decent way to start building some!

I've only ever had one data transfer catastrophically fail, which was a computer that had a 64 eMMC + an unused 512GB SSD. I cloned the data from the 64 eMMC to the SSD, and it booted fine, I called the customer in and showed them that everything was in the same spot, then I wiped the 64 eMMC and hid it to reduce confusion. Apparently, it was still linking to old files on the eMMC, despite booting off of and showing the SSD as the C: drive. Every other clone I had done I had taken out the old drive first, but obviously I couldn't on the one that was soldered to the board. Left me with a borked windows install, that even though all the data was there, and Windows would boot, opening anything caused an error that was nowhere to be found on Google. (Worst of all, I borked it right in front of them which was quite embarrassing)

I use Acronis TrueImage. There is a free version you can make a bootable USB drive from which has a simple GUI that'll back up your drive to an external location, then swap drives and restore that backup to the new drive. Partitioning can get kinda weird but you can define it all manually and as long as your main working space gets written at the end you can simply extend it in disk management to fill out the new drive. Added bonus to this method is that when you're done you've got a ready-to-deploy backup.

Honestly, just reinstall a clean copy of windows on the new drive and spend the time re-applying all your settings. I know it sucks but you'll have less issues that way. It's worth it.

Edit: typo

Samsung Data Migration if you're using a Samsung drive.

Edit: it seems that it works without a Samsung drive too. I have used it in the past for my boot disk, worked perfectly.

Macrium reflect free addition.

Clonezilla. If you don’t know how to use it, it’s a good time To learn 👍

Try using a specialized software like rsync (on Linux, idk if it is available on windows too)

Probably not the most popular opinion but back in the day Minitool Partition Wizard was really good. Up until version 9.1 it was awesome. So if you can find yourself a copy of v9.1, you'll be able to clone the drive. It was freeware at the time.

I used Aomei partition assistant a lot to do this, it's free and can clone the same drive that is currently running windows too.

What are you missing from simple file copying?

Clonezilla. Done it too many times.

I think the easiest route would be to just use the built in windows disk image tool? MS have increasingly hidden it over the years but it still works. Basically you take an image of your current system, then remove the old HDD, install the new one, restore the image. It does require having enough space on a spare disk to create the image.
This guide looks to cover creating an image:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-create-a-system-image-in-windows-10/84fa6683-e3ac-4e93-9139-368af9267869
and this one covers restoring it: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-restore-a-windows-10-system-image-to-an/e20992ca-5641-4f7c-bb09-3895d0732162

Edit: You can of course keep and reuse the old HDD. I just suggest pulling it for the initial restore if you aren't comfortable with boot settings/wiping disks etc as you might just keep booting to the old existing windows. Once the new one is setup you can then connect the old one and format it.

I bought a cloner. It's not free, but it has paid it's investment many times when I've had to copy a whole drive that's close to being dead or basically wanting to up size my SSD/HDD without losing anything.

This is the one I got: https://a.co/d/0R57miy

FTK Imager should have you covered. You might need to do partitioning resizing on the destination though.

Plug both disks into your PC. Then use a gparted boot disk. There you can clone the partitions and then grow your primary partition on the new disk.

I've been using this method for years without problems.

dd the entire disk, then resize your partitions with fpart or gparted