How To Upgrade Hard Drive To Ssd Without Reinstalling Windows
If you lot're still using a traditional, spinning difficult disk on your PC, you're missing out. Swapping it out for a solid-state bulldoze (SSD) is one of the best upgrades you can make in terms of speeding up your reckoner. It'll kicking faster, programs will launch instantly, and games won't take so long to load anymore.
Y'all could reinstall Windows from scratch, and in some situations, that may be preferable—but with the right tools, you can get upward and running much quicker by copying your unabridged bulldoze over to the new SSD.
What Yous'll Demand
ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G
Obviously, in order to upgrade to an SSD, you'll need to, well, buy an SSD. Nosotros accept some recommendations, but if you're on a budget, we accept a split list of cheap SSDs as well. Make sure to buy the right class factor for your estimator (some laptops will apply 2.5-inch drives, while others might use M.2 or mSATA drives), and get one large enough to fit all your information. If you have a 500GB hard bulldoze at present, you should probably spring for a similarly sized SSD (or larger, to conform hereafter data).
The only exception is if you're on a desktop computer and have room for multiple hard drives. In that case, yous could store Windows and your programs on the SSD while putting your music, movies, and other media on a second, larger hard deejay—though this tin can be a flake more than complicated, every bit we'll hash out below.
Orico Hard Drive Docking Station
During this process, you'll need both your SSD and your onetime hard bulldoze connected to your computer at the aforementioned time. If yous're using a laptop with only ane hard drive slot, that ways you'll need an external adapter(Opens in a new window), dock(Opens in a new window), or enclosure(Opens in a new window) that can connect your blank SSD to your computer over USB. (Again, desktop users may non need this if they have room for ii drives within their PC—you can just install it internally aslope your sometime hard drive.)
At that place are many different drive-cloning tools on the marketplace, and unfortunately there's no free, one-size-fits-all option. If your drive manufacturer offers a migration program, that might be your all-time bet. For instance, if you bought a Samsung SSD, we recommend downloading Samsung Data Migration(Opens in a new window) and following the instructions in the user guide. Western Digital and SanDisk users tin can use WD's version of Acronis True Prototype(Opens in a new window) to copy their information using these instructions(Opens in a new window).
For this guide, nosotros'll be using Macrium Reflect(Opens in a new window)—it'due south a gratuitous bulldoze-cloning tool that works with any brand of hard drive and SSD. Just download the installer for the free dwelling house version and run through the wizard to get it up and running on your PC. Information technology's bachelor to anyone, no matter what make drive you have, and so if your drive manufacturer doesn't offer a migration tool, Macrium Reflect is your next best bet.
Once you've gathered your necessities, information technology'south time to get started.
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Back Up Your Data (and Free Up Space)
Before you start messing with drives and formatting partitions, it's absolutely necessary to back up your data first. An accidental click can consequence in you erasing everything, so do non continue until y'all've backed information technology all up.
If y'all don't accept a backup yet, cheque out our favorite software for the job. Windows also has File History for backing upward important documents, and an prototype file can salve your entire system. Copying important information to an external hard drive volition also exercise in a pinch.
If you lot're upgrading to an SSD that's smaller than your current hard bulldoze, y'all'll want to accept extra care here. This isn't as common as information technology in one case was, thanks to bigger, less expensive SSDs, but if that'southward the instance for yous, you'll need to delete some files and costless upwardly space on your difficult drive before cloning information technology. Otherwise, your data won't fit on the new drive. Once your information is condom and secure, continue to the side by side step.
Plug In and Initialize Your SSD
Plug your SSD into the SATA-to-USB adapter, so plug that into your estimator. If it'south a make-new drive, y'all probably won't see the drive pop up in File Explorer, but don't worry; it just needs to be initialized start. Open the First card and type "partitions" in the search box. Click the Create and format hard disk drive partitions option, and Deejay Management will open. It will prompt you to initialize the drive using either the GPT or MBR partition table.
I'll exist using GPT for my SSD, since I have a modern PC with a UEFI firmware. If y'all have an older PC with a traditional BIOS, you lot may need to use an MBR sectionalization table. If you aren't certain, wait upwards your specific model of PC or motherboard to meet which type of firmware it uses.
If you lot aren't prompted to initialize the drive, and don't see it in Deejay Direction, double-check that information technology's properly connected to your computer, and that the enclosure or dock is powered on (if necessary). See our guide to troubleshooting a hard drive that won't show upwards for more.
Once the drive has been initialized, y'all should see the drive show up in the lesser pane of Disk Management as unallocated space. From there, you should be skilful to go.
Clone Your Bulldoze
Open Macrium Reverberate and you should see a listing of drives in the master window. Find your current drive—it'll listing your C: partition with a Windows logo—and select information technology. Click the Clone This Disk button that appears below that bulldoze to start the cloning sorcerer.
This will bring upwards a new window where you volition cull your destination drive—in this example, your empty SSD. If your SSD is the same size as your onetime drive, brand sure the box all the way to the left of your source disk is checked, equally shown above, and then click Select a Disk to Clone. Cull your SSD from the drop-down list, and click Next.
If your SSD is significantly smaller than your old drive, this may require an extra step. Reflect will attempt to automatically shrink partitions with costless space to fit it all on the drive, but in my experience, information technology doesn't always do this intelligently, and may leave out i of Windows' recovery partitions. If you experience this problem, you can manually drag each division down to the SSD, and click Cloned Partitioning Properties on your main C: drive to resize it manually.
If your SSD is larger than your quondam drive, it may leave some unused space on the drive—in which case you'll desire to select your chief partition, click Cloned Segmentation Properties, and expand the drive to fill that empty space.
Click Next and you lot'll be asked if you lot desire to save this backup schedule. You can uncheck that box and click OK to run the fill-in now, one time. This tin have anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on how large the disks are, so get watch Netflix and come dorsum later.
When it'due south done, you can exit Macrium Reflect. Y'all should come across your new SSD in File Explorer, complete with all your data.
Install Your SSD
Next, shut down your estimator. It's time to install that SSD in your machine permanently. If y'all have a laptop with but one difficult drive slot, you lot'll demand to remove your old hard drive and replace it with your SSD. This is a bit unlike on every laptop.
If you lot have a desktop PC with more than 1 difficult bulldoze slot, you can leave your old difficult drive in as actress storage, and just install your SSD alongside it.
Reboot From Your New Bulldoze
Once you lot're finished installing the SSD, you'll need to tell your computer to boot from it. (This may non be necessary on laptops with just one drive, simply if you experience problems booting, it tin can assistance on some PCs.) Turn your computer on and enter its BIOS/UEFI setup—this is a scrap different on every PC, but it'll normally say something like "Press DEL to enter setup" on the boot screen, so you'll want to printing the corresponding key as it starts up.
From there, look for your BIOS's boot options. These volition exist in a unlike spot depending on your calculator, but once you find them, select the option to change the kicking sequence. Choose your SSD from the list as the first boot drive, and then caput back to the BIOS's principal menu to get out, saving your settings.
Your computer will reboot, and if all went well, information technology should plop you back into Windows faster than e'er before. Open File Explorer and check to confirm that your SSD is, in fact, the C: bulldoze. If everything looks good, y'all're ready to rock.
If your old drive is still installed, you can erase it and apply it to store extra files, or you can disconnect it entirely. Best of all, your computer should feel significantly snappier without having to kickoff from scratch.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/copy-your-windows-installation-to-an-ssd
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