[SOLVED] switching windows10 to a different drive

alfiee · Nov 25, 2020

Hi
I'm getting a 1tb ssd and want to move windows 10 to it.
What I want to do is install windows on the new drive, move my videos / downloads / documents / pictures folders from the old one to the new one
and then remove windows10 from the old one. How do I go about doing this?

punkncat · Nov 25, 2020

Your best bet is to utilize a storage option (drive/cloud) to move all the things you want to keep off the drive. Once that is done use your install USB as a tool to delete the partitions and leave as unallocated space. Unhook that drive. Put your SSD in and use the USB to actually install Windows to it. After that is complete, hook your other drive back up, initialize it with disk manager and then take the external storage solution/cloud data and place where you want in the newly set up storage solution(s).

That is going to be nice.

alfiee · Dec 4, 2020

punkncat said:
Your best bet is to utilize a storage option (drive/cloud) to move all the things you want to keep off the drive. Once that is done use your install USB as a tool to delete the partitions and leave as unallocated space. Unhook that drive. Put your SSD in and use the USB to actually install Windows to it. After that is complete, hook your other drive back up, initialize it with disk manager and then take the external storage solution/cloud data and place where you want in the newly set up storage solution(s).

That is going to be nice.

Sorry for the late response
Gonna do it that way once I get my m.2 to work

geofelt · Dec 4, 2020

If you do a clean install on a new m.2 device, you will get an empty registry so installed apps that use the registry will need to be reinstalled.

Your easiest way is to buy a samsung ssd that is large enough to hold the contents of your current windows C drive.
Samsung has a ssd C drive mover app that will move all to the new m.2.
When done, you can do what you like with the old HDD.
Reformat or just delete files.
Here is a link to the app and instructions:

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

I have done this many times without issue with samsung.
Other ssd vendors will offer clone utilities which are similar.
I can not vouch for how well they work.

USAFRet · Dec 4, 2020

alfiee said:
Hi
I'm getting a 1tb ssd and want to move windows 10 to it.
What I want to do is install windows on the new drive, move my videos / downloads / documents / pictures folders from the old one to the new one
and then remove windows10 from the old one. How do I go about doing this?

You can't move "only Windows".

Either a migration of everything to the new drive.
or
A fresh install of the OS and everything else.

Which path would you like to investigate?

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

USAFRet said:
You can't move "only Windows".

Either a migration of everything to the new drive.
or
A fresh install of the OS and everything else.

Which path would you like to investigate?

A fresh install

USAFRet · Dec 5, 2020

alfiee said:
A fresh install

Read through this a time or two.
Ask questions if anything is unclear.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

alfiee said:
A fresh install

A fresh insta

USAFRet said:
Read through this a time or two.
Ask questions if anything is unclear.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Thanks.
Would you recommend putting a m.2 in the m2_1 or m2_2 slot? Mine currently only works in m2_2 for some reason

USAFRet · Dec 5, 2020

alfiee said:
Would you recommend putting a m.2 in the m2_1 or m2_2 slot? Mine currently only works in m2_2 for some reason

Which specific drive and motherboard?

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

USAFRet said:
Which specific drive and motherboard?

samsung v-nand 970 evo NVMe m.2 1tb & asrock b450 pro4

USAFRet · Dec 5, 2020

alfiee said:
samsung v-nand 970 evo NVMe m.2 1tb & asrock b450 pro4

M.2_1. The 970 should work there.

http://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/B450 Pro4/#Specification

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

USAFRet said:
M.2_1. The 970 should work there.

http://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/B450 Pro4/#Specification

Hi got it to work on my m2_1 and installed windows but I have 1 more problem right now which is that my ssd that I originally had windows on isn't being detected

USAFRet · Dec 5, 2020

alfiee said:
Hi got it to work on my m2_1 and installed windows but I have 1 more problem right now which is that
https://prnt.sc/vwbjev I have my old ssd here but I can't partition it

Disk 1 is the new drive?

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

USAFRet said:
Disk 1 is the new drive?

restarted my pc and disk 1 is the new 1
disk 2 is a ssd I had games on
and the disk where I originally had windows installed on isnt being detected

USAFRet · Dec 5, 2020

alfiee said:
restarted my pc and disk 1 is the new 1
disk 2 is a ssd I had games on
and the disk where I originally had windows installed on isnt being detected

You needed to have ALL drives disconnected, except the new one.

When you isntalled this OS on the new 1TB 970, it has put the boot info on Disk 0.

Redo this install, with ONLY the new drive, Disk 1, connected.
Physical disconnection of all other drives.

That is outlined in the first section of that tutorial.

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

USAFRet said:
You needed to have ALL drives disconnected, except the new one.

When you isntalled this OS on the new 1TB 970, it has put the boot info on Disk 0.

Redo this install, with ONLY the new drive, Disk 1, connected.
Physical disconnection of all other drives.

That is outlined in the first section of that tutorial.

alright will do

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

USAFRet said:
You needed to have ALL drives disconnected, except the new one.

When you isntalled this OS on the new 1TB 970, it has put the boot info on Disk 0.

Redo this install, with ONLY the new drive, Disk 1, connected.
Physical disconnection of all other drives.

That is outlined in the first section of that tutorial.

Did it but I am still experiencing the same problem
When I plug it in it just shows these 2
https://prnt.sc/vwc1xy
It is detecting it but I can only use 500mb and the other 446gb is unallocated

USAFRet · Dec 5, 2020

alfiee said:
Did it but I am still experiencing the same problem
When I plug it in it just shows these 2
https://prnt.sc/vwc1xy

Show the full Disk Management window.

Identify exactly which drives are in what ports, and which drive is "missing".

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

USAFRet said:
Show the full Disk Management window.

Identify exactly which drives are in what ports, and which drive is "missing".

https://prnt.sc/vwc4ik

Screenshot

Captured with Lightshot

prnt.sc

It's not that is missing I think but its only using 500mb out of 450gb
It's disk 0 / letter D

USAFRet · Dec 5, 2020

alfiee said:
https://prnt.sc/vwc4ik

Screenshot

Captured with Lightshot

prnt.sc

It's not that is missing I think but its only using 500mb out of 450gb
It's disk 0 / letter D

During this last install, on the 1TB Disk ?, you had ONLY that drive connected?

The system is verified to work with ONLY that drive connected?

Your Disk 0 contains the old System Reserved boot partition. Now with a drive letter of D. The middle part of 446/07GB is simply Unallocated.
You can delete the first and last of the 3 partitions, leaving one large unallocated space.
Right click, New Simple Volume, Format, and give it a drive letter.

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

USAFRet said:
During this last install, on the 1TB Disk ?, you had ONLY that drive connected?

The system is verified to work with ONLY that drive connected?

Your Disk 0 contains the old System Reserved boot partition. Now with a drive letter of D. The middle part of 446/07GB is simply Unallocated.
You can delete the first and last of the 3 partitions, leaving one large unallocated space.
Right click, New Simple Volume, Format, and give it a drive letter.

Yeah I only had the 1tb disk connected but clicked new simple volume and it works all good now

USAFRet · Dec 5, 2020

So its all working?

alfiee · Dec 5, 2020

USAFRet said:
So its all working?

yes thanks a lot for the help

[SOLVED] switching windows10 to a different drive

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