Moving OS to SSD

[slicerm1]

I just bought a SSD for my computer and want to boot windows from it. I'm not sure 100% how to do it other than what videos have been saying. I just managed to remove enough space on my (C) Drive to "clone" it to my SSD. I just wanted the OS to boot from my SSD but it seems the only way to properly do it is to clone from what EVERYONE has been saying.
[The main question] - If I clone my (C) Drive to my SSD with everything on it, can I delete all the other files after cloning it other than the OS just so it boots up the pc and has nothing else on it?

 

[aquielisunari]

Why not download the MCT and then use it to create a bootable USB drive(8GB minimum with which you can reinstall 10. I can only assume because information is lacking.

Yes you can delete the source drive's data after the cloning has been completed successfully.

 

[USAFRet]

I just bought a SSD for my computer and want to boot windows from it. I'm not sure 100% how to do it other than what videos have been saying. I just managed to remove enough space on my (C) Drive to "clone" it to my SSD. I just wanted the OS to boot from my SSD but it seems the only way to properly do it is to clone from what EVERYONE has been saying.
[The main question] - If I clone my (C) Drive to my SSD with everything on it, can I delete all the other files after cloning it other than the OS just so it boots up the pc and has nothing else on it?

There are a couple of ways to get where you want.

1. What size is the new SSD?
2. How much total space is consumed on your current drive?
3. What OS is this?
4. Which specific SSD is this?

 

[finitekosmos]

Cloning is a really handy way of dealing with the hassle of transfering your OS to a new SSD from an old drive, in fact, if your SSD is a Samsung drive Samsung provide a tool which allows you to do exactly that. However there are a couple of caveats with drive cloning the most important one is this....

Does the drive you want to clone, contain more data than the drive you wish to clone it to? If it does you will need to delete data before you start. The physical size doesn't matter so much as the amount of data to clone. lets say you have a 2TB HDD and want to clone it to a 512GB SSD this will be possible if there is less than 512GB of actual data sitting on the HDD.

 

[geofelt]

If you want nothing else on the ssd besides windows, the best thing to do is to do a clean install of windows on the ssd.
Do not have your old hard drive connected during the process.
If you do, windows will place some hidden recovery partitions on the AHDD making it6 hard to ever boot without it.

The usual reason for cloning is to preserve apps and settings that have already been installed.

 

[coozie7]

Surely it would be easier to just do a clean install to the new SSD rather than go through the mess of cloning then uninstalling most of the software you've just cloned to it? At least this way you'll start out with a fully clean Windows install AND you'll be able to install all the latest system/GPU/sound ETC drivers at the same time, giving you a bang up-to-date system, all on the SSD and ready to go.

 

[slicerm1]

Why not download the MCT and then use it to create a bootable USB drive(8GB minimum with which you can reinstall 10. I can only assume because information is lacking.

Yes you can delete the source drive's data after the cloning has been completed successfully.

Thanks for reminding me about creating a bootable USB drive. For whatever reason that idea just flew over my head. I have used that method before for my laptop some time ago and should have realized that it could be very easily done this way.