Switch Win10 install from internal HD to internal M.2 SSD

[kallen_web_design]

We have a few 3 year old 17" i7 Acer laptops that we run our business on. They run really slowly, especially when opening adobe programs. Task manager is constantly showing 100% disk usage, until things load. This seems like an obvious solution for upgrading to an SSD.

I've purchased PCLe M.2 ssd's to put into the empty SSD slots in these laptops that are the same capacity as the old style platter hard drives in them now.

What I want to do is clone the current old style boot drives onto the SSDs and have them become the C: boot drives. I don't want to start with a fresh windows install.

Inserting the SSD will be a challenge in itself (thanks Acer Aspire). But what steps will I need to take after that? Something like:

• 
  Turn on laptop.
  Tell bios what kind of hard drive has been inserted.
  Format hard drive.
  Clone old internal hard drive directly to the SSD. *
  Reboot, tell bios the SSD is the C: and Boot drive?

I think this is the general idea but I'd appreciate any more specific guidance.

*Note, it looks like Ease Us Partition Manager free version will do this step. https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/transfer-os-to-ssd.html

Thanks!

 

[jay32267]

You basically have it.
Connect the drive, power up....go to BIOS....make sure it's there....make sure the HDD is still #1 boot priority.
Format the M2 if necessary. I think some cloning software will format as well.
Clone to the M2.
Here is where I would differ from what you have.
After I cloned I would power down and remove the HDD.
Then I would power up and go to the BIOS and make sure the SSD is recognized and Put it at the top of the boot order.
Then let it boot and hopefully everything is OK...it should be.
Then power down and add the HDD....and power up and check out the HDD and make sure it's OK.