Moving Windows 10 from HDD to SDD

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justnopenope

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I have a 1 TB Hard drive with windows 10 Home on it, and a new SSD with nothing on it. The SSD is formatted, and it is a new 120GB volume. Would it be possible to move the boot files to the SSD in order to boot faster?
 
Solution
USAFRet
Adding to the above....if you do get down to a usable consumed space of the current drive (85GB or so), these steps exactly for a good clone operation.

Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
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
This is...
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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You can't move only "the boot files", or even "only Windows".

For a successful clone operation, your total consumed space must be below 85GB going into a 120GB drive.
Unlikely that is the case if you are currently using a 1TB drive.

How much space is actually consumed on that drive?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Not as easy as that.

You'd have to actually install the OS on the SSD.
That then requires you to reinstall all of your applications. The new OS will not know anything about them.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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If that does "only windows", then all the application references are screwed up and he has to reinstall anyway.

If it does "more then windows", it won't fit on his new 120GB drive.
 
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stdragon

stdragon

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A system image is the entire C drive. It's the OS and all installed apps that resides on it.

It will fit on a 120GB drive, so long as the total amount of data is under that amount. For example, if I just installed Windows 10 on a 4TB drive, I could create a system image backup and restore it on a 60GB SSD (not that I'd want to, just as an example).

Edit: Obviously the OP has more data than the SSD can hold. This would work, if the OP deleted and/or archive the data off to another place.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Right.
Either the System Image, or a regular clone operation with Macrium, Acronis, or whatever.

~450GB used on his current drive does not bode well for getting to the required size going into a 120GB drive.
With one of those, you really only have ~85GB to work with.


And if he's removed enough stuff to get below 85GB, might as well just do a clean install on the new little SSD.
 
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stdragon

stdragon

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Just as general rule of thumb in regards to data management. There's three types of data

1. The OS (Windows)
2. Your installed applications.
3. Your data (word, excel, movie, photos, videos, and in some cases, databases such as SQL and e-mail PST files)

When cloning a primary boot drive, data types 1 and 2 have to go together if they were originally on the same drive. Data type 3 however can be moved to another volume in most cases.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Of your current ~450GB actual used space, what constitutes that?
Be as detailed as you can.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Moving from one drive to another, in the same system, generally does not require the Windows license key.
Either cloning or a clean install on the new drive.
 
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stdragon

stdragon

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If you're hard set on keeping the OS and migrating to an SSD, here's the best way that I can think of with some caveats.

1. If you've got 450GB of data, you'll first need to bring that way way down so that it's around 100GB at most (the less the better).
2. MOVE your personal data to another drive (could be an external USB drive, internal, or on a network share hosted on a NAS...etc)
3. Uninstall the applications you use the least. Also weigh your options with the application taking up the most data.
4. After your data has been reduced to a manageable level, proceed to clone with software or use the Windows backup/restore method.
5. Format the 1TB volume AFTER you've verified you have a backup for your data elsewhere.
6. Proceed to reinstall your applications, but now choose your 1TB drive as the new target that they will be installed on.
7. Copy your personal data back to wherever you want.

Granted, this multi-step process is a major work, but I know factually it's doable. Whether or not it's worth the effort is something only you can decide.
 
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wpgwpg

wpgwpg

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If the current Windows 10 installed on the HDD is activated, MS has the info on it's server. It's connected to the motherboard, so just do as USAFRet says and just install Windows 10 on the SSD, then install the apps. When it asks for a key, click on the option to skip that, and when the install completes, it will get activated automatically. You'll end up with a dual boot configuration. This is the process I've done on my 3 home desktops.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Adding to the above....if you do get down to a usable consumed space of the current drive (85GB or so), these steps exactly for a good clone operation.

Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
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
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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Solution
USAFRet

USAFRet

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Define "stuff".

Your personal data, yes.
Any programs, no.

A clean install of the OS on the new SSD requires a reinstall of all your applications.

Again...define "stuff".
 
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stdragon

stdragon

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As USAFret stated, you can't just reinstall Windows on a new drive without reinstalling your applications as well. That's because the apps bind to the system registry hive (effectively the Windows database). When you reinstall Windows, you lose the database entry's that lets it work with the application program directories stored on disk. The only way to re-register them is to perform another install of your apps.
 
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