[SOLVED] Move Windows from HDD to SSD

[basketballthebest23]

Hello, Im looking to move Windows from my Hard drive to Solid state drive. I've read many things about this topic, however none of them are really clear when it comes to reinstalling windows on the SSD and how to remove windows from the old Hard drive. Currently I only have a 1000 gb storage HDD, and I was looking to install ONLY Windows on a 250-ish gb SSD. My HDD would be used to store my games. I want to completely remove windows from the HDD and install it on the SSD. How would i go about this part? Also I am trying to not lose all of my HDD storage as it would be a pain to start over. Will my windows 10 key stay connected with my microsoft account or would i have to purchase again? Also, if I do not move anything from my HDD but install windows on the SSD will anything happen to my pc because I have seen some people say to do this? How will i get my current Windows 10 OS on a usb? These are my questions, thank you.

 

[Darkbreeze]

To install Windows on the SSD, follow my guide, EXACTLY as outlined.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

To wipe all the contents of the HDD once you have completed and verified the installation of Windows on the SSD, and are satisfied that you have backed up anything of importance from the current Windows installation on the HDD (And do THAT before you start installing Windows to the SSD) to another location and are sure the installation to the SSD is good, and will boot from both a cold start and restart within Windows, then follow this:

 

[SkyNetRising]

Hello, Im looking to move Windows from my Hard drive to Solid state drive.

You could clone windows partition from HDD to SSD and avoid reinstall.
This has some prerequisites though. Used space in windows partition has to be less than size of target SSD.
If you don't have windows partition separated from all the data and used space there is more than capacity of target SSD, then cloning is not possible.
Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?

About removing windows from old drive manually .. that can be done too.
Windows lives in several folders:

\Windows\​

\Program Files\​

\Program Files x86\​

\Program Data\​

User profiles are located in
\Users\

If you delete those folders, then windows is gone. But before they can be deleted, ownership must be taken and file/folder access permissions reset.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Clean install is always a better option in my opinion for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the fact that they clearly said they DON'T want anything on the drive EXCEPT Windows, at least to start. Obviously, things will need to be installed on there at some point.

As far as the license considerations are concerned, these should answer those questions.

How to associate your windows 10 license with a Microsoft account

Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change

Windows build 1607 (Or newer) and activation after a hardware change

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[popatim]

Clean install Windows only while the HDD is disconnected.
Games that use launchers such as Steam can be relinked to the launcher by adding the location of the game folder to the library locations in the launcher app.
Apps that don't use a launcher will need to be reinstalled. Their install typically writes info in several places including the registry and those will be missing in the new Windows.

Before you begin, do you have a backup of this HDD?