Transferring data from SSD and HDD to a new PC

[SimpleG]

Bought a new PC but I still have all my data on my SSD and HDD drives from my old pc. I tried booting Windows from my SSD to my new PC but it crashed and can't load.

 

Basically my questions are - how can I make my new PC have all my data from my old PC and make the primary hard drive on my new PC act as a another hard drive?

Because I now have an HDD which has Windows installed and acts as a primary drive and I have an SSD installed which I took from my old PC. But the SSD acts as an secondary drive meaning I installed Firefox and it didn't have any of my saved passwords etc. So I'm presuimg the PC thinks my new PC's HDD is the primary drive and SSD is the secondary one.

So yeah, I hope someone understood my problem and is able to help me

[mariushm]

You can use a tool like Macrium Reflect to "clone" your old boot drive to the new SSD.  It's free for home users, but you have to give them an email address.

Once it's cloned, you can go in BIOS and configure the PC to boot from the SSD instead of the previous drive.

[SimpleG]

I'm watching this video and I understand that I should clone the SSD to the HDD.  Since I need to have Windows booted from my SSD, right?  Sorry I really don't understand how any of this works, new to cloning drives

[mariushm]

You clone a drive WITH DATA to a drive WITHOUT DATA.   The data from the existing device, gets cloned onto the new device. 

 

So if the SSD is empty and the hard drive is with data, you clone the hard drive to the new SSD. 

The software replicates the layout of the file system and the files on the new device. 

 

In the software, you select the drive with data, you click "Clone this disk"  and then you chose the empty drive that will be the clone of the original drive. So you choose the empty SSD. 

 

When you're done, you'll have both the hard drive and the SSD with identical contents. 

Now, you just have to go in BIOS and tell the BIOS that you want to start from the SSD instead of the hard drive, otherwise the computer will keep running from the hard drive. 

 

Optionally, if the SSD is bigger than the hard drive, you can "stretch" the last partition to use up all the SSDs empty space, or you can create an extra partition on the SSD and give that one another drive letter.

[SimpleG]

On 2/2/2022 at 4:55 PM, mariushm said:

You clone a drive WITH DATA to a drive WITHOUT DATA.   The data from the existing device, gets cloned onto the new device. 

 

So if the SSD is empty and the hard drive is with data, you clone the hard drive to the new SSD. 

The software replicates the layout of the file system and the files on the new device. 

 

In the software, you select the drive with data, you click "Clone this disk"  and then you chose the empty drive that will be the clone of the original drive. So you choose the empty SSD. 

 

When you're done, you'll have both the hard drive and the SSD with identical contents. 

Now, you just have to go in BIOS and tell the BIOS that you want to start from the SSD instead of the hard drive, otherwise the computer will keep running from the hard drive. 

 

Optionally, if the SSD is bigger than the hard drive, you can "stretch" the last partition to use up all the SSDs empty space, or you can create an extra partition on the SSD and give that one another drive letter.

thanks for all the advice, I now know how to clone a disk !