I think I could stumble through this on my own with a little help from Google, but there is a complication I would like to add.

My 2TB data drive with my audio books (98% filled!) is dying. When I reboot, Windows frequently tells me it is checking and repairing Drive F:, and the last time I did a backup to a USB external 2TB drive I got errors and eventual failure of the backup.

I have a brand new Western Digital 3TB drive to replace it. It is now installed in my computer, and Disk Management sees the drive and wants me to initialize it. But now the complication...

Since I have a bunch of space on that drive that I will likely never need, I thought that maybe I should use some of that space to clone my C: system drive, particularly since my Macrium cloning software tells me that yes, I can (and have done so) clone to an external USB drive, but Windows won't boot from a USB drive, I would have to install that drive in place of my current C: drive in order to boot the computer from the clone.

So, it would work out nicely if I could make part of the new 3TB F: drive my destination for the C: clone.

How do I do that? Can I initialize the new 3TB F: drive as a "New Simple Volume" and create a directory on that new F: drive as the destination to store my C: Clone? If so, would it be bootable? Or do I need to partition the new 3TB drive into an F: drive, and a bootable G: drive that would hold my C: Clone?

If the latter, is it something I might be smart enough to figure out how to do, or will I need step-by-step directions from someone who knows what they are doing? [hint, hint...] Are there any traps to avoid?

Thank you in advance for any help that anyone can offer.

tanstaafl.