Move windows 10 from HDD to SSD

[Justin2927]

Is it possible to move windows 10 from hdd to ssd without having to move everything? I just want to move the OS to ssd only not the applications/files. Is it possible? If so can you give me a tutorial or provide me a link? Thanks.

 

[Colif]

No, there isn't an easy way... cloning programs can't just move windows, so the only way to set it up is to fresh install win 10 on ssd and then reinstall all the programs on the hdd.

If the majority of programs are steam or origin games, or perhaps wow, then you can reuse the game libraries on new install and leave them on hdd. But majority of programs would need to be reinstalled so that ssd can see them.

There is no easy way to force win 10 to install all your programs on hdd as the default install location for programs is also used by windows to install drivers and all its apps, and changing that breaks windows is many ways

How big is ssd? Should only be getting 250gb or bigger ssd now to run win 10 without feeling squished. even with just windows and a few applications, I still have 170gb of a 250gb ssd left. If you don't install any games on ssd or move all your libraries (Like music, pictures, videos) onto hdd, you don't need to force everything to run off the hdd.

 

[Justin2927]

No, there isn't an easy way... cloning programs can't just move windows, so the only way to set it up is to fresh install win 10 on ssd and then reinstall all the programs on the hdd.

If the majority of programs are steam or origin games, or perhaps wow, then you can reuse the game libraries on new install and leave them on hdd. But majority of programs would need to be reinstalled so that ssd can see them.

There is no easy way to force win 10 to install all your programs on hdd as the default install location for programs is also used by windows to install drivers and all its apps, and changing that breaks windows is many ways

How big is ssd? Should only be getting 250gb or bigger ssd now to run win 10 without feeling squished. even with just windows and a few applications, I still have 170gb of a 250gb ssd left. If you don't install any games on ssd or move all your libraries (Like music, pictures, videos) onto hdd, you don't need to force everything to run off the hdd.

My ssd will be 128GB. I just only need it for the OS and the HDD is just for programs and other stuff. I was saying like just drag and drop the os. So just seperating the OS from applications and clone the OS to ssd. I'm not sure if it makes sense but you'll probably understand what I mean.

 

[Colif]

Only way to only clone the OS would be to delete all the applications before you cloned the drive - this seems like more work than just fresh installing onto ssd. Another requirement is that the space being copied to is bigger than the drive its being copied off, so if hdd is bigger than 120gb the clone operation wouldn't work.

You can't just drag and drop the os, that doesn't work for most applications now and OS is far more than just what is showing in the windows folder. there are hidden parts to windows that don't show in file explorer. Dragging/dropping OS will break your install completely, leaving your applications even more useless. That and just copying folder over wouldn't tell the PC to boot off SSD, booting up just makes this entire idea much harder than just fresh installing onto ssd

Most applications have registry entries so the only way the ssd will know they exist is if they are recorded in registry. and the only way to do that is install them again. You can create a Program files folder on the hdd & then put the applications themselves in it when you run the installer, you will need to do this for each program

You can take ownership of the windows folder on hdd after windows is installed on the hdd and simply delete windows folder then. Anything on hdd won't be seen by the ssd unless you reinstall the new programs