Migrating OS from hdd to ssd

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infmaousbacon

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Jan 5, 2018
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Hello so I recently got a solid state drive and I was wondering if I could only migrate my system os to the ssd instead of all the files on my hdd
 
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You could choose to do a clean install, and I am assuming windows 10 here only, on the SSD. Also assuming that you windows 10 us legal and valid, then that key is actually kept on Microsoft servers, so they will activate that without issue. Then you can plug the hdd back in afterwards.

The problem here is that you will have lost all your settings, configuratons, user account setup, etc. etc. that you were used to having, and will have to manually re-establish all that, re-install all the applications, including such basics like MS Office, Chrome, anti-virus etc. Additionally on your HDD (with the 1TB of data) will have wasted partitions which were created for windows recovery etc. on the HDD. It may not be a big deal, since you might...
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Do you not still have bootable windows device? If not you could always make one, and have your key number ready. Get a device to clone it, and delete the files you don't want could work too.
 
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The migration of your install from your HDD to SSD is a fairly straightforward clone operation . A good tool like Acronis will make that pretty easy. See:
https://www.acronis.com/en-us/?cvosrc=ppc.google.acronis&cvo_campaign=1028452312&cvo_crid=243129977400&matchtype=e&partner=mf&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIivTGtPbB2AIVQiSBCh3pfwfFEAAYASAAEgLldPD_BwE

The hard part is that you want to "migrate" just your system OS and not all the files. This is work that you've chosen to impose upon yourself and you need to do that ahead that of time. Basically get a blank drive, thumbdrive, network share, whatever you can to store those file you do not want cloned to your SSD. So in short:
1. Move those Data files off the HDD first.
2. Now clone the HDD to SSD which should be a fully function OS system without all the "extras", a.k.a you files
3. Redeploy your HDD (reformat/re-partition etc.) and bring all you data files back to your HDD

BTW I've had to do this kind of migration numerous times going back to the days of 386s with floppies and MFM drives (before IDE) and the days where you can just copy the DOS, WIN95, Windows directories, or linux root partitions etc. has long since passed. Norton Ghost was good tool for this from Win2K thru Windows 7, but with the latest PVME SSDs, and UEFI crap, it seems Acronis is one trying to keep up with all the latest hardware changes.
 
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The issue is its almost 1tb of data on my hard drive. Could I just remove the hdd temporarily and activate windows on my ssd and then plug my hdd once ive set everything up?
 
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You could choose to do a clean install, and I am assuming windows 10 here only, on the SSD. Also assuming that you windows 10 us legal and valid, then that key is actually kept on Microsoft servers, so they will activate that without issue. Then you can plug the hdd back in afterwards.

The problem here is that you will have lost all your settings, configuratons, user account setup, etc. etc. that you were used to having, and will have to manually re-establish all that, re-install all the applications, including such basics like MS Office, Chrome, anti-virus etc. Additionally on your HDD (with the 1TB of data) will have wasted partitions which were created for windows recovery etc. on the HDD. It may not be a big deal, since you might be losing no more than 2%-10% of the storage space on that HDD.

On the other hand, when you clone a disk with Acronis, if the target drive is does not have the capacity to contain the entire source drive, you can choose which directories to exclude from the clone process. So if you do some work organizing your HDD before you clone, you can possibly take advantage of that.
 
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Solution
If your new ssd is from Samsung, they have a free windows C drive mover.
If all of the hard drive will not fit, you can exclude data folders.
It is a private version from clonix.
I suppose clonix could sell you a version that would work with other drives.
 
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Not that easy.
1. You can't migrate only the OS.
2. You can't install a new OS on the SSD, and have all your 'applications' still usable on the old HDD.

What size is this SSD?
For a 250GB SSD, you need to total used space to be below 200GB.
For a 500GB SSD, below 400GB.

You need to determine exactly what is using the space on your drive.
 
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I know this is an old post, but just in case anyone else comes across it, you CAN just migrate the OS to a SSD from HDD. EaseUS Partition Magic has a 'Windows migrate OS' feature for precisely doing this and does it well with no data loss or any need for reinstalling.

https://www.easeus.com/ppc/partition-manager/migrate-os-to-ssd.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwvNXeBRAjEiwAjqYhFnqX1auUGeACEoc_rGhGBjnupFYyCZ1vmLdD5kd7hOpnl9FBRLu4EhoCbeAQAvD_BwE

You can read about this feature at the link above. I am not affiliated with EaseUS in anyway, but just thought I would share this out there.
 
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From EaseUS:
" transfer your operating system, configurations, and data on system boot partitions"

The whole partition. Many tools can do this.

It does not (and cannot) split out 'only the OS'. Which is what the OP initially wanted to do.
 
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does that mean if i install a windows 10 on a fresh ssd my old hdd will be unusable? someone on my thread said this was possible.
 
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The physical drive will be usable.
The applications on it, no.

The new OS on the SSD will know nothing about those.
Steam and Origin games probably won't need to be reinstalled.
But all your other applications and utilities? Yes, they would need to be reinstalled.
 
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