[SOLVED] Migrating windows from HDD to m.2 do i need to clone everything from the HDD to the m.2

[airybike2]

I built my pc last year and thought at the time I would be ok with not having a SSD or m.2 so I put one 3tb HDD and only that I downloaded windows off my old laptop and downloaded its still un activated it doesn't really bother me but it might be contributing to my slow boot time and slow run time after the boot I decided to buy a Samsung 1tb 970 EVO NVME M.2 and want to put windows on that instead of my HDD which is much slower but every tutorial I find has a basically wiped clean HDD and SSD I have no problems wiping my SSD but I can't wipe my HDD it has all my games and photos on it (about 2tbs of stuff) and every tutorial I find on YouTube has me cloning the entire HDD and everything on it you can't put 2tbs of stuff on a 1tb m.2 doesn't work like that, also I'm currently downloading windows onto a 64GB USB drive when that's done I plan on shutting down my pc and unplugging the HDD then plugging in the USB drive and turning on the computer and installing windows onto my m.2 like when I built my pc and changing the boot in the bios then shutting off my pc again and reconnecting my HDD and starting up and hoping that I have everything still on my HDD but I feel there is a much better way of doing this and probably safer way as well, please someone help before I regret my entire life because I screwed this up.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Clone is just what it is the entire thing. you have to clone everything. Else it would not be a clone.

I would remove the hard drive and put the M
M.2 drive in and install windows clean to it and then just reinstall your games

You don’t have the space to do a full clone clone

 

[USAFRet]

A clone from the old drive to new is everything. You can't pick and choose.

What motherboard do you have?

What size is the new 970 EVO?

How much space is consumed on the current HDD?

 

[geofelt]

If your samsung evo is large enough to hold the used contents of your C drive, you can use the samsung migration app which takes care of everything.
App and instructions here:

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com