Transferring windows to a new drive

[cduvall95]

So Im building a new pc and all my games and other things are on hdds with windows 10. With my new pc I want to have windows on a m.2 ssd as a boot drive. Is there a easy way I can transfer windows 10 from my hdd to a ssd.

 

[R_1]

easy way requirements: data on hard drive smaller than the SSD. its only easy if all data on hdd is less than the capacity of the SSD. then you can simple clone the drive to the SSD

if the HDD contains more than the SSD you will need to delete-remove un-needed files to free space, then clone the drive.

I feel the best way is simply to install windows afresh on the SSD (with the HDD unplugged) after windows has installed you can install your apps to the SSD. shut down, plug in the HDD, boot from SSD and copy the program files folders for the freshly installed programs to the SSD, this will recover all your settings. its a pain but the benefits of the SSD are worth it, the SSD may require a driver for windows to see it so that is another reason I suggest a fresh install

 

[cduvall95]

easy way requirements: data on hard drive smaller than the SSD. its only easy if all data on hdd is less than the capacity of the SSD. then you can simple clone the drive to the SSD

if the HDD contains more than the SSD you will need to delete-remove un-needed files to free space, then clone the drive.

I feel the best way is simply to install windows afresh on the SSD (with the HDD unplugged) after windows has installed you can install your apps to the SSD. shut down, plug in the HDD, boot from SSD and copy the program files folders for the freshly installed programs to the SSD, this will recover all your settings. its a pain but the benefits of the SSD are worth it, the SSD may require a driver for windows to see it so that is another reason I suggest a fresh install

Thanks once I get all my parts in I will try to do a fresh install of windows. Will take longer, but dont want to mess with cloning. One last question once I boot up the system if the ssd and hdd both have windows on it would that be a problem before I delete it from the ssd

 

[USAFRet]

So Im building a new pc and all my games and other things are on hdds with windows 10. With my new pc I want to have windows on a m.2 ssd as a boot drive. Is there a easy way I can transfer windows 10 from my hdd to a ssd.

Are you looking to transfer from the old PC to the new one, or between drives in the same PC?
2 different concepts.

 

[cduvall95]

So Im building a new pc and all my games and other things are on hdds with windows 10. With my new pc I want to have windows on a m.2 ssd as a boot drive. Is there a easy way I can transfer windows 10 from my hdd to a ssd.

Are you looking to transfer from the old PC to the new one, or between drives in the same PC?
2 different concepts.

To a new pc, but my games are still on the hdd so I would still like to use it.

 

[USAFRet]

So Im building a new pc and all my games and other things are on hdds with windows 10. With my new pc I want to have windows on a m.2 ssd as a boot drive. Is there a easy way I can transfer windows 10 from my hdd to a ssd.

Are you looking to transfer from the old PC to the new one, or between drives in the same PC?
2 different concepts.

To a new pc, but my games are still on the hdd so I would still like to use it.

Transferring the installed OS between systems is problematic.
Prepare for a clean install in the new PC.

Transferring the license will probably work.
Read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html

Games are a different thing, Steam games especially.
You can copy the SteamApps folder from one drive to another. Or, access the SteamApps folder on the old drive from the new Steam client on the new drive with the new OS.