tranfering everything form C: to a usb harddrive to new SSD for pc

[zniff]

im trying to transfer everything stored on my C: on my laptop into a USB harddrive to the new SSD im gonna install. ive heard its possible but im having difficulties. so im looking for a method of doing this.

 

[jay.wooster]

There are a few of options that would be a little easier.

1. You could buy a Hard Drive External Enclosure and just hook the SSD up to that (make sure you get one that supports 2.5" if thats what it is) and just do a straight transfer
2. You could by a SATA to USB adapter and plug the SATA drive into your laptop via USB and do the transfer.
3. Use a third party tool like Dropbox or OneDrive and upload the data now and download on your new PC when the SSD is hooked up

Hope that helps

If its a boot drive with your windows install you can do 1 or 2 and clone the drive via either method. I have used the External Enclosure myself and works a treat...Either that or do a fresh Windows install on the Hard Drive and just use the above for the non windows files you want to move.

 

[faalin]

I use one of these at work a lot https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Standalone-Thunderbolt-compatible/dp/B00MOL4RES/ref=pd_sbs_147_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00MOL4RES&pd_rd_r=13c9d449-d869-11e8-8f8d-3f9a1c609712&pd_rd_w=1Rzsr&pd_rd_wg=vvK45&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=7d5d9c3c-5e01-44ac-97fd-261afd40b865&pf_rd_r=D3D4089D82TCZN10840T&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=D3D4089D82TCZN10840T Throw the main drive in bay one and a secondary drive in bay two, use macrium reflect to clone drive 1 to 2

 

[Peter Martin]

I use one of these at work a lot https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Standalone-Thunderbolt-compatible/dp/B00MOL4RES/ref=pd_sbs_147_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00MOL4RES&pd_rd_r=13c9d449-d869-11e8-8f8d-3f9a1c609712&pd_rd_w=1Rzsr&pd_rd_wg=vvK45&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=7d5d9c3c-5e01-44ac-97fd-261afd40b865&pf_rd_r=D3D4089D82TCZN10840T&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=D3D4089D82TCZN10840T Throw the main drive in bay one and a secondary drive in bay two, use macrium reflect to clone drive 1 to 2

oh, that's nice.

 

[jay.wooster]

I use one of these at work a lot https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Standalone-Thunderbolt-compatible/dp/B00MOL4RES/ref=pd_sbs_147_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00MOL4RES&pd_rd_r=13c9d449-d869-11e8-8f8d-3f9a1c609712&pd_rd_w=1Rzsr&pd_rd_wg=vvK45&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=7d5d9c3c-5e01-44ac-97fd-261afd40b865&pf_rd_r=D3D4089D82TCZN10840T&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=D3D4089D82TCZN10840T Throw the main drive in bay one and a secondary drive in bay two, use macrium reflect to clone drive 1 to 2

You can get ones that can clone outside of a PC or just a standard external enclosure that hooks an internal drive up to your PC like it was connected internally but all done via USB. Slightly different in that one of his drives in in a PC and the other is out !!!

 

[faalin]

that dock station hooks to the pc with usb or thunderbolt. I use it like an external enclosure without a case, just shove a 3.5 or 2.5 drive in the top and it will show up in the computer as an internal drive.

Most of the time im changing out HDD's for SSD's so ill just pull the drive from the computer and put them in the dock and clone that way. that also means i dont have to install any software on the original C drive to clone to the new drive. But in his case he can just plug the SSD into the dock and tell his c drive to clone to whatever drive letter the new SSD has.

 

[jay.wooster]

Perfect, so it does both !! Very handy for $40

 

[zniff]

i think i should have mentioned it is M.2 type

 

[faalin]

ok well that changes things. You could just install the M.2 in the laptop and us Marcium Reflect to clone the HDD to the M.2. After that is done i would recommend pulling the HDD out and make sure it boots fully into windows. If it does then install the HDD, boot to the bios and make sure its booting to the M.2. Once back into windows if your happy with everything you can format the old HDD and use it for storage.

 

[jay.wooster]

If thats the case i would go with the Dropbox solution mate and a fresh install of Windows on the M.2. Dropbox is free to a certain size but there are many remote storage tools out there you could use to complete it. Is it your boot drive or just data files and if just data how much data are we talking about ? 1TB ?

 

[zniff]

problem is i only have one option and that is using the method i mentioned someone say they pulled it of the way. using marcium reflect making an image or clone into an usb harddrive then installing the new M.2 SSD and then booting from usb hardrive and moving it over to the new m.2 SSD. we are talking about 128 GB of data and yes this is the boot drive

 

[USAFRet]

im trying to transfer everything stored on my C: on my laptop into a USB harddrive to the new SSD im gonna install. ive heard its possible but im having difficulties. so im looking for a method of doing this.

Given a USB drive of sufficient size, this is easy.
Between any two drives for a laptop.

1. Install Macrium Reflect. The free version works.
2. Create a Rescue CD or USB in the Macrium application. Its under the menu item "Other Tasks".
3. Run Macrium, and create an Image of your entire current C drive. All partitions. This gets saved to your external drive.
4. Swap your physical drives.
5. Boot up from the Macrium Rescue CD or USB you created earlier.
6. Tell it where the Image is, and which drive to apply this to (the new SSD)
7. Go.

This works, nothing else to buy.

 

[zniff]

step 6 and step 7 was a bit messy but now it works. only thing now is that the new SSD shows that it has only 128GB storage so how do i work around this and make the SSD look bigger in storage in windows???? or do i just make another partition????

 

[USAFRet]

step 6 and step 7 was a bit messy but now it works. only thing now is that the new SSD shows that it has only 128GB storage so how do i work around this and make the SSD look bigger in storage in windows???? or do i just make another partition????

Please show us a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

 

[zniff]

here it is

https://imgur.com/a/7dsIy1I

 

[USAFRet]

here it is

https://imgur.com/a/7dsIy1I

OK.
Since the C partition and the Unallocated are not right next to each other, that will require use of a 3rd party partition tool dto do this.

EaseUS partition Master
https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

Or Minitool Partition Wizard
https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

And you really need to make a backup of this whole thing, just in case things go south during the process.

 

[zniff]

and its done i have completed the process, minitool partition wizard is the right choice EaseUS was more like "give us money or we wont do blep".