migrate windows from HDD to SSD help

[InjuredSmurf]

Howdy good folks. I've recently gotten a Corsair mp510 240GB NVMe drive to move windows onto.

 

the quesiton is, how do i go about doing this and keeping all my files?

 

Can I:

A) make a clean install of windows 10 on the SSD and then delete the windows boot partitions from the HDD

 

B) use software to migrate the windows boot files only to the SSD?

 

my HDD has used about 50% of it's 2TB capacity. Is this even possible without destroying my data?

 

 

[Cyberspirit]

Don't know about Corsair, but most SSD have a software that can migrate the operating system or the whole drive. You can just migrate Windows only and your apps, settings etc and keep your data on the HDD. You can just delete the WIndows partition off of the HDD after you are done, just make sure you don't have any files on that partition.

[RageTester]

Clean install is always the best idea. Are you planning to keep HDD as internal drive too?

In theory you can copy partition, but it can't be bigger than your SSD capacity...

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

I believe the Free version of Macrium Reflect is what I used to do this sort of thing.

 

EaseUS is also an option.

 

Edit:

15 minutes ago, InjuredSmurf said:

my HDD has used about 50% of it's 2TB capacity. Is this even possible without destroying my data?

You'll have to have less than the SSDs capacity on the partition that you want to copy. So you'll have to move some files.

 

But it does not matter if the partitions are different sizes becuase Macrium Reflect can deal with that.

[InjuredSmurf]

@RageTester Yes i am planning on keeping the old HDD and preferably with all my games/movies/browser/documents etc on that drive.

 

the C drive is already bigger than the SSD I'm looking to migrate to so that won't be an option. If I do a clean install will all my files and setting etc stay the same?

 

@Cyberspirit Corsair doesn't seem to have any software to migrate that I can find

 

@HairlessMonkeyBoy I'm installing macrium to try that now. EaseUS wouldn't do it

 

[Tan3l6]

Minitool Partition Wizard is another option for cloning.

Recommending to clone DISK, not only a partition. 

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

3 minutes ago, InjuredSmurf said:

If I do a clean install will all my files and setting etc stay the same?

If you link your Windows install to a Microsoft account you can set it up so that some of your settings (mostly aesthetic) carry over to a new install.

 

You really should do a fresh install. But I understand that sometimes it's not a great option.

[Cyberspirit]

5 minutes ago, InjuredSmurf said:

Corsair doesn't seem to have any software to migrate that I can find

They do have a software called Corsair SSD Toolbox but that one only supports up to Windows 8, or so it says. You could give it a shot or maybe try some other migration tool.

[Deano727]

I was in a similar situation to you. I moved windows onto a 120gb SSD and had about 450GB worth of data on my HDD which I was going to use as a secondary mass storage drive in the laptop. Some of the easier options were to find software that migrated just the operating system. But I did it slightly differently.

 

First step: BACK UP YOUR DRIVE!!!

Next: Do a clean install of windows on your new SSD and hook up the HDD.

Then: Point to your SSD as the boot drive in the BIOS (double check that the physical location of each drives is correct - I used a SATA connection meant for an optical drive which did not allow me to boot from there so I could only put the HDD in that location).

Now: When you boot for the first time in this config you will be met with a blue screen asking you which instance of windows you're trying to boot from as it detects the other instance on your HDD.

 

Laslty, once youve booted up, go to your D drive and delete all of your Windows files and folders. If you have programs or games on this drive, you may be better off re-installing them as some of them will try point to files it thinks are in the C drive.

 

IF POSSIBLE, rather physically take off any files you want to transfer and then format the drive after you've created your boot drive to install the OS on the SSD then copy your data back onto the D drive and re-install the programs you want.

 

*Note that I only chose to do it this way as I didn't want unnecessary system junk and I felt like I had far more control as to what went where and it helped me "de-clutter" as well.

[kamiraasu]

If migrating, you could back up files to the point that windows fits on ssd.
But you have to have something to make the back up on ofcourse.

Any migration software supporting partial migration? idk

But clean install on the ssd sounds the easiest way.
 

[InjuredSmurf]

 

2 minutes ago, Deano727 said:

I was in a similar situation to you. I moved windows onto a 120gb SSD and had about 450GB worth of data on my HDD which I was going to use as a secondary mass storage drive in the laptop. Some of the easier options were to find software that migrated just the operating system. But I did it slightly differently.

 

First step: BACK UP YOUR DRIVE!!!

Next: Do a clean install of windows on your new SSD and hook up the HDD.

Then: Point to your SSD as the boot drive in the BIOS (double check that the physical location of each drives is correct - I used a SATA connection meant for an optical drive which did not allow me to boot from there so I could only put the HDD in that location).

Now: When you boot for the first time in this config you will be met with a blue screen asking you which instance of windows you're trying to boot from as it detects the other instance on your HDD.

 

Laslty, once youve booted up, go to your D drive and delete all of your Windows files and folders. If you have programs or games on this drive, you may be better off re-installing them as some of them will try point to files it thinks are in the C drive.

 

IF POSSIBLE, rather physically take off any files you want to transfer and then format the drive after you've created your boot drive to install the OS on the SSD then copy your data back onto the D drive and re-install the programs you want.

 

*Note that I only chose to do it this way as I didn't want unnecessary system junk and I felt like I had far more control as to what went where and it helped me "de-clutter" as well.

sounds like the safest option to me. might take me longer to declutter but if everything stays as it does now just with faster boot times then I should be okay.

[Deano727]

It's a safe option and honestly was less complicated than trying to figure out how to use some of the software out there...

 

Note that its also a very quick way of doing it if you choose not to declutter. As long as you get rid of the windows files on the HDD you can pretty much leave it there. You might pick up some small issues in programs if they need to be pointed to a specific location on a drive it doesn't think exists. But for the most part my programs ran fine without having to resinstall them although i did it anyway after that for other reasons. The only other thing you'll need is to go into your storage settings and point your Photos, Videos, Documents and Download libraries to the D drive and tell windows to install new programs on the D drive. Any specific settings you have within Windows will have to be changed unless you sign in to your MS account.

[InjuredSmurf]

52 minutes ago, Deano727 said:

It's a safe option and honestly was less complicated than trying to figure out how to use some of the software out there...

 

Note that its also a very quick way of doing it if you choose not to declutter. As long as you get rid of the windows files on the HDD you can pretty much leave it there. You might pick up some small issues in programs if they need to be pointed to a specific location on a drive it doesn't think exists. But for the most part my programs ran fine without having to resinstall them although i did it anyway after that for other reasons. The only other thing you'll need is to go into your storage settings and point your Photos, Videos, Documents and Download libraries to the D drive and tell windows to install new programs on the D drive. Any specific settings you have within Windows will have to be changed unless you sign in to your MS account.

Thank you, that's the info i was looking for. I may have more questions when I'm installing windows if you don't minbd helping? never had to mess around with MBR/GPT before and it's blowing my mind...

 

my SSD is formatted inGPT and the windows usb stick I've created is also GPT. I went into my BIOS settings and changed the boot to UEFI and then everything crashed when trying to launch the windows installer.. I've had to plug my HDD back in and revert the boot order and reenable UEFI/Legacy just to get back up and running to troubleshoot

 

It just occured to me I may need a BIOS update.....

 

[Deano727]

Check and see, mine was running the latest BIOS. The SSD should be blank so put it in as your secondary drive and run disk manager to format it correctly, then start the process again and see how you go. You will need to do a Google search to see what your partitions should look like for that size and type of drive.