Question Migrate OS drive without cloning and formatting ?

[mayoriri]

It's a weird story, I got a super sketchy cheap SATA SSD that I somehow didn't realize it was sketchy, and it's one of those Chinese brands we all had never heard of. I stupidly let it hold my OS for my new computer and started getting BSODs after two weeks. It would just freeze for a moment before it dies. The first BSOD happened during Windows update, in which the bad timing caused me to believe the next BSODs was caused by the Windows got corrupted. The messages often say "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED" or "KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR". I tried everything for a few weeks, and eventually realize it was (obviously) the SSD that was causing the issue. The BSOD seems to occur when I do heavy tasks on the SSD, like installing larger software and uploading large files. From there, I bought a better SSD from a real reputable brand, but my computer freezes when I clone the old drive.

And that is my problem for now, my old files are trapped on a very fragile SSD. I want to know if I can install a fresh Windows 10 on a new SSD and make the old C drive as D drive without formatting it. If I could, then I can probably push the old SSD to transfer the files without having BSOD.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

From there, I bought a better SSD from a real reputable brand, but my computer freezes when I clone the old drive.
You're going to migrate any corruption you have on your existing OS onto the new SSD. Instead of compounding your woes, it's best to just start afresh, like you did with a new SSD. i.e, Reinstall the OS after you've recreated your bootable USB installer for the OS.

You could migrate any mission critical files off the existing drive as is, without installing anything...perhaps go into Safe Mode whereby the OS is the lightest and migrate your data. Likewise, you could look into this;
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

 

[USAFRet]

And that is my problem for now, my old files are trapped on a very fragile SSD. I want to know if I can install a fresh Windows 10 on a new SSD and make the old C drive as D drive without formatting it. If I could, then I can probably push the old SSD to transfer the files without having BSOD.

This does not match the title, but probably yes.

Fresh install on a new drive. With ONLY that drive connected.
Reconnect the failing one later, and see if you can still access it.

-----------------------------
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 Magician (which includes 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.
-----------------------------

 

[mayoriri]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

From there, I bought a better SSD from a real reputable brand, but my computer freezes when I clone the old drive.
You're going to migrate any corruption you have on your existing OS onto the new SSD. Instead of compounding your woes, it's best to just start afresh, like you did with a new SSD. i.e, Reinstall the OS after you've recreated your bootable USB installer for the OS.

You could migrate any mission critical files off the existing drive as is, without installing anything...perhaps go into Safe Mode whereby the OS is the lightest and migrate your data. Likewise, you could look into this;
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

Thank you for all the detailed replies!
I haven't tried safe mode, I will try it now. Thinking about doing fresh install as a last resort in case I will have to format the old drive.

This does not match the title, but probably yes.

Fresh install on a new drive. With ONLY that drive connected.
Reconnect the failing one later, and see if you can still access it.

-----------------------------
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 Magician (which includes 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.
-----------------------------

I had used DiskGenius, but I'll probably use those other programs. I learned about the cloning part, but I'll have to learn about the wiping the old drive partitions. Thanks for the explanation!

 

[USAFRet]

I had used DiskGenius, but I'll probably use those other programs. I learned about the cloning part, but I'll have to learn about the wiping the old drive partitions. Thanks for the explanation!

For this dying drive, do not try to clone it.

Fresh install on a new drive.

 

[TerryLaze]

For this dying drive, do not try to clone it.

Could just be a cheap controller that is overheating when it has to do too much too fast.

mayoriri​

Crystal disk info can tell you in what condition the hardware of the drive is as well as the current temp it runs at.
If it just gets too hot you could try to open the ssd and have a fan blowing on it while doing heavy tasks to see if that helps.

 

[USAFRet]

Could just be a cheap controller that is overheating when it has to do too much too fast.

mayoriri​

Crystal disk info can tell you in what condition the hardware of the drive is as well as the current temp it runs at.
If it just gets too hot you could try to open the ssd and have a fan blowing on it while doing heavy tasks to see if that helps.

Could be a lot of things.

 

[mayoriri]

I have fresh installed Windows 10 on the new SSD. Thankfully it went exactly as I wanted it to be, I can still access the old SSD as D.

Could just be a cheap controller that is overheating when it has to do too much too fast.

mayoriri​

Crystal disk info can tell you in what condition the hardware of the drive is as well as the current temp it runs at.
If it just gets too hot you could try to open the ssd and have a fan blowing on it while doing heavy tasks to see if that helps.

I don't know much about SSDs, but I was also thinking that it might be one component that is broken. I did some stuff after reinstalling it, and there are some things I can tell you about this:

1. The SSD can be accessed normally when I open smaller files, but it gets weird when I open bigger files like videos. The video would just freeze and task manager indicate the response time, write speed, and read speed as 0, active time as 100%. The SSD became fully unusable and Windows would say "a device that doesn't exist is referred" if try to open something from it. Most of the time, it would work normally again after I restart the computer, but there were times when the BIOS said I need to check the disk.

2. Transferring large files would make the same thing happen, but I found a trick to just move few files at a time and give it a few seconds break. It seems like the SSD cannot handle the speed.

Here is the Crystal Disk status that it shows.

I think the manufacturer faked some of the of them (if that's possible), because the temperature has never changed in about a week I was checking on it.

I also ran chkdsk, which was somehow possible to do back then. Now I can't do it, as it would stop responding with the amount of task needed to do. But, I have the screenshot of it:

I don't think any of the files is corrupt, such a bizarre scenario.

Thankfully I found a solution. Thank you for all of the time you've spent on this thread!

 

[TerryLaze]

I think the manufacturer faked some of the of them (if that's possible), because the temperature has never changed in about a week I was checking on it.

Bad/cheap components.
Erase fail count is at 128000 that means that the memory on the ssd is getting bad, it has difficulties to erase the old data to write new data.

 

[mayoriri]

Bad/cheap components.
Erase fail count is at 128000 that means that the memory on the ssd is getting bad, it has difficulties to erase the old data to write new data.

But the failed erases are already inaccessible, as if they were deleted successfully?

 

[TerryLaze]

But the failed erases are already inaccessible, as if they were deleted successfully?

An ssd has to erase a memory cell before being able to write to it again, but the main thing is that if a memory cell has issues writing it will also have issues reading.