transferring data without using a paid program

[Yeurick]

Best reader, 

I have a question. I want to upgrade from a hard drive to a ssd but i dont want to lose al my data (there is an install of windows on the ssd). can i just copy all my files (including programs) or do i have to install a program and copy my whole drive? 

Thanks

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can either clone the os and erase the ssd, or copy files, and reinstall the programs on the drive.

 

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

There are numerous ways to do it.

 

Clonezilla is an option.  There are others.

 

If you are just working with a Windows installer USB, you can use a combination of Diskpart to create partitions on the new SSD, and then use the DISM command to capture your HD into a WIM image file, and then restore the WIM image file to the new SSD.

[StDragon]

Are you wanting to retain the copy of Windows on the SSD, or are you just letting us know it's there in the idea it could be useful to the process?

 

If your HDD contains everything you need and the goals is to leverage the performance of the SSD, then you don't need to worry about the OS that currently resides on the SSD.

 

The free method to clone a drive is via the Windows 10 backup and restore feature. A good write-up is located here. You will need a USB flash drive (to create bootable Windows 10 installation media) and a place to store your Windows 10 backup image; typically a dedicated external USB drive.

 

Or, if you don't have the money to spend on an external USB drive, you could always spend 50 bucks at go with Acronis True Image; it works well (I've used it myself) for a direct HDD to SSD cloning operation.

 

NOTE: You can't just copy program file manually from one OS drive to another. When you install programs, the installation writes to a registry hive database that resides within the Windows directory structure as well. It binds them together. However, personal profile data can be copied manually (My Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, etc)