M.2 HDD windows questions

[Jacksongosnell4256]

I got an M.2 and wanna transfer windows from my hdd to it and I thought of booting windows I have on a flash drive like a new pc on my m.2. And didn't know if it would mess up anything on my hdd.

[da na]

You could always just take the HDD out for installing Windows and put it back in later. 

[AudiTTFan]

1. Boot off of the drive that currently has windows on it
2. Download cloning software like Macrium Reflect or Acronis
3. Find the option to clone a drive, and set the SSD as the destination
4. Wait until it's done, and then reboot, go to your BIOS and change the boot order so your SSD is the main drive
5. When you're in Windows running off the SSD, format the hard drive, since everything's on the SSD now.

If you bought an SSD smaller than the hard drive because you planned on only moving the OS itself to the SSD, you'll have to move your personal files over to an external drive first to free up space, and move them back to the hard drive after it's been formatted.

[Jacksongosnell4256]

2 hours ago, AudiTTFan said:

1. Boot off of the drive that currently has windows on it
2. Download cloning software like Macrium Reflect or Acronis
3. Find the option to clone a drive, and set the SSD as the destination
4. Wait until it's done, and then reboot, go to your BIOS and change the boot order so your SSD is the main drive
5. When you're in Windows running off the SSD, format the hard drive, since everything's on the SSD now.

If you bought an SSD smaller than the hard drive because you planned on only moving the OS itself to the SSD, you'll have to move your personal files over to an external drive first to free up space, and move them back to the hard drive after it's been formatted.

Could I just take out the hdd boot it up with a USB with windows on it like a new pc and when it's finished plug it back up or will the mess with the files?

[AudiTTFan]

11 minutes ago, Jacksongosnell4256 said:

Could I just take out the hdd boot it up with a USB with windows on it like a new pc and when it's finished plug it back up or will the mess with the files?

You could do that, as long as you're fine with reinstalling all your programs and moving all your data over to the SSD manually so you can format the hard drive. Just deleting all the system files on the old drive won't work because Windows blocks you from deleting folders like system32 regardless of whether they're on your C drive or a different one.

 

Sorry I forgot to ask earlier, but you're planning to keep the hard drive for extra storage, right? I kind of just assumed that's what you wanna do

[Jacksongosnell4256]

21 minutes ago, AudiTTFan said:

You could do that, as long as you're fine with reinstalling all your programs and moving all your data over to the SSD manually so you can format the hard drive. Just deleting all the system files on the old drive won't work because Windows blocks you from deleting folders like system32 regardless of whether they're on your C drive or a different one.

 

Sorry I forgot to ask earlier, but you're planning to keep the hard drive for extra storage, right? I kind of just assumed that's what you wanna do

Yeah I was afraid of having to reinstall everything, and yeah I'm gonna basically use it for extra storage