Transfering OS and Programs to a new Hard Drive

[gaza4]

hey guys, i have a 120Gb SSD in my PC at the moment as my primary drive with my OS and all my programs but i wanna get a new one to replace it. reason being a want a bit more space and i also want a sata iii drive (my current one is sata ii, didnt realise on purchase last year)

so my question is, can i move everything from my current SSD to a new one??? and if so how do i go about it??? i assume its not just a simple drag and drop. i really just dont wanna have to go through the whole chore of reinstalling everything!!! haha

[GoodBytes]

To transfer form one SSD to another, you want to look into a cloning HDD/SSD software, which will copy bit for bit data from your old SSD to the new one.

Once done, remove the old one, and it should work. If you have any encrypted, you must descrypt them, before doing the cloning. Depending on the encryption tool you use, it may be using the HDD serial number as part of it's encryption key.

Do not manually copy and paste files, They are system files that you cannot be seen no mather what you do. Windows really hides them. Also, you have files that can't be moved within Windows, and you have teh fact that the data, like the boot process, needs to be a specifc location on the SSD/HDD, which won't be if you manually copy and paste the data, and you have to make the drive bootable... So yea, definitely use a cloning software.

[gaza4]

To transfer form one SSD to another' date=' you want to look into a cloning HDD/SSD software, which will copy bit for bit data from your old SSD to the new one. Once done, remove the old one, and it should work. If you have any encrypted, you must descrypt them, before doing the cloning. Depending on the encryption tool you use, it may be using the HDD serial number as part of it's encryption key. Do not manually copy and paste files, They are system files that you cannot be seen no mather what you do. Windows really hides them. Also, you have files that can't be moved within Windows, and you have teh fact that the data, like the boot process, needs to be a specifc location on the SSD/HDD, which won't be if you manually copy and paste the data, and you have to make the drive bootable... So yea, definitely use a cloning software. [/quote']

any recommendations on cloning software??? free or cheap if possible!!! lol

[Crew]

synematic ghost.

[Crew]

symantec sorry

[gaza4]

thanks for the advice guys, think i'll clone my PCs SSD and just do a format and clean install in the older laptop as i'm not in a big hurry to get it up and running...

[ha1o2surfer]

If you want easy to use software, Google "Macrium Reflect Free" It's free and does cloning from within a booted OS. Hook up your other drive and just clone it, simple.