Installing SSD--Need Help Moving OS to SSD

[Arnheim]

Hey folks.

I'm moving through a slowly-expanding build (my brother in law helped me put together my first build-from-parts PC, and I've been in love ever since) that I've been adding to over time. I just recently purchased a 1TB SanDisk SSD, and it should be arriving by mid-week.

I'm hoping to use said SSD as a boot drive, and as a storage space for some of the games I play more frequently (I have a 1TB HDD already in the machine, but it's been hanging around for five years, so I'll be replacing it soon); my concern is not physically installing the drive--that I've got covered--what I'm concerned about is migrating my OS (Win 10) from the HDD to the SSD.

If anyone's got a line on tutorials--or just some guidelines--I would very much appreciate it. I'm trying to learn to do this on my own, without relying on my BIL for technical expertise all the time.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this, and for any assistance provided!

 

[USAFRet]

How much space is currently consumed on your C drive?

Given a 1TB SSD, if your current used space is below 850GB or so, we can investigate a cloning operation.
I have a detailed series of steps for this if you want to go in that direction.

 

[Arnheim]

How much space is currently consumed on your C drive?

Given a 1TB SSD, if your current used space is below 850GB or so, we can investigate a cloning operation.
I have a detailed series of steps for this if you want to go in that direction.

I can easily get my used space below 850GB (much of my current HDD space is taken up by games from Steam; I use my home PC for both work and play, but again, the vast majority of the HDD territory on my machine is eaten up with games I can readily reinstall). I've never tried to clone a drive before; I'd appreciate you sharing this series of steps, so I can see if it's right for me.

Thanks for your answer!

 

[USAFRet]

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 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
-----------------------------


To emphasize...you must power off at the end of the cloning process, disconnect the old drive, and allow the system to boot up from the new drive.