Moving only the OS to SSD without removing the HDD

[alexbbor]

Hey,
I recently bought an 500Gb SSD and installed it into my desktop.
I wanted to move windows to the new SSD since that would speed up the system in general and leave me lots of space to put games and other files which I would prefer to be quickly loaded.

Now my issue is,
There seems to be no easy way of doing this, basicly everywhere I look they are talking about copying the entire hdd drive to my ssd just to have to OS on the ssd which seems extremely inefficeint to me.

I know that simply reinstalling windows and doing it on the ssd this time would be 10 times easier but then theres another issue, my internet speed is not the greatest (basicly a steady 1mb/s) and if I did this that would mean I would have to redownload alot (Forza horizon 3&4, GTA V etc).

My HDD is a 1Tb 7200RPM and sits in a bay inside my PC right now.

Thanks in advance,
-Alex

 

[USAFRet]

There is no application or functionality to move "only the OS".

How much consumed space is on your current HDD?

 

[alexbbor]

There is no application of functionality to move "only the OS".

How much consumed space is on your current HDD?

On the HDD I have 418Gb in use at the moment.

The SSD is completely emptie (460Gb).

 

[USAFRet]

There is no application of functionality to move "only the OS".

How much consumed space is on your current HDD?

On the HDD I have 418Gb in use at the moment.

The SSD is completely emptie (460Gb).

If you can trim that actual consumed space down just a little bit, then you can migrate the whole thing over.

Then, wipe the HDD
Then, move some other stuff off the SSD onto the now empty HDD.

To clone into a 500GB SSD< you need the actual consumed space to be below 400GB.

Once at that point...
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
-----------------------------

 

[alexbbor]

There is no application of functionality to move "only the OS".

How much consumed space is on your current HDD?

On the HDD I have 418Gb in use at the moment.

The SSD is completely emptie (460Gb).

If you can trim that actual consumed space down just a little bit, then you can migrate the whole thing over.

Then, wipe the HDD
Then, move some other stuff off the SSD onto the now empty HDD.

To clone into a 500GB SSD< you need the actual consumed space to be below 400GB.

Once at that point...
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
-----------------------------

Okay I did most of this and got to the part where I was able to boot from the ssd (and have the hdd not connected at all), even though I never had to go through the bios.

but now the issue is whenever I reconnect the HDD it will boot from that one and wont reconise the ssd at all.

I have put the ssd in the slot where the hdd originally was and put the hdd in a slot that was never used before(Its a prebuilt with some emptie drive slots)

Things I did,
Cloned HDD to SSD > removed HDD and placed SSd in its slot > tried putting the HDD back in aswell but that failed.

I would like to thank you for the help you have already given me but I do need some more :3


EDIT:
would I be able to wipe the HDD (even though it booted from it) and then restart, in the hope that it will boot from the SSD that time and give me the 1TB as usable space or do I have to rename it in disk management or something first?

 

[USAFRet]

After the clone process, you verified that the system boots from the SSD by itself?

Then, you verified the boot order in the BIOS?

 

[alexbbor]

After the clone process, you verified that the system boots from the SSD by itself?

Then, you verified the boot order in the BIOS?

Ye it did boot from the SSD (it was the only drive in the PC).

I never had to go through the BIOS though, should this have happened automatically or should I have done that myself?

 

[USAFRet]

After the clone process, you verified that the system boots from the SSD by itself?

Then, you verified the boot order in the BIOS?

Ye it did boot from the SSD (it was the only drive in the PC).

I never had to go through the BIOS though, should this have happened automatically or should I have done that myself?

Just have to verify the boot order.
If the HDD is above the SSD...then it will boot from the HDD if it is connected.

Reorder as needed.