Moving OS to SSD

TaZer00

Commendable
Jul 29, 2016
3
0
1,510
Hello,im planning to add Samsung evo 850 500gb SSD to my pc (currently has 1 HDD) and was wondering how could i move Windows 10 to an SSD without loosing my current files on HDD? If not possible, could i backup everything i need to dropbox and then re-download after install of OS?
 
Solution
Most SSD vendors, including samsung, will ship some form of cloning software to transfer your current partitions to the new SSD. Just make sure your data on the HDD doesn't exceed the space available on the SSD and you'll be fine. But the best approach would be doing a clean Windows install and after that plugging in the HDD, that way you can extract whatever files you need, format it and then put them back into the HDD after deleting the old OS partition.
Most SSD vendors, including samsung, will ship some form of cloning software to transfer your current partitions to the new SSD. Just make sure your data on the HDD doesn't exceed the space available on the SSD and you'll be fine. But the best approach would be doing a clean Windows install and after that plugging in the HDD, that way you can extract whatever files you need, format it and then put them back into the HDD after deleting the old OS partition.
 
Solution
+1 above, I've used cloning tools more than once to move the OS. No problem.

If you have an optical drive you can pull the sata and power connectors off it to have both drives installed at the same time (assuming desktop). If you are using a laptop a USB3 <--> sata adapter is really cheap. I've cloned using both these techniques.

Make sure your SATA ports are in RAID or ACHI mode. The SSD will need that for TRIM and better performance (e.g NCQ). If the sata ports are not currently in RAID or ACHI you may have problems reading your current drive when you change the setting. If so then get the USB <--> sata adapter.