Need to move windows to a new drive.

[haganmking]

I currently have 3 drives. 1TB HDD with windows and other stuff on it (has 640GB free), 1TB SSD with all my games on it (has 234GB free) and a 500GB M.2 SSD with nothing on it.

I would like to move windows onto the M.2 drive. What is the best way to go about doing this?

 

[USAFRet]

I currently have 3 drives. 1TB HDD with windows and other stuff on it (has 640GB free), 1TB SSD with all my games on it (has 234GB free) and a 500GB M.2 SSD with nothing on it.

I would like to move windows onto the M.2 drive. What is the best way to go about doing this?

OK, you can't move only the OS.
Mostly, everything on that drive goes to the new one.

On your current C drive, how much space is actually consumed?

 

[Alabalcho]

Assuming that "640GB Free" is fair estimate, this leaves about 350gb used on your (currently) primary C: drive.
- delete / move all unneeded stuff (Disk Cleanup is quite good at deleting some Windows stuff);
- defrag the drive (it will take a while);
- shrink C: volume as much as you can. If you're lucky, you'll fit it within 500gb;
- use any utility to clone HDD onto M.2 SSD;
- Disconnect the existing C:\ drive, and boot off SSD. Having Windows install media to repair boot problems will help;
- Change boot order in BIOS, connect back your drive.
- Once you're happy with the results, repurpose the old drive - reformat it, use is somewhere else etc

 

[USAFRet]

- defrag the drive (it will take a while);
- shrink C: volume as much as you can. If you're lucky, you'll fit it within 500gb;
- use any utility to clone HDD onto M.2 SSD;

Actually, with the newer cloning tools, you don't have to shrink the partition.
They only use the actual consumed data space, not the whole partition.

 

[USAFRet]

I currently have 3 drives. 1TB HDD with windows and other stuff on it (has 640GB free), 1TB SSD with all my games on it (has 234GB free) and a 500GB M.2 SSD with nothing on it.

I would like to move windows onto the M.2 drive. What is the best way to go about doing this?

If your actual consumed space is under 400GB, you can migrate the whole thing over to the new 500GB drive.

Thusly:

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
-----------------------------

 

[Alabalcho]

- defrag the drive (it will take a while);
- shrink C: volume as much as you can. If you're lucky, you'll fit it within 500gb;
- use any utility to clone HDD onto M.2 SSD;

Actually, with the newer cloning tools, you don't have to shrink the partition.
They only use the actual consumed data space, not the whole partition.

That's good to know, thank you!

 

[haganmking]

I currently have 3 drives. 1TB HDD with windows and other stuff on it (has 640GB free), 1TB SSD with all my games on it (has 234GB free) and a 500GB M.2 SSD with nothing on it.

I would like to move windows onto the M.2 drive. What is the best way to go about doing this?

OK, you can't move only the OS.
Mostly, everything on that drive goes to the new one.

On your current C drive, how much space is actually consumed?

I currently have 3 drives. 1TB HDD with windows and other stuff on it (has 640GB free), 1TB SSD with all my games on it (has 234GB free) and a 500GB M.2 SSD with nothing on it.

I would like to move windows onto the M.2 drive. What is the best way to go about doing this?

If your actual consumed space is under 400GB, you can migrate the whole thing over to the new 500GB drive.

Thusly:

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
-----------------------------

When you say 'Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive', I swear that is impossible as the M.2 Drive is PCIE and the HDD is SATA. Or am I missing something incredibly obvious.

 

[USAFRet]

When you say 'Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive', I swear that is impossible as the M.2 Drive is PCIE and the HDD is SATA. Or am I missing something incredibly obvious.

OK, yes.
Going into an m.2 drive, skip that step.
But you DO need to disconnect the old drive before you boot it up for the first time.