Upgrading system and need to move OS from HDD drive to SSD

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I am upgrading my build and got a MydigitalSSD BPX 240GB NVMe SSD drive as the new bootable disk and a Crucial MX500 1TB SSD for my data disk. My question is how to move my Win 10 OS from the old HDD to the NVMe SSD.

I did the free upgrade to Win 10 Pro from Win 7 Ultimate so I don't have a Win 10 product key. I can clone the bootable disk, but how do I do that to the SSD if I can't install the SSD in my current system to clone to it? I need to install a new MoBo, storage, RAM, graphic card and processor, but if I do that, neither of the storage drives will have anything on them.

The only option I can think of is to clone to my Crucial SSD, which I can attach to my old system, because it's SATA. Then use it as a bootable drive and when my system is upgraded, clone from the Crucial SSD to the NVMe SSD. Seems like a round-about way of doing it. Can anyone suggest another method?

Thank you in advance.
 
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I have a 1TB HDD partitioned into 3 drives, C (101GB used out of 126GB), D (24GB used out of 100GB) and E (242GB used out of 704GB).

As I mentioned above, I am getting a new motherboard, CPU, graphic card, RAM and the 2 SSDs.

What's currently on E will go to the 1TB Crucial drive. C and probably D will go to the MydigitalSSD NVMe SSD.
 
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USAFRet

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OK...we can't do this in one operation. Changing the drive AND motherboard.

A new motherboard often requires a clean install.
Sometimes not, but sometimes yes.
A clone is no different than moving the physical drive.

So...
Prepare for a clean install, just in case.
Build the new system.
Install your existing 1TB, and see if it actually boots up.
If so, then you can proceed with a clone operation of your C and D partitions.If not, then you'll need to do a clean install anyway. Do this on the new NVMe drive.

------------------------------
Read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html
--------------------------------

If it actually boots up 100% in the new hardware, then you can clone directly from the 1TB to the NVMe drive.

Thusly:
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current boot drive and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing boot drive, except the E partition.
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe as necessary.
Delete the 450MB Recovery Partition, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
-----------------------------
 
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Thank you for your response and the detailed instructions.

The new SSD drive is NVMe M.2 so I won't need to worry about swapping SATA cables between the HDD and SSD..

I was able to get a bootable Windows 10 ISO USB disk from Microsoft. Do you think it would be better to just start fresh with a new install of the OS or is cloning a better way to go? I am prepared to go either way, just want to see if one way is better than the other. I realize that a fresh start requires more work installing all the rest of the software, but there won't be any leftover baggage from the current system. Thoughts?

Thank you again.
 
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QwerkyPengwen

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If the cloning doesn't work then just do a fresh install on the NVME. Before doing the install go ahead and link a Microsoft account to your current installation of Windows 10 in order to be able to sign into it on the new installation so that you can retain your current activation of Windows 10.

In the instance of doing a new install you are going to have to reinstall programs to the new C drive but all of your loose files will of course still be there on the HDD. You should have gotten a SATA cable that came with the MX500 and you can just plug it in along side the HDD. After doing a fresh install you make sure that you are booting into the NVME and not the HDD and then you can navigate to the HDD and start pulling files off of it and onto your new drives. After the transfer of files is complete you can perform a formatting of the HDD and use it as extra storage.
 
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I've tried linking my account to the current Win 10 license, but that option is greyed out on the page so it doesn't allow me to do that. I don't know why. Microsoft tells me that I can use my Win 7 product key, because I upgraded to Win 10 (free upgrade) from a purchased copy of Win 7. If I go that route, we'll see if that works. If it doesn't, another chat with MS in on the horizon. If I clone, do I need to worry about the license?

Appreciate your help.
 
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QwerkyPengwen

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No. you shouldn't need the license as long as the motherboard and CPU etc. are all the same. the cloning is literally just that. taking the drive in all of it's entirety as it is and just copying it, partitioning, formatting, files and all. granted, you would be cloning a specific partition since it is recognized as it's own physical drive even though it's actually on the same drive as another partition but windows doesn't know the difference.
 
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Upgrading both motherboard and CPU along with other things. However, because I did the free upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10, MS assures me that I can use my Win 7 product key. We'll see.
 
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So I upgraded everything and amazingly enough it came up and is running great. I am having an issue with my new NVMe SSD.

I used MiniTool Partition Wizard to copy my existing C: partition to the new SSD from my old HDD. The SSD is visible to the system. I set the SSD as the #1 boot priority. I rebooted the system and it booted from my HDD. I removed the HDD and the system wouldn't boot.

I also tried to use the Partition Tool to change the drive numbers, but it wouldn't allow the C: drive (old HDD) to be changed. How do I rename the drives so that the new SSD is C: and the old HDD is something else? Obviously, I would do this once I can get the system to boot from the SSD.

Thank you for any help.
 
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USAFRet

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You needed to boot directly from the new SSD, with only the new SSD connected.
That will become its own C drive.
As noted in my steps above.

No messing around with swapping drive letters, especially the C drive.
 
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USAFRet, appreciate your response. I read your steps carefully and did follow them. However, since the new drive is NVMe and the old is SATA there were no cables to be swapped. Please note that I said I removed the HDD and tried to boot with only the SSD in the system and the system didn't boot at all. It acted as if there is not boot disk available at all.

Thanks.
 
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I found out that one can boot only from primary and not logical partitions. My SSD partition was logical. So I changed it to primary, but that didn't help at all. I disconnected the HDD and tried to boot from the SSD to no avail. The system acts as though there is no bootable disk available.

Any thought on what else I can try?

Thank you.
 
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USAFRet

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"I set the SSD as the #1 boot priority. I rebooted the system and it booted from my HDD. I removed the HDD and the system wouldn't boot."

That indicates the HDD was still connected when you tried to boot up for the very first time after the cone operation?

Assuming the system still works with the HDD and only the HDD connected (yes, remove the NVMe to test)...I'd suggest trying it one more time.

At the end of the cloning process, power off.
Disconnect the HDD.
Then and only then power up, and see if it boots from the NVMe by itself.
 
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Thank you for your suggestions.

I ended up cloning the partition again and this time I included a small 450MB partition that was right behind my C: partition.Something must have done the trick, because the system booted from the SSD.

The issue after that was that I didn't see my HDD, but when I eventually went into Disk Mgmt, I saw it there, but it wasn't active, probably because the C: designation clashed with the boot SSD drive letter C:. I renamed the C: on HDD to F: and everything is running smoothly.

Again, thank you for your help.
 
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