I want to swap out current boot drive with a new hard drive. This would replace my current boot drive with the new hard drive. What is the best way to do this? Are there windows tools to do this? It is better to use third party tools to clone my boot drive and then replace my boot drive with the clone? Are there any special issues with Windows 8.1 when creating a boot drive?

Nothing wrong using third party tool for cloning.Here is nice article :

How to Clone Windows 8.1 to New Hard Drive [Tutorial and Tools]

Hi ComputerLoverForever,

If you want to replace the hard drive with a new drive, it is recommend to backup the important data from the old drive ,then perform a clean installation in the new hard drive and then restore the data from the backup .

Using the third party tools to clone the system may result in unexpected errors or even more worse losing data. We don`t recommend to do this .

Best regard

• Edited by MeipoXu 3 hours 7 minutes ago

Hi ComputerLoverForever,

If you want to replace the hard drive with a new drive, it is recommend to backup the important data from the old drive ,then perform a clean installation in the new hard drive and then restore the data from the backup .

Using the third party tools to clone the system may result in unexpected errors or even more worse losing data. We don`t recommend to do this .

Best regard

• Edited by MeipoXu Tuesday, February 17, 2015 8:36 AM

There are a variety of means available. There are a number of third party tools that support disk to disk cloning, many that are even provided by disk manufacturers for use with replacement hard drives. You may want to check with the manufacturer of your replacement disk to see if they provide a cloning solution for your use. Cloning allows for a direct transfer of the files and configuration of one disk directly to another disk and is the most efficient route for this process.

Alternative options include:

• Creating an image from the original hard disk and restoring that image to the replacement hard disk. Windows Backup provides the Create a system image option that would facilitate this process.
• Creating a backup of your data, then performing a clean installation of Windows on the new hard disk and restoring your data to the new installation.
• Performing a clean installation on the new hard disk, then using Windows Easy Transfer to transfer your data to the new computer.

Brandon
Windows Outreach Team- IT Pro
Windows for IT Pros on TechNet