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Migrating Windows 10 from SATA HDD to SSD

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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: ---shutdown /s /t 0
--- End code ---
from 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.

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