Question Transferring OS to new drive and keeping the old one as well.

[ssinha1125]

I have an HDD and I want to transfer just my c drive to the new SSD. I want to keep all my programs, games and apps. How should I do it? Also there seems to be a logical partition on the drive of 500mb , idk if it has anything to do with this question but thought I'll provide all the information. Please help!!

 

[dwd999]

I have an HDD and I want to transfer just my c drive to the new SSD. I want to keep all my programs, games and apps. How should I do it? Also there seems to be a logical partition on the drive of 500mb , idk if it has anything to do with this question but thought I'll provide all the information. Please help!!

You can clone the HDD. Many people here prefer the Macrium software for cloning drives. It will adjust the size of the primary partition if your new SSD is a different different size than your old HDD. Its best to leave the 500mb partition alone since Windows uses those things for updates and recovery.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Does the drive in question also contain the OS you plan on using
or have you installed apps & games to a separate drive and just want to incorporate those into a new OS installation?

 

[ssinha1125]

Does the drive in question also contain the OS you plan on using
or have you installed apps & games to a separate drive and just want to incorporate those into a new OS installation?

I have bought a new SSD of 250gb and want to transfer my whole c drive from my 500gb hdd to the new one and keep the old one as extra storage.

 

[ssinha1125]

You can clone the HDD. Many people here prefer the Macrium software for cloning drives. It will adjust the size of the primary partition if your new SSD is a different different size than your old HDD. Its best to leave the 500mb partition alone since Windows uses those things for updates and recovery.

My hdd is 500gb and SSD is 250gb. How do I clone my c drive such that I can still use my programs that I installed in the d drive.

 

[dwd999]

My hdd is 500gb and SSD is 250gb. How do I clone my c drive such that I can still use my programs that I installed in the d drive.

It depends on how much space your stuff on the HDD uses. Macrium can reduce the SSD partition size if you're not using that much space on the HDD. What is this D drive that you are referring to; how many drives do you have altogether? Are you saying that you have programs installed over 2 drives or do you mean the new SSD is the D drive? After you clone the HDD to the SSD you would boot from the SSD and everything would normally function just as before.

 

[ssinha1125]

It depends on how much space your stuff on the HDD uses. Macrium can reduce the SSD partition size if you're not using that much space on the HDD. What is this D drive that you are referring to; how many drives do you have altogether? Are you saying that you have programs installed over 2 drives or do you mean the new SSD is the D drive? After you clone the HDD to the SSD you would boot from the SSD and everything would normally function just as before.

My bad I only have one hdd which has 3 partitions a C partition, D partition and the 500mb partition I said earlier.

 

[ssinha1125]

It depends on how much space your stuff on the HDD uses. Macrium can reduce the SSD partition size if you're not using that much space on the HDD. What is this D drive that you are referring to; how many drives do you have altogether? Are you saying that you have programs installed over 2 drives or do you mean the new SSD is the D drive? After you clone the HDD to the SSD you would boot from the SSD and everything would normally function just as before.

On the hdd I have my os in the c partition and my actual games on the d partition but you know the program data required to run the apps are in the os partition

 

[ssinha1125]

It depends on how much space your stuff on the HDD uses. Macrium can reduce the SSD partition size if you're not using that much space on the HDD. What is this D drive that you are referring to; how many drives do you have altogether? Are you saying that you have programs installed over 2 drives or do you mean the new SSD is the D drive? After you clone the HDD to the SSD you would boot from the SSD and everything would normally function just as before.

Also I have mini tool 10. Should I switch to macrimum or is mini just fine?

 

[dwd999]

Also I have mini tool 10. Should I switch to macrimum or is mini just fine?

If you want to try mini tool first you can certainly do that. If it fails then Macrium.

 

[ssinha1125]

If you want to try mini tool first you can certainly do that. If it fails then Macrium.

One quick question, if I copy me C partition to the new SSD and boot it, will I still be able to use all my apps installed in the D partition on my HDD?

 

[USAFRet]

One quick question, if I copy me C partition to the new SSD and boot it, will I still be able to use all my apps installed in the D partition on my HDD?

You don't.
You can't split off "programs" like that.

How much space is consumed on your current C drive?

A screencap of your Disk Management window would help here.

 

[SkyNetRising]

You don't.
You can't split off "programs" like that.

What?
Of course you can, if programs are installed on a separate partition.

You can clone a single partition, if you want to.
Or entire drive (with all partitions on it).
Users choice.

 

[USAFRet]

What?
Of course you can, if programs are installed on a separate partition.

Well yes, if they are on a different partition.

This is why I asked for more details of what he has.

 

[ssinha1125]

You don't.
You can't split off "programs" like that.

How much space is consumed on your current C drive?

A screencap of your Disk Management window would help here.

https://imgur.com/a/hjWlwZw

View: https://imgur.com/a/hjWlwZw

https://imgur.com/a/2euFHoI

View: https://imgur.com/a/2euFHoI

Img link

 

[USAFRet]

OK...it can be done, but you'll need to be very careful.

Read the below steps.
Changes:
Select ALL partition on Disk 0 except the D partition.

Do all the clone things.

After, verify that D partition still has the D drive letter.

See steps below.

 

[USAFRet]

-----------------------------
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 Disk 0, except the D partition.

[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.
-----------------------------

 

[ssinha1125]

What?
Of course you can, if programs are installed on a separate partition.

You can clone a single partition, if you want to.
Or entire drive (with all partitions on it).
Users choice.

see when i install a program like a game, i usually install it in my d partition, and the program data is stored in the os partition.

 

[ssinha1125]

-----------------------------
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 Disk 0, except the D partition.

[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.
-----------------------------

in your answer you said wipe out all partitions on the old hdd. instead can i just erase the c partition and leave the d partition as it is, cus it is the one that holds most of my apps?

 

[USAFRet]

in your answer you said wipe out all partitions on the old hdd. instead can i just erase the c partition and leave the d partition as it is, cus it is the one that holds most of my apps?

You need to delete ALL partitions except the D.

This is why partitions like this can get messy.

 

[ssinha1125]

You need to delete ALL partitions except the D.

This is why partitions like this can get messy.

oh thank goodness.
This is my first thread on here and everyone's so helpful. Thank You guys!