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Boot Drive Swap

Vraj6545

Hey Guys!,

My PC currently has 2 drives, the first being my 256GB m.2 SSD which I use as my boot drive and where i install applications to, and the second being a 3TB HDD, I wish to upgrade my m.2 SSD by replacing it with a 1TB m.2 SSD, and use the old 256GB m.2 SSD as just extra storage. My mother board has 2 m.2 slots where i can plug in both my old and new SSDs. What is the easiest was i can go about making this swap without losing any data or having to reactivate windows? Is there any way to do it within windows only or would i have to download an application?

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1 minute ago, Vraj6545 said:

What is the easiest was i can go about making this swap without losing any data or having to reactivate windows?

There are a ton of different cloning software tools out there. Also, you won't have to reactivate Windows, since your activation is tied to your motherboard, not your SSD or Windows install. 

 

As for ways you can do it, there are no built in utilities in Windows. I have friends who have used Acronis stuff and it worked well for them, though personally the one I trust is called Clonezilla. It's a Linux utility that does a bit for bit copy of your data in its own live environment. It's the one that I've had the least amount of issues with.

 

That said, usually you're better off just doing a full Windows reinstall rather than a clone IMO if your install is over 6 months old. You don't have to, but it's just usually better

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1 hour ago, RONOTHAN## said:

There are a ton of different cloning software tools out there. Also, you won't have to reactivate Windows, since your activation is tied to your motherboard, not your SSD or Windows install. 

 

As for ways you can do it, there are no built in utilities in Windows. I have friends who have used Acronis stuff and it worked well for them, though personally the one I trust is called Clonezilla. It's a Linux utility that does a bit for bit copy of your data in its own live environment. It's the one that I've had the least amount of issues with.

 

That said, usually you're better off just doing a full Windows reinstall rather than a clone IMO if your install is over 6 months old. You don't have to, but it's just usually better

Well i would definitely reinstall windows on the new SSD but, I've already gone through the hassle of downloading all my adobe products and my plugins and I'd rather just clone the drive to save me time. What do you think about using Reflect 8 from Macrium to clone? Ill probably clone the drive and remove my original boot drive from the motherboard and try to boot off of the new one to see if everything works, and if something goes wrong ill probably end up reinstalling windows + all the applications

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7 minutes ago, Vraj6545 said:

Well i would definitely reinstall windows on the new SSD but, I've already gone through the hassle of downloading all my adobe products and my plugins and I'd rather just clone the drive to save me time. What do you think about using Reflect 8 from Macrium to clone? Ill probably clone the drive and remove my original boot drive from the motherboard and try to boot off of the new one to see if everything works, and if something goes wrong ill probably end up reinstalling windows + all the applications

I get that. I have gotten good enough at reinstalling Windows that it's second nature of me to get everything setup, and only takes me about an hour to be fully up and running with a new Windows install, but I know most people aren't like that. I haven't really heard much about Macrium's software, so I can't comment on good/bad it might be. Acronis's stuff I know has worked in the past, and Clonezilla is about as reliable as it gets. Either way, as long as the software isn't complete garbage, doing the "try and see if it works" method would be completely doable. 

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