Question Upgrading Windows 11's SSD ?

[Cody325M]

I'm going to replace the SSD that I have Windows 11 installed on. The drive works, just small. Are there any good guides on how to do that? Reading through here I've seen people do it by taking an image of the old drive. The other guides that I have found use some sketchy-looking software. I don't mind installing everything again, but I'm worried about TPM, Secure Boot, UEFI's Windows Boot Manager, and other things that I don't understand. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Lafong]

Standard advice:

Macrium Reflect Free Edition.

Lower left at the link below.

You can do what you need by "cloning" or by "imaging and restoration of the image". Macrium will do either. The 2 methods are cousins with the same result.

Do you have an external drive? Do you have a second internal drive?

Describe your current system drive...type, capacity, how much space is occupied.

There are other software packages that will work also, but Macrium is the most commonly used here.

Here is a recent thread on the same topic that you can learn from:

Question - Upgrading HD - Best Way w/o Starting from Scratch

Hi all...New here. Thanks in advance for your guidance. I have a desktop that has 2 HDs. One is a SSD drive that is my C drive. The other is a traditional HDD that is my D drive. My C drive is what I have Windows installed on and some programs that can't be moved to the D drive. My D drive...

forums.tomshardware.com

Macrium Reflect | Free 30-Day Trial

Macrium Reflect - Incredibly powerful software that allows you to create and schedule effective backups

www.macrium.com

 

[USAFRet]

I'm going to replace the SSD that I have Windows 11 installed on. The drive works, just small. Are there any good guides on how to do that? Reading through here I've seen people do it by taking an image of the old drive. The other guides that I have found use some sketchy-looking software. I don't mind installing everything again, but I'm worried about TPM, Secure Boot, UEFI's Windows Boot Manager, and other things that I don't understand. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Details, please.

Specifically, what drive(s) and motherboard?

I use Macrium for this.

 

[stonecarver]

but I'm worried about TPM, Secure Boot, UEFI's Windows Boot Manager, and other things that I don't understand.

You have to be simi good at knowing windows if your current windows install got past all those in the first place.

List your system, does it not support windows 11 or an I misunderstanding.

 

[Cody325M]

Windows is on 500GB, 70GB free
2nd internal SSD is 4TB and has 1TB free, I could make more space if needed. WD Blue the black box shaped one, not m.2

"You have to be simi good at knowing windows if your current windows install got past all those in the first place" Dude, I cave-man my way through that one.

 

[Cody325M]

ASUS AM4 x570 motherboard. Not sure why you need the motherboard. I think I flashed the BIOS after I got it. I could be mis-remembering. But it runs windows 11 currently

 

[Lafong]

Windows is on 500GB, 70GB free
2nd internal SSD is 4TB and has 1TB free, I could make more space if needed.

"You have to be simi good at knowing windows if your current windows install got past all those in the first place" Dude, I cave-man my way through that one.

One way to do it:

Install Macrium; make "rescue media" from menus, on a USB stick.

Make an image file of the 500 GB drive. It has 430 occupied; image file would be maybe 250 or 300 gb in size. Save the image file on the 2nd internal.

Swap drives.

Boot from the USB stick.

Restore the image file from the 2nd internal to the new drive.

Might take an hour or two, subject to your inexperience.

 

[Cody325M]

Here's the newEgg link for the MB, https://www.newegg.com/asus-tuf-gaming-x570-plus/p/N82E16813119197?Item=N82E16813119197

 

[USAFRet]

What will be the new OS drive?