Moving windows 10 from HDD to SSD

[Lillenooben]

I am about to buy a 500GB SSD and I want to transfer my windows to the SSD to make it faster. But I dont want to reinstall windows because my it would take way too much time for me to re-download all of my personal stuff.

What are your thoughts, should I just keep my windows on my HDD or find some way to transfer it to my SSD.

Thanks in advance

 

[CountMike]

Two ways to do it, clone or make a full system backup with let's say Macrium Reflect free and transfer to SSD. If you keep windows on HDD you wouldn't get any benefits from SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

I am about to buy a 500GB SSD and I want to transfer my windows to the SSD to make it faster. But I dont want to reinstall windows because my it would take way too much time for me to re-download all of my personal stuff.

What are your thoughts, should I just keep my windows on my HDD or find some way to transfer it to my SSD.

Thanks in advance

How much total used space is consumed on your current HDD?

 

[Nathaniel Beven]

Two ways to do it, clone or make a full system backup with let's say Macrium Reflect free and transfer to SSD. If you keep windows on HDD you wouldn't get any benefits from SSD.

Have you ever utilized Drive Image XML? I only ask because I will be performing my first clone of WIndows 10 from a 1 TB HHD to a 250 GB SSD and, last time I checked, Cloning with Drive Image XML wouldn't work properly unless the drive was the same size or bigger (even though the USED space is only 90GB of the 1 TB.) So this will also be my first clone going to a smaller size and looking into different software options (then again, maybe DIXML allows it now but im not sure) . Will Macrium Reflect free allow cloning, MRB and all to a smaller sized drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Two ways to do it, clone or make a full system backup with let's say Macrium Reflect free and transfer to SSD. If you keep windows on HDD you wouldn't get any benefits from SSD.

Have you ever utilized Drive Image XML? I only ask because I will be performing my first clone of WIndows 10 from a 1 TB HHD to a 250 GB SSD and, last time I checked, Cloning with Drive Image XML wouldn't work properly unless the drive was the same size or bigger (even though the USED space is only 90GB of the 1 TB.) So this will also be my first clone going to a smaller size and looking into different software options (then again, maybe DIXML allows it now but im not sure) . Will Macrium Reflect free allow cloning, MRB and all to a smaller sized drive?

Yes. Macrium Reflect specifically does a clone from a larger drive to a smaller.
The only consideration is that the actual used space be smaller than the new drive.

CloneZilla and DriveImageXML do not do that.


Specific, tested steps for a successful clone:
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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 C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new 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 original boot partitions, 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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