[SOLVED] Way to Clone HDD OS to SSD excluding all other data?

[Came12on]

After googling i'm still not sure. Is there a way to clone my Windows from my old HDD to my new SSD?
I only want to move windows over, as the new ssd isn't big enough to clone everything...

Or is there a way to move ONLY the Data over to a seperate drive and then delete it from the OS drive (leaving only the OS on there)

Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

After googling i'm still not sure. Is there a way to clone my Windows from my old HDD to my new SSD?
I only want to move windows over, as the new ssd isn't big enough to clone everything...

Or is there a way to move ONLY the Data over to a seperate drive and then delete it from the OS drive (leaving only the OS on there)

Thanks

"only Windows" ?

No, there is no application or function to do that.


Your personal data? Sure. Copy that to elsewhere.
Applications, no.
Games, maybe. If Steam based, yes.

 

[Came12on]

Or should I clone everything from (windows disk) to a spare disk and then delete all data from the windows disk (leaving only windows on the drive)

 

[USAFRet]

Or should I clone everything from (windows disk) to a spare disk and then delete all data from the windows disk (leaving only windows on the drive)

Give us some details.

What size and type is the source drive?
How much data is on it?
What is the size/make/model of the new drive?
Which OS?

Details, please, and then maybe we can define a way forward.

 

[Palorim12]

If you just want the OS....just do a clean install?

 

[Came12on]

If you just want the OS....just do a clean install?

Interesting... I did not think of that aha. But my windows 10 is a virtual copy so I think I'd need to clone it or I'd need to purchase another windows.

Give us some details.

What size and type is the source drive?
How much data is on it?
What is the size/make/model of the new drive?
Which OS?

Sorry I didn't mean to reply after your original response, I didn't see it.

1tb seagate hdd to a 500gb ssd crucial
Windows 10 virtual copy (free upgrade i believe, can't really remember)

 

[Palorim12]

Interesting... I did not think of that aha. But my windows 10 is a virtual copy so I think I'd need to clone it or I'd need to purchase another windows.




Sorry I didn't mean to reply after your original response, I didn't see it.

1tb seagate hdd to a 500gb ssd crucial
Windows 10 virtual copy (free upgrade i believe, can't really remember)

Since Windows 8, Microsoft made it so your copy of Windows is tied to your Motherboard. You can reinstall it and once your in windows, it will detect your MB and activate itself.

 

[USAFRet]

A reinstall on another drive, in this same system, does NOT incur any licensing issues.

You can reinstall all you like. It will activate itself when it goes online.

 

[USAFRet]

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[USAFRet]

1tb seagate hdd to a 500gb ssd crucial
Windows 10 virtual copy (free upgrade i believe, can't really remember)

How much space is consumed on the 1TB HDD?

 

[Came12on]

How much space is consumed on the 1TB HDD?

There is 343gb left free

 

[USAFRet]

There is 343gb left free

So, about 600GB consumed.

If you could get that to under 400GB, you could clone all of it.

Otherwise...a clean install on the new SSD.

 

[Came12on]

So, about 600GB consumed.

If you could get that to under 400GB, you could clone all of it.

Otherwise...a clean install on the new SSD.

Okay this is my final plan...

clone the 1tb windows drive to my other 500 HDD
then remove windows folder from the 500 HDD
then delete the remaining stuff i've just copied from the original windows 1tb hdd (leaving only windows on the 1tb drive.

THEN clone that newly cleared up 1tb windows disk over to the 500 SSD... haha? That was hard to explain

 

[USAFRet]

Okay this is my final plan...

clone the 1tb windows drive to my other 500 HDD
then remove windows folder from the 500 HDD
then delete the remaining stuff i've just copied from the original windows 1tb hdd (leaving only windows on the 1tb drive.

THEN clone that newly cleared up 1tb windows disk over to the 500 SSD... haha? That was hard to explain

No.
All that bit about deleting the Windows folder is just more complication.
And you can't clone that anyway....too much data.

Find all your personal data. Move that to elsewhere...some other physical drive.
This might include Steam games, easily movable. Possibly just copy the whole SteamApps folder off to elsewhere.
Uninstall applications as needed.
Get the current used space to below 400GB.
Then clone to the 500GB.

 

[Came12on]

No.
All that bit about deleting the Windows folder is just more complication.
And you can't clone that anyway....too much data.

Find all your personal data. Move that to elsewhere...some other physical drive.
This might include Steam games, easily movable. Possibly just copy the whole SteamApps folder off to elsewhere.
Uninstall applications as needed.
Get the current used space to below 400GB.
Then clone to the 500GB.

I meant to say I will get the 1tb lower first before ill move it to the other 500gb physical hdd.

But yeah okay I will try your way thanks for your help

 

[USAFRet]

And when you DO get to the proper data size for cloning into a 500GB drive, this:

-----------------------------
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
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, 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
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
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.
-----------------------------

 

[Came12on]

And when you DO get to the proper data size for cloning into a 500GB drive, this:

-----------------------------
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
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, 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
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

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

Hello, today I'm attempting the clone. I have deleted enough things on the windows drive to clone to the ssd... but Macrium is saying not enough space..., I'm confused

(please ignore the name of the target disk, that is another disk i tried just in case)

 

[USAFRet]

Because the main partition on the target drive is taking up ALL the space, and leaves none for the 540MB partition at the end.

Go back a couple of steps, and go into "Cloned Partition Properties".
Shrink the main partition a little to leave space for the second partition, the 540MB.

 

[USAFRet]

Can you post a screencap of the working Disk Management window.

 

[Came12on]

Because the main partition on the target drive is taking up ALL the space, and leaves none for the 540MB partition at the end.

Go back a couple of steps, and go into "Cloned Partition Properties".
Shrink the main partition a little to leave space for the second partition, the 540MB.

Thank you for the quick response.

Okay so I just dropped the parts in seperately and now macrium has allowed it to fit.

Should I continue with the clone or should I try shrinking the main partition still?



here is my disk screen, what do you think?

 

[USAFRet]

Should I continue with the clone or should I try shrinking the main partition still?

Continue and see what happens.

 

[Came12on]

Continue and see what happens.

Any suggestions for my other drives from my disk management screen? I only just recently found out about creating empty partitions for speed etc

 

[USAFRet]

Any suggestions for my other drives from my disk management screen? I only just recently found out about creating empty partitions for speed etc

"empty partitions for speed" is just a waste of drive real estate.

Yes, if you partition a spinning hard drive so as to use only the outer portion, whatever data is on that is accessed a bit faster. But, you're throwing away most of the space on the drive.
This was known as short stroking. The outer portion of the drive goes past the head faster than the inner portions. And, the head does not have to travel as far to access different data.
This does NOT hold true with an SSD.

But given SSD anyway, whatever we have that may continue to live on the HDD is not reliant on the "speed" anyway.

Leave those drives as they are.

 

[Came12on]

"empty partitions for speed" is just a waste of drive real estate.

Yes, if you partition a spinning hard drive so as to use only the outer portion, whatever data is on that is accessed a bit faster. But, you're throwing away most of the space on the drive.
This was known as short stroking. The outer portion of the drive goes past the head faster than the inner portions. And, the head does not have to travel as far to access different data.
This does NOT hold true with an SSD.

But given SSD anyway, whatever we have that may continue to live on the HDD is not reliant on the "speed" anyway.

Leave those drives as they are.

Okay so after following all steps. I checked the bios to see that the ssd is now boot option 1. The only step I couldn't replicate was swapping the sata cable (because the ssd is an m2 pci slot

Tried to boot and am met with

Recovery
Your pc needs to be repaired
A required file is missing 'winload.exe'
A required device isn't connected or cant be accessed
Error code 0xc000000e
Enter to try again
F8 for startup settings
F9 to use a different OS

 

[USAFRet]

What is the make/model of the new SSD?