Migrating OS To new drive

[PlanetHewie]

I recently bought a 960 evo m.2 ssd for my computer, to serve as my new primary boot drive. I was wondering if it is possible to migrate my current version of Windows 10 on my HDD onto the new drive, as I would not like to have to pay for a new license key for Windows 10

Thanks for your help

[AdamBGames]

1 minute ago, PlanetHewie said:

I recently bought a 960 evo m.2 ssd for my computer, to serve as my new primary boot drive. I was wondering if it is possible to migrate my current version of Windows 10 on my HDD onto the new drive, as I would not like to have to pay for a new license key for Windows 10

Thanks for your help

if you link your windows to your microsoft account, it says your key. when migrating, use AOMEI Partition Assistant (thats what i used), it will transfer just the used data and OS and will make the new drive bootable. (there is a button on the side that says migrate OS to ssd) . depending on the speed of the drive this will take about an 1/2 hour

[domandric034]

3 minutes ago, PlanetHewie said:

I recently bought a 960 evo m.2 ssd for my computer, to serve as my new primary boot drive. I was wondering if it is possible to migrate my current version of Windows 10 on my HDD onto the new drive, as I would not like to have to pay for a new license key for Windows 10

Thanks for your help

Acronis True Image.

[Electronics Wizardy]

If you reinstall it it will activate automatically as it uses the motherboard or your microsoft account to activate it.

 

You can also clone it with something like macrum reflect

[NumLock21]

Download Samsung Migration Assistant. Install and use that.

[Enderman]

You should do a clean install, unless you want to have a bunch of windows issues in the future.

You don't need to buy a new copy of windows, you're not changing your motherboard so it will stay activated.

https://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

[bcguru9384]

you could also boot computer to recovery mode

choose cmd line

then do robocopy *.* c: "newdriveletter":

or xcopy but also use appropriate / letters or - letters with the commands

xcopy /? or robocopy /? to get that list

also note to do format /? to get the needed letter to set bootable flag on new drive(this is done before the copying).

*.* means allfiles allextensions

[b105f00d]

Option #1

 

There will be zero issues if you use Samsung Migration Tool. It is only compatible with destination Samsung Drives.

 

You install the software onto your existing hard drive and connect your other drive to the PC with nothing on it.

 

After you install the tool, you will see a pretty straightforward menu which recognizes the Samsung brand SSD in the system and allows you to do a direct copy from one drive to the other. It will automatically compensate for the size difference (if there is one) and adjust the empty space on the volume accordingly to fit the new drive.

 

After you're finished, unplug your original drive and voila. I use it all of the time and I've never had a problem. It will be a direct and seamless transition between the two.

 

One thing though... Make sure that the drive you're copying from is UEFI Boot with GPT partition scheme to get the full benefit of the faster boot time. If it is MBR, I would recommend starting from scratch on the new drive, but in the end its up to you. For instance, you could go from booting in 5-7 seconds to 2-3 seconds.

 

Since fragmentation isn't really a big deal on SSD's starting from scratch really isn't going to benefit too very much unless your OS HDD is old with a lot of bad sectors and file corruption to begin with.

 

Option #2

 

Acronis True Image is also a very useful tool, but can sometimes be a pain in the ass with NVMe compatibility if you are using an NVMe M.2 compatible drive or slot. I had this issue trying to migrate my recent GIgabyte H270-WIFI board's Corsair MP500 M.2 NVMe drive (since it wasn't samsung I couldn't use Migration Tool).

 

But I use Acronis True Image on a daily basis to image 50 machines in a single day with the exact same software setup for mass deployment. It is super easy to use and convenient.

 

Also, if you do use Acronis be sure that you create the Acronis Bootable Media with UEFI compatibility and select the UEFI Boot Device (it will be labeled) from  your boot menu for it to work properly when creating the duplicate. I've had issues with his in the past as well.

Edited June 3, 2017 by b105f00d