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I recently built another desktop computer with 3 drives, one of which is from my old computer. I want to move my Windows install to the new solid state drive without losing all of my files on the old drive. I have looked into image copying software but it all looks risky. My latest plan was to mount the Windows 10 ISO to a flash drive, uninstall my old drive, install Windows on the SSD, and then plug in my old drive and uninstall Windows from it.

Can anyone validate this plan or provide a possibly easier alternative?

fixer1234
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JTT
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  • The SSD manufacturer might provide a tool to migrate the old drive data to their SSD. However, the first item in your list should be to make a complete backup of the drive. – Andrew Morton Mar 06 '16 at 22:38
  • I am currently backing up. – JTT Mar 06 '16 at 22:38
  • A good piece of imaging software shouldn't be risky at all, especially if you've backed up - what's causing your concern about the risk? – Unencoded Mar 06 '16 at 22:50
  • I don't know what imaging software is good and what imaging software is bad, would be my concern. All the imaging software websites I have been to have an atmosphere of malware. – JTT Mar 06 '16 at 22:58
  • I respect your caution JTT, unfortunately such software is a perfect medium for those who wish to cause havoc for PC users so your concern is very valid - however there are some very good examples of software out there, see below and let me know if I can do anything else. – Unencoded Mar 06 '16 at 23:04
  • See also https://superuser.com/questions/252675/easiest-way-to-move-my-windows-installation-to-an-ssd – NoDataDumpNoContribution Nov 09 '18 at 13:31

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Whilst I am not affiliated with the folks over at How to Geek.com, they do have an excellent tutorial on how to do exactly what you are trying to do.

The best part is that the software they suggest using is free and also includes recovery media functionality to fix any problems that might arise - usually very minor problems to do with the MBR (Master Boot Record) and BCD (Boot Configuration Data); these appear serious as they prevent booting of the OS, but are easy to rectify, especially using the software in this example: Macrium Reflect Free

The link to the How to Geek tutorial is here:

How to Upgrade Your Existing Hard Drive in Under an Hour

Under normal circumstances I would go through the steps of the process in shorthand for you, however I believe their explanation is particularly good in this case, and your concerns about the risk of drive cloning are more likely to be eased with a more in depth approach, as found above.

I wish you a smooth transition to your shiny new SSD!

EDIT:

As we are only wanting to move the OS to the new drive and not all files due to reduced storage capacity, things are a little different.

If we think of your HDD as containing two groups of files this will be easier to explain: System-Attached files and Data-Storage files. System-Attached files are programs, their dependencies and Windows itself - only a clone operation will preserve their function. Note that many programs make use of save/config files that you can restore from backup, which can be considered as Data-Storage files, these are files which aren't tied to the current OS - basically anything you could put on a memory stick and still use on as normal.

The only way to not have to reinstall programs is to remove as many of your data-storage files as you can (backed up) to make the contents of the HDD small enough to clone to the SSD. You can then format the HDD and copy all your Data-storage files over to it and use your HDD as (you guessed it) data-storage only. If you have a separate partition for Windows/System-Attached files there is an alternative, but many of us don't.

Unencoded
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  • Darn. I was hoping I didn't have to move all my files to another drive before migrating the OS. I have a nearly packed 1TB and I was planning on moving the OS to a 64GB SSD. Did my initial plan have any merit? – JTT Mar 06 '16 at 23:43
  • Just to make sure I'm on the same wavelength, you want to copy *just* the OS, to keep your current settings, but not any user files? – Unencoded Mar 06 '16 at 23:54
  • Yes, thats exactly what I want. – JTT Mar 06 '16 at 23:55
  • Ah, that is a harder one. The general advice in such a situation is to do a clean install on the SSD, or delete all the original user files on the 1TB drive to leave pretty much just the OS, then clone that, as you have backups of your files - just as you mentioned above. I have heard of situations where your plan did indeed have merit, but to my knowledge they rely upon you having a dedicated Windows partition on the original drive. – Unencoded Mar 07 '16 at 00:03
  • So to simplify my plan, if I install windows on my SSD, and uninstall it from my HDD, and then boot off the SSD, I should have windows on only one drive, and keep all my personal files on the other? – JTT Mar 07 '16 at 00:05
  • Absolutely right - when you boot your SSD it will appear as a drive with just Windows on, assuming you have left your HDD attached that will appear as just a 1TB storage drive in Windows explorer, where you copy files to and from as needed. You can also tell your new Windows installation to use your old user folders (Documents, Downloads) on the HDD if you wish. I'm afraid programs will need reinstalling and settings changing, but as Windows tends to pick up dirt over its lifetime a fresh install is the best use of space on your new SSD, so I would say it's a good trade off. – Unencoded Mar 07 '16 at 00:10
  • So no matter what way I do this, I'm going to lose all of my programs on the 1TB, or can they be saved? – JTT Mar 07 '16 at 00:15
  • I'll edit my answer due to comment length limitations, feel free to respond here though. – Unencoded Mar 07 '16 at 00:27
  • So, if I move programs over to a third disk thats been _formatted_ to windows, but has no windows install on it, and I remove the windows on my 1TB and and put it on my SSD, will I need to re-install them, or will they just work? – JTT Mar 07 '16 at 00:39
  • Not quite, in a nutshell - Windows and any installed programs *must* be moved together and cannot be split onto separate drives (N.b unless you have much patience and want to go through the confusion of using symbolic links to trick Windows into thinking the files are on the same drive). So they must all be cloned to the SSD, which is fine if you were going to reinstall them anyway. The important point is that you can delete all the backed up Data-storage files from the HDD first, so the clone operation only clones the OS and its programs, which is what I believe you're looking for. – Unencoded Mar 07 '16 at 00:44
  • I'll accept my fate and just re-install my many programs. Thank you for your help. – JTT Mar 07 '16 at 00:48
  • No problem at all, I'm just sorry I couldn't give you a perfect answer, I wish you a clean transition. If you do have any trouble don't hesitate to comment again and we'll fix it. – Unencoded Mar 07 '16 at 00:53
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    I'd like to add on a tip that if you have problem getting your OS to fit on the smaller disk (because it seems like you can't remove enough stuff), try doing a disk defragmentation. That will tidy up and pack the data together (getting rid of all empty spaces) so that it'll fit nicely into your smaller drive. 64GB isn't very big... (also you might be able to get away with not uninstalling some programs this way) – Wizongod Mar 07 '16 at 00:56
  • @Wizongod Defragmentation does not make more free space available, it just gathers large numbers of small free spaces into a smaller number of larger free spaces. The total number of free blocks remains the same. – Jamie Hanrahan Sep 24 '18 at 21:53