installing a new HDD - make it bootable?

[Calzone]

Am about to install a new Samsung F3 1Tb to add to my existing 250gb drive running Win7 64bit on 3 partitions. I would like to make the new drive the boot drive running on AHCI controller.

What are the steps I need to take? I think I have gleaned the following list, but could appreciate advice from any experts out there....

1. Install the drive into case, connect to free sata header
2. Go into BIOS, recognise the drive. switch mode to AHCI for that drive/sata header
3. Boot into Win7 - because the drive is not the boot drive, windows should recognise it and load up the microsoft AHCI driver automatically. If the drive were the only drive in the system (or I were changing existing drive from IDE to AHCI) I would have to install the AHCI driver into windows first
4. Need drive imaging software like ACronis True Image 10, or Norton Ghost 15 or one of a number of free options.
5. Make an image copy of the current boot partition and MBR (may need to tick and option to make drive bootable) and copy to the new drive.
6. Shutdown PC, remove old drive, set bios to boot form new drive, and cross fingers.... Reboot.

Is this in the right ball park? How will the new drive sort out what drive letter it should have etc? Is it necessary to remove the old drive on first boot to avoid confusion or can I leave it in ? Wil the old drive still be C:\ and new one be a different letter despite being the boot drive?
What software would people recommend to do this? Is there a good guide anywhere (can find bits and pieces but can be confusing - do I need to format and prtition the new drive first, or does the image copy do this?

Many thanks for any advice you might have - appreciate your time.

Calzone

[michaelkenward]

You'll have to format and partition the drive after you boot your PC.

Exactly what you need to change in the BIOS depends on the motherboard.

Newer ones are easier to set up. An old one might expect you to boot from a IDE drive rather than SATA.

You don't actually say what the old one is.

[Calzone]

Added a proper signature - my apologies. Mobo is brand new Asus P7P55D-evo so offers SATA as IDE/Raid/AHCI I think by SATA port.

Cheers

[sklaw41]

if its ide, then you need to decide if its master or slave

[El Wayneo]

Samsung F3 is SATA.

[sklaw41]

for sata, loading it up bootable is straight forward.

[sklaw41]

win 7 cd will recognise it and will give you option to format your new hdd and load the OS.

[sklaw41]

once win7 is loaed up in to your new hdd, you then use disk management in win7 to arrange/organise all your partitions, including your old drive.