Question Can I move my Windows 11 to another SSD?

[AspectSaber]

So a few days ago I received a 1 TB samsung 980 NVME SSD, and it is much better and bigger than the one I have that boots my OS, which is only 240 gigs and is slower. How can I transfer the OS to the better drive and how can I do this? (They are in the same PC)

 

[Deleted member 14196]

You can use Macreum Reflect to clone it

 

[Lafong]

Or you can use Macrium Reflect to image it.

Clone and image are cousins and Macrium will do either.

Either can work or fail. If one fails, try the other.

Success rate probably 98 or 99 percent.

Imaging is two steps: make an image and restore it.

Cloning is one step.

Procedure is different with each.

 

[AspectSaber]

Or you can use Macrium Reflect to image it.

Clone and image are cousins and Macrium will do either.

Either can work or fail. If one fails, try the other.

Success rate probably 98 or 99 percent.

Imaging is two steps: make an image and restore it.

Cloning is one step.

Procedure is different with each.

And after I can delete the small drive for extra storage with the OS? I have done this before but when I wiped the hard drive using clear disk command in windows command prompt and restarted, the PC needed to be repaired. It was an easy fix all I needed was a USB tool but I think I did something wrong so how could I avoid this?

 

[USAFRet]

So a few days ago I received a 1 TB samsung 980 NVME SSD, and it is much better and bigger than the one I have that boots my OS, which is only 240 gigs and is slower. How can I transfer the OS to the better drive and how can I do this? (They are in the same PC)

-----------------------------
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
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.

Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
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 all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

 

[Lafong]

And after I can delete the small drive for extra storage with the OS? I have done this before but when I wiped the hard drive using clear disk command in windows command prompt and restarted, the PC needed to be repaired. It was an easy fix all I needed was a USB tool but I think I did something wrong so how could I avoid this?

Sounds like your prior attempt failed because Windows was spread across 2 drives and you didn't know that. Your attempt did NOT include each and every thing needed to boot Windows....for whatever reason. When you "wiped the hard drive using clear disk command" that necessary part of Windows was gone for good and was never copied to the destination drive. Consequently, the destination drive would not boot until it was repaired to include whatever part of Windows had been on the wiped drive.

It could happen again....if some of Windows is on some other drive.

A "clone" should by default simply be a replica of the source drive. ALL partitions. You choose the source drive. If some part of Windows is on 2 drives, you will have problems.

Imaging is on a partition by partition basis. If a drive has 5 partitions, you can include one, several, or all of the partitions in the image file. Standard procedure would be to include all.....C and all others. But you could choose just one if you wanted.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Another thing of note is if you clone a drive, do not look at the clone while booted from the original drive. Each partition has a unique ID assigned to it that Windows uses for various things. When you clone a drive, those partition IDs also get cloned over, and Windows by default doesn't mount partitions with duplicate IDs. If you try to access it, Windows will ask if you'd like to change the ID, but it doesn't change anything that Windows might use that ID for.

I think some cloning tools are aware of this, but it's best to assume that they aren't. You have to verify a successful clone by booting into that partition.

 

[AspectSaber]

Sounds like your prior attempt failed because Windows was spread across 2 drives and you didn't know that. Your attempt did NOT include each and every thing needed to boot Windows....for whatever reason. When you "wiped the hard drive using clear disk command" that necessary part of Windows was gone for good and was never copied to the destination drive. Consequently, the destination drive would not boot until it was repaired to include whatever part of Windows had been on the wiped drive.

It could happen again....if some of Windows is on some other drive.

A "clone" should by default simply be a replica of the source drive. ALL partitions. You choose the source drive. If some part of Windows is on 2 drives, you will have problems.

Imaging is on a partition by partition basis. If a drive has 5 partitions, you can include one, several, or all of the partitions in the image file. Standard procedure would be to include all.....C and all others. But you could choose just one if you wanted.

Yeah I think I did something wrong, but atleast it was successful. I think it was an HDD to SSD upgrade. So how can I delete the small 240 GB drive without having this issue again? Also, to delete the drive I think I used the diskpart clean all command. When I cloned the OS and windows was working, I plugged in the other drive with the original copy of windows and deleted it with the command.

 

[Lafong]

General idea:

Use Macrium cloning or imaging to "transfer" everything on the old drive to the new drive.

Disconnect the old drive.

CONFIRM that the PC will then boot properly with ONLY the new drive connected.

If it won't, you did something wrong.

If it will, reconnect the old drive. It should appear as D or E or whatever, not C. Do whatever you want with it....copy any files you want to, format it if you want to, whatever. You could do a "clean" from Diskpart, but a simple reformat should be fine.

 

[AspectSaber]

General idea:

Use Macrium cloning or imaging to "transfer" everything on the old drive to the new drive.

Disconnect the old drive.

CONFIRM that the PC will then boot properly with ONLY the new drive connected.

If it won't, you did something wrong.

If it will, reconnect the old drive. It should appear as D or E or whatever, not C. Do whatever you want with it....copy any files you want to, format it if you want to, whatever. You could do a "clean" from Diskpart, but a simple reformat should be fine.

Ok thank you. Honeslty I'm considering not putting the old drive after thinking about it cuz it only has 240 gigs.

 

[AspectSaber]

General idea:

Use Macrium cloning or imaging to "transfer" everything on the old drive to the new drive.

Disconnect the old drive.

CONFIRM that the PC will then boot properly with ONLY the new drive connected.

If it won't, you did something wrong.

If it will, reconnect the old drive. It should appear as D or E or whatever, not C. Do whatever you want with it....copy any files you want to, format it if you want to, whatever. You could do a "clean" from Diskpart, but a simple reformat should be fine.

Wait before I do this, does it matter if the ssd has some stuff on it? I was using it for a bit when I realized I wanted to do this but there's nothing on it just a game I uninstalled, and there should be plenty of space to clone the system because it has 838 gb usable, and I can't seem to delete the partition. EDIT: Last thing, the better 1 tb drive is installed on a pcie 1x slot that is the only thing available on my motherboard, so when windows is cloned I will remove the 240 gb nvme from the m.2 slot and put the 1 tb drive to the old one. Would this cause issues?

 

[Lafong]

Whatever is on the destination drive will be wiped out. You shouldn't have to prepare it at all. The cloning procedure will do whatever is necessary.

I've never used Macrium when the destination drive is in a PCIe slot. I suspect it would work, but cannot confirm.

It sounds like you could instead use the following method IF you have another drive (internal or external) WITH ENOUGH FREE SPACE. This would avoid the PCIe slot.

1; install Macrium on the 240 GB drive. Immediately make "Macrium recovery media" from Macrium menus using a USB stick of at least 1 GB capacity. Takes a few minutes. CONFIRM you can boot the PC from this stick.

1a; make a Macrium image of ALL partitions on the existing 240 gb NVMe. Save it on this other internal/external drive. You need enough free space on the other drive so it will fit. Size needed will be about 2/3 the size of the occupied space on the 240....that would be 150 GB or less.

2; remove the 240 gb NVMe.

3; install the new 1 TB NVMe drive in the same port the 240 was in.

4; boot the PC from Macrium rescue media you made. Booting from it leads you to the Macrium interface on the stick.

5; restore the image you just made from the internal/external to the new 1 TB now sitting in the NVMe port. Whatever is on the new 1 TB will be wiped out.

No PCIe slot needed.

 

[USAFRet]

Wait before I do this, does it matter if the ssd has some stuff on it? I was using it for a bit when I realized I wanted to do this but there's nothing on it just a game I uninstalled, and there should be plenty of space to clone the system because it has 838 gb usable, and I can't seem to delete the partition. EDIT: Last thing, the better 1 tb drive is installed on a pcie 1x slot that is the only thing available on my motherboard, so when windows is cloned I will remove the 240 gb nvme from the m.2 slot and put the 1 tb drive to the old one. Would this cause issues?

See my steps above.
Do it just like that.