Migrating Windows 10 from SATA HDD to SSD

[YurkshireLad]

My wife has an old laptop running Windows 10 from a SATA HDD. I'm finding it quite slow at times so I'm considering buying an SSD to replace the drive. I've been reading articles about migrating to an SSD and they all mention different migration software that I've never heard of before. So I was wondering if anyone here could recommend migration software for this task? Thanks

[themadhippy]

Be a rebel and use a linux live cd 

[DC1MC]

0.0) Backup your important files: documents, pictures, etc on a separate media.
0.1) Make sure that the original HDD is cleaned by the cruft that usually adds in time (downloads, unused files, etc.
0.2) run the windozian defragmenter program AT LEAST THREE TIMES in a row, to try to get rid of gaps in the storage.

1) - Get some cheap USB(3) to SATA adapter and make sure that your new SSD is visible when you connect it to the laptop, do NOT accept any formattiong/partitioning offer from windoze.

2) - Make a bootable USB stick with clonezilla: https://clonezilla.org/ - and keep in mind if your laptop has the new UEFI instead of old BIOS to get the AMD64-bit version (https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php)

3) Boot the USB stick with the new SSD also connected to another USB interface, and follow the nice menus to clone your HDD to SSD.


Here, all done in three relatively easy steps.

 Cheers,
 DC1MC

[Ian.M]

Make sure you do a *FULL* windows shutdown e.g. with

Code: [Select]

shutdown /s /t 0from the command prompt before booting Clonezilla.

If Clonezilla can't see internal drives, check the BIOS setting for anything related to "Intel RST with Optane".  Disable it if found.

If the new drive is larger, after booting from it successfully, you may need a partition utility to move diagnostics, recovery and any other partitions located after C: to the top of the free space so you can expand C:.

[mariush]

I've used Macrium Reflect - https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree - to clone a Windows drive to a SSD without any problems. Can be run from actual drive that you want to clone and can take up to 1-2 hours for a 500 GB-ish drive. 
It also allows you to exclude some files you don't want to be copied over (for example if you have some movies on the same partition with your Windows, maybe you don't need to clone the movies as well) ... it helps if for example the boot partition is 1 TB and your SSD is 500 GB and you need to bring the total size down to 500 GB or less.

It has a free for personal use license but you do have to give them your email adress, they send you the download link and code in your email account.

So you can add the SSD to your system, install software, clone to SSD, then reboot and go in BIOS to change boot order so that your SSD will be the boot device and Windows will start from the SSD.

[james_s]

At least one of the SSDs I bought came with free software to do just that, I think it was a link to download it from their website. Seems like it even came with a free USB to SATA adapter but you can get a better one for under $20. It was a fairly painless process, plug in the new drive via the USB adapter, run the program to clone the existing drive to it, swap in the new drive and you're up and running.

[Messtechniker]

Macrium reflect free 8 is a way to go. Cloned to date about a dozen (Sata)HDDs to (Sata)SSDs. Worked every time.

[amyk]

gparted is what I use. If the SSD is larger you don't need to do anything but a direct partition copy, and you can then expand that in Windows to the full size once it's copied over.

[YurkshireLad]

Thanks all, some very helpful info here.

[CJay]

0.2) run the windozian defragmenter program AT LEAST THREE TIMES in a row, to try to get rid of gaps in the storage.

Not worth the time or effort.

[mariush]

0.2) run the windozian defragmenter program AT LEAST THREE TIMES in a row, to try to get rid of gaps in the storage.

Not worth the time or effort.

If you use a cloning software that's dumb and doesn't move the files by itself, you can use a defragmenting tool to move files so that there's as little space between files as possible.
In the past I've used O&O Defrag but it's a trial / shareware version and I'm not sure the latest versions still have it.

The freeware Defraggler has an option to do it and you only need to run it once, it's called Defrag Freespace (allow fragmentation) : https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048165632-Defragmenting-freespace-on-a-drive-with-Defraggler

Some files will be fragmented more, because parts of the files will be moved in the empty space between other files but once they run from a SSD, it doesn't matter how fragmented files are because SSDs don't care about it.

[CJay]

0.2) run the windozian defragmenter program AT LEAST THREE TIMES in a row, to try to get rid of gaps in the storage.

Not worth the time or effort.

If you use a cloning software that's dumb and doesn't move the files by itself, you can use a defragmenting tool to move files so that there's as little space between files as possible.
In the past I've used O&O Defrag but it's a trial / shareware version and I'm not sure the latest versions still have it.

The freeware Defraggler has an option to do it and you only need to run it once, it's called Defrag Freespace (allow fragmentation) : https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048165632-Defragmenting-freespace-on-a-drive-with-Defraggler

Some files will be fragmented more, because parts of the files will be moved in the empty space between other files but once they run from a SSD, it doesn't matter how fragmented files are because SSDs don't care about it.

If you use a dumb clone tool that ignores 'files' then defragging will make *zero* difference to the performance because it's ignoring files and copying sector by sector.

If you're using a windows operating system that's older than Win 7 then you probably shouldn't be using an SSD because it likely won't support TRIM.

If you're using Win 7 or newer that supports TRIM then the OS also automatically defrags, thus the improvement gained by defragging 3 times is so minimal to none existent that it's likely to take longer than the time it *might* gain.

So, it's not worth the time or effort.

[james_s]

I don't think there's really any reason to defragment a SSD, seek time is not a concept that applies when there is no physical head to position.

[Lindley]

Agree with @Messtechniker, Macrium Reflect Free version ( a uk company) its as simple as it get, used it for years to clone and  do System Backups, works well.

We just do a Backup for safety and then Restore than onto the SSD, though you can just use the Clone option.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree#

[CJay]

I don't think there's really any reason to defragment a SSD, seek time is not a concept that applies when there is no physical head to position.

No reason at all to defrag an SSD and every write/read operation adds a little wear so all you're doing is contributing to the demise for no benefit but the OP was moving from a spinning disk to SSD.

Even then, there's almost no point defragging a disk prior to cloning for the reasons I outlined.

[Haenk]

It all depends, if TRIM is supported or not. Way back then, it was a good idea to completely copy over the SSD to another device, format, copy back - without TRIM.
Defragmentation before copying the device is pointless; you don't do a block copy but a file copy when moving to another device (i.e. HDD->SSD).
(Way back then, still somewhere buried on a disk I don't remember, I had that cool SCSI copy program for MacOS, which really did a low level block copy. Great for all kind of workstations, like SUN, SGI...)

But: I usually only copy the data, keep the old disk (just in case) and do a fresh install. That has never done me wrong in about a zillion computers.

[Marco]

Here, all done in three relatively easy steps.

You forgot removing the old drive before booting, windows hates two drives with the same ID which I can't remember the exact name of.

[SiliconWizard]

If the SSD is a Samsung one, Samsung provide an utility that works very well for this. It can clone your whole Windows OS and make it immediately bootable without pain.
https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/

Dunno if it works with other brands of SSDs.

[BeBuLamar]

The Samsung software works well but doesn't work with other brand of SSD and can't clone a larger HHD to a smaller SSD.

[Mechatrommer]

AOMEI Backupper can do both bigger to smaller, smaller to bigger etc as long as used space can fit on destination SSD sata or nvme. i think Macrium Reflect also can do the same, i use AOMEI because its cuter and no reason to use 2 same tools at the same time, but i keep the installation file just in case. files also will not be exactly block to block placement, they are all will be rearranged accordingly afaik on destination SSD, so its pointless to defragment source HDD, its the thing of the past along with the low level format or block copy. why use generic tools that can be used on any brands rather than brand specific tool that wont work on others? the golden rule to any of this, any tool you use, is that you dont destroy your source disk just yet once you've made the backup copy like a confident hero, you need to test the target disk first (bootnessable and data integrity) before doing so, ymmv.

[JDubU]

I use Macrium Reflect for this purpose.

There is one caveat, however.  If you wipe/reformat the original boot drive and then use it in the same computer as a secondary data drive, it can sometimes prevent Windows from successfully finding a boot drive. 
Macrium provides a fix for this:
http://reflect.macrium.com/help/v5/rescue_cds/fix_boot_problems.htm