Migrating OS to new SSD - Created multiple partitions

[kelaran]

Hello,

I hope someone can help me out with migrating my OS to a new SSD.

I followed a tutorial in youtube on how to do it, and I used 2 programs (1 at a time). Seeing that one of them didn't do what I expected, I formatted my SSD, and I used the other program. Both programs created multiple partitions, which I have no idea what they are for.

On my disk management I have now 10 partitions.
1 is my original OS
1 is another SSD
1 is an external hard drive

The others... I don't know where they came from...

I'd like to be able to decipher what those new partitions and new drives are for, and if they are needed or can they be formatted/deleted?

How did I create so many partitions, and how can I make all of it into 1 single drive/partition? I'd like to have my OS, windows and personal files into 1 single drive just like the C: drive. Why did it create 4 different drives?

If I did my migration incorrectly, could you point me into the right direction please?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Colif]

i would remove any extra drives apart from the one you cloning and the replacement

What is disk 2? is it what you call red? As its odd you have 2 EFI partitions otherwise. You should have removed old hdd after the clone as it is still showing as C drive and I assume Disk 0 is I drive? BIOS never got a chance to find the right C drive so its still using the old one.

4 of them are hidden partitions, EFI is the boot partition on both disk 0 & disk 2 OEM partition is interesting as anything created on disk 0 should have a mirror on disk 2

This is what you should have done:

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
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

you can't make them all 1 partition, the way your PC boots requires at least the EFI partition exists. You won't miss 200mb really

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'd like to be able to decipher what those new partitions and new drives are for, and if they are needed or can they be formatted/deleted?

Can you show full screenshot from Disk Management?
(please use imgur.com instead of postimg.cc)

 

[Colif]

Is that first picture from disk management?
I had a theory that the reason we can't see all the OEM partitions on disk 2 is cause PC is booting off C and knows to hide them, but that makes no sense as my Disk management shows all my partitions -

Can you open command prompt with admin rights
type diskpart and press enter
type list vol and press enter
you should get a list of all partitions like this

as I am just curious if some partitions are not showing in image 1

those 2 oem partitions should have clones as otherwise why were they made.

 

[kelaran]

UPDATE:

I was able to migrate my OS+Files into new SSD into 1 volume only (see picture)

And I was able to change the drive of my new SSD to C: by removing Old C: drive. However, the partitions are still showing up in Disk Mgmt.

I'd like to be able to decipher what those new partitions and new drives are for, and if they are needed or can they be formatted/deleted?

Can you show full screenshot from Disk Management?
(please use imgur.com instead of postimg.cc)

Hi,

Below is the picture, I also added a link to it.

IMG

Is that first picture from disk management?
I had a theory that the reason we can't see all the OEM partitions on disk 2 is cause PC is booting off C and knows to hide them, but that makes no sense as my Disk management shows all my partitions -

Can you open command prompt with admin rights
type diskpart and press enter
type list vol and press enter
you should get a list of all partitions like this

as I am just curious if some partitions are not showing in image 1

those 2 oem partitions should have clones as otherwise why were they made.

I am still showing those partitions, I was able to migrate into 1 volume now. However, all partitions are still showing.

 

[USAFRet]

And this is why it is critically important to disconnect all other drives during this process. Trim it down to just the Source and Target drives involved.

The cloning process did NOT create a bunch of useless partitions.
It simply did a 1:1 copy of the 4 partitions on your original 128GB drive, Disk 2, and applied that to the new 500GB Disk 0.
The one 'extra' you see is just the 172GB space left over, that is unallocated.

And at the end of the process, you must physically disconnect the old drive, and allow the system to boot up from just the new one.
This is why you're seeing 2x partitions and drive letters called "Windows".

 

[SkyNetRising]

So I'm guessing Disk 2 is the original drive and Disk 0 cloned drive. Right?

If your system boots with old OS drive disconnected, then you can clean old OS drive and re-purpose it for something else.
On new drive -

• EFI System partition contains bootloader. You should not touch that.
  OEM partitions are not really necessary. You can delete those.
  After OEM partitions are removed, you can extend C: partition.
  You should leave ~10% of the drive unpartitioned. This helps maintaining performance of SSD and also wear leveling works better.

 

[kelaran]

So I'm guessing Disk 2 is the original drive and Disk 0 cloned drive. Right?

If your system boots with old OS drive disconnected, then you can clean old OS drive and re-purpose it for something else.
On new drive -

• EFI System partition contains bootloader. You should not touch that.
  OEM partitions are not really necessary. You can delete those.
  After OEM partitions are removed, you can extend C: partition.
  You should leave ~10% of the drive unpartitioned. This helps maintaining performance of SSD and also wear leveling works better.

You and @colif nailed it. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[kelaran]

Is that first picture from disk management?
I had a theory that the reason we can't see all the OEM partitions on disk 2 is cause PC is booting off C and knows to hide them, but that makes no sense as my Disk management shows all my partitions -

Can you open command prompt with admin rights
type diskpart and press enter
type list vol and press enter
you should get a list of all partitions like this

as I am just curious if some partitions are not showing in image 1

those 2 oem partitions should have clones as otherwise why were they made.

I wanted to extend my gratitude for helping out!

I appreciate it so much!