Question Transfer everything on old HD to New SSD

[snowpea_43]

Hi all, i purchased a 2TB Samsung SSD for PC, and i would like to transfer everything that is on my current Drive over to this one, so that the New one is basically an exact copy of the old one and the SSD will then be my main drive, and then i will wipe the old Drive, and keep in the PC as extra storage.
Is this pretty straightforward ?
And if any programmes etc are needed, which ones would you recommend ?

Many thanks for your help

 

[Darkbreeze]

What size is the old hard drive? How much actual space is used on the old drive?

 

[snowpea_43]

The old one is 1TB and approx 700GB has been used

 

[CountMike]

The old one is 1TB and approx 700GB has been used

As you want to keep new drive as BOOT/OS drive you can just get a program like Macrium Reflect, Acronis or any of dozens of other programs like that including Samsung cloning program. Idea is to have both drives connected at same time and use any of those programs to CLONE (make exact copy) of everything from old to new drive. Just copying manually wouldn't make new disk bootable.

 

[snowpea_43]

Excellent, thank you very much for your help

 

[USAFRet]

Hi all, i purchased a 2TB Samsung SSD for PC, and i would like to transfer everything that is on my current Drive over to this one, so that the New one is basically an exact copy of the old one and the SSD will then be my main drive, and then i will wipe the old Drive, and keep in the PC as extra storage.
Is this pretty straightforward ?
And if any programmes etc are needed, which ones would you recommend ?

Many thanks for your help

-----------------------------
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
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.

Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
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 all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

 

[TerryLaze]

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 all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

Personally I would keep the boot/c partition of the old hdd just in case some windows update or something screws with the nvme boot.
Also just in general having a working windows on a second disk isn't the worst idea someone could have.

 

[USAFRet]

Personally I would keep the boot/c partition of the old hdd just in case some windows update or something screws with the nvme boot.
Also just in general having a working windows on a second disk isn't the worst idea someone could have.

That comes under the concept of a good backup routine.

I've seen more than a few issues around here where a second fully bootable OS causes problems or confusion.

Unless, of course, it is the intention to have a dual boot config.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Unless, of course, it is the intention to have a dual boot config.

In which case the user OUGHT to be experienced enough that they have no need to ask basic questions, because if they do, they probably don't need to be messing around with a dual boot configuration anyhow as they are likely to just end up borking something anyhow and back here creating a new thread asking how to get back to where they began and likely not able to.

Personally, I would NOT keep the boot partition on the old drive unless you want problems, and you WILL likely have them if you have two attached drives that both have Windows boot partitions. It's one of the top ten reasons why we see people create threads here because they are having problems, and usually they have no idea at all that there is a boot partition conflict because of that hidden partition until we point it out to them. For somebody who knows, and understands, and can manage things accordingly including cordoning off that backed up partition so that their BIOS doesn't see it and then see the one on the primary boot device, and go WTF, it might be fine but for somebody who needed to ask how to clone their drive to a new drive I would highly advise against it and so should others unless they plan to do a lot of hand holding if and when things go south.

 

[pikeman666]

Hi all, i purchased a 2TB Samsung SSD for PC, and i would like to transfer everything that is on my current Drive over to this one, so that the New one is basically an exact copy of the old one and the SSD will then be my main drive, and then i will wipe the old Drive, and keep in the PC as extra storage.
Is this pretty straightforward ?
And if any programmes etc are needed, which ones would you recommend ?

Many thanks for your help

Last time I did this it was with a Seagate drive and they had a whole bunch of freeware on their support page. I'd bet Samsung has a similar set ot utilities. Go see what you can find.

 

[USAFRet]

Yep.

The one I like to use as an example is this:

Person boots up his system.....WTF? Looks exactly as it did 6 months ago.
Data gone, wallpaper reverted, etc, etc.
User assumes virus, or Windows Update has borked things up.

This was the result of a clone and leaving fully bootable Old Drive in there.
Left Old Drive in there, and forgot about it.
For whatever reason, SATA cable for New Drive died.
On startup, system does not see NewDrive, and drops down to the next entry in the BIOS...Old Drive. Boots from it, like it should. Which had not been touched in 6 months.

Took us 3 days to work that.

 

[USAFRet]

Last time I did this it was with a Seagate drive and they had a whole bunch of freeware on their support page. I'd bet Samsung has a similar set ot utilities. Go see what you can find.

Yes, Samsung has a good tool for this.
Samsung Data Migration, linked in the steps above.

 

[geofelt]

The samsung ssd migration aid is as simple as it gets.
I have used it many times.
App and manual here:

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.

semiconductor.samsung.com

Be patient, it may take a couple of hours to do the copy.

When done, remove the old hdd which has been unchanged and keep it for backup.

 

[Darkbreeze]

No argument there, but, we HAVE seen people mess that up too. Just sayin.

 

[geofelt]

No argument there, but, we HAVE seen people mess that up too. Just sayin.

Agreed.
Most mess ups would be eliminated if one were to read the instructions for whatever they are doing.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I would not argue with that at all.

 

[snowpea_43]

All done thankyou everyone for your help

 

[Darkbreeze]