Upgrade HDD to SSD

[Kurios]

The catch is that I need to migrate the OS as it is (windows 7) and all the licensed programs i've already installed.

The idea is to be able to use the thing exactly as I've been doing all along, but a bit faster...

Thanks

[Jumballi]

Step one is that the ssd MUST be larger, so if your hard drive is 1TB, you need to get a 2TB ssd, then it’s just a simple clone over and you should be good for the most part.

Bit of advice, get a tlc ssd instead of qlc, your old drive is probably full and that means you risk starting past the slowdown point for qlc.

[mariushm]

Not necessarily.

 

You could just use a partition manager software to shrink the C partition (or the one where you have Windows installed) after you move some stuff to another partition.

Then you can use free drive cloning software (Samsung has one on their website which should work with any SSD, not just theirs, and Macrium Reflect is another free option) to clone just the C partition to the new SSD.

 

Some cloning programs will also have the option to reduce the C partition size to fit onto the SSD, without you having to do it manually.

 

Buy the SSD and simply try to use the cloning software and see if you can clone to the SSD.

If you can't, you don't lose anything.

If the software says your C drive is too big to clone to SSD, move some stuff around, play with a partition manager software to shrink C etc..

[homeap5]

OP: And of course you're first guy who want to do that.

[WeeemRCB]

Macrium Reflect is a brilliant tool to do it.

I've done it a couple times and you don't have to power off the machine which is great (unlike older solutions like Symantec Ghost which runs from a boot CD)

 

It's free for home/personal use and worst case scenario - it doesn't work so you plug your old drive back in and have another go.

It's been 100% for me so far (win7 and win10)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

2 hours ago, homeap5 said:

OP: And of course you're first guy who want to do that.

Nope. I've been doing it for years.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Alternatively you can create a system image and recover from that on the SSD, but you need another storage drive to stash the thing.

[homeap5]

7 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Nope. I've been doing it for years.

Me too. That was a joke. Every week few people asks the same question because using search function is too difficult.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

4 hours ago, homeap5 said:

Me too. That was a joke. Every week few people asks the same question because using search function is too difficult.

Totally missed the joke (duh!). I plead Senioritis.