move os from 1st drive to 2nd drive

[lysjocksan59]

I just received a laptop that came with a 1tb hdd installed. It has an open slot for an ssd though, so I want to add one and use that as the boot drive and the hdd for storage. What's the easiest way to flip the os onto the ssd? The laptop's new (well, new to me) so doesn't have anything important on it. It didn't come with any disks though, so as far as I know, the only way to keep windows 10 is to get it from the hdd.

 

[DSzymborski]

Anyone can download a new copy of Windows 10 at any time, whether or not they're even registered. If your laptop is authorized -- which it ought to be -- you can do a fresh install at any time from the Windows Media Creation tool online. There's no such thing as an authorized Windows install that can only be on one particular drive.

As for moving it without a fresh install, the option would be to clone the HDD to the SSD. Which means that the HDD's data can't be more than the SSD can hold; you can't pick and choose to just copy Windows over from the HDD to the SSD. It's all or nothing.

 

[USAFRet]

If you get to the stage of cloning from the HDD to a new SSD, this:

Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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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 450MB Recovery Partition, 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
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