[SOLVED] Moving OS system to ssd without deleting pc content ?

[Alonyamin]

Hi,
i just got my new samsung evo 860 500gb, So i want to clone my windows 10 OS to the SSD for better results but my HDD which is 1tb is allready quite full.
My question is how can I clone the OS of my pc without deleting any files that allready exists on my HDD, i want only the OS to move.
thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Hi,
i just got my new samsung evo 860 500gb, So i want to clone my windows 10 OS to the SSD for better results but my HDD which is 1tb is allready quite full.
My question is how can I clone the OS of my pc without deleting any files that allready exists on my HDD, i want only the OS to move.
thanks

You can't.
At best, you can leave off static files like that in your Libraries. Doc/Music/Video, etc.
Other than that, everything goes.

And no matter what the data and drive sizes, you can't move 'only the OS'. At all.

 

[USAFRet]

So lets investigate...

What, exactly, is on this current HDD?
To clone into a 500GB drive, you need the actual consumed space to be below 400GB.

 

[Alonyamin]

So lets investigate...

What, exactly, is on this current HDD?
To clone into a 500GB drive, you need the actual consumed space to be below 400GB.

I have a lot of music production softwares and files on my pc, the games i can redownload

 

[lesterf1020]

You can do this in theory but I would advise against it. The potential for disaster is quite high. If you do decide to pursue this path make sure you have thorough backups.

There are disk partition programs that will split a partition with data on it putting some of the data on one partition and the rest in the other. Once you do that you can then move non OS stuff to the other partition and then shrink/grow/move partitions to get more space and then repeat the process until you get an OS partition small enough to clone. You can then clone the partition onto your EVO and delete the OS partition on your old hard drive and then expand the non OS partition to fill the whole drive. This is assuming you are keeping both drives in the system.

Alternatively you could shrink your current partition and create a new one using windows disk manager and then use the method given above.

As I said the potential for disaster while doing this is very high and it is very time consuming but it is possible.

 

[Alonyamin]

You can do this in theory but I would advise against it. The potential for disaster is quite high. If you do decide to pursue this path make sure you have thorough backups.

There are disk partition programs that will split a partition with data on it putting some of the data on one partition and the rest in the other. Once you do that you can then move non OS stuff to the other partition and then shrink/grow/move partitions to get more space and then repeat the process until you get an OS partition small enough to clone. You can then clone the partition onto your EVO and delete the OS partition on your old hard drive and then expand the non OS partition to fill the whole drive. This is assuming you are keeping both drives in the system.

Alternatively you could shrink your current partition and create a new one using windows disk manager and then use the method given above.

As I said the potential for disaster while doing this is very high and it is very time consuming but it is possible.

Ok I decided to backup and delete some files from my pc and imigrate the rest to the ssd, after I had done it and my HDD is empty, will ill still be able to use it like Local disk ? (C) i mean if things i download to the HDD will apear on my desktop ?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok I decided to backup and delete some files from my pc and imigrate the rest to the ssd, after I had done it and my HDD is empty, will ill still be able to use it like Local disk ? (C) i mean if things i download to the HDD will apear on my desktop ?

Before we proceed:
As said, the actual consumed space on the HDD needs to be below 400GB for this clone operation to work.
Are you there yet?

If so, these steps exactly.
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
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
-----------------------------

The old HDD will become some other drive letter. D or E probably.
You can use that drive as you see fit.

 

[geofelt]

Samsung has a ssd migration app.
It is a C drive mover, not a clone.
If the entire used portion of your HDD will not fit, you can exclude specific data folders from the move.
you can download the app and instructions here:
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

I have done this many times without issue.
It is very safe since your original HDD is not altered.

When done, you just boot from the new C drive.
You can do what you wish with the old HDD.
You can delete the windows folders and any files that now reside on the ssd.
Other files will remain accessible.