How to transfer Windows to SSD without losing data?

Given the benefits of SSDs and their advantages over older hard drives, many users tend to switch to hard drives but find re-installing Windows unpleasant. 

In this article, you’ll learn how to move Windows to a new SSD.

Many cheaper or older Windows laptops use traditional mechanical hard drives. These hard drives are no longer up to date and are considered very slow. Upgrading your hard drive to a high-speed SSD is the surest way to speed up your old device. But there may be a problem; moving your Windows to an SSD can be tricky, especially since these drives are usually smaller in size than mechanical drives.

However, moving your Windows to a new drive is a much more convenient way of reinstalling Windows and takes less time. In this article, we will explain step by step the transition to a new SSD drive.

Step Zero: What do you need?

To do this process in addition to the SSD drive, you need a few more:

sata usb

A way to connect an SSD to a computer

If you have a desktop device, you can easily install your new SSD alongside a traditional hard drive. But on most laptops this is not possible and you will need a USB SATA cable to use SSD. Connect this two and a half inches SSD to your laptop with this cable. You can use an external hard drive frame to connect the SSD to your device, but this will take longer.

Samsung Data Migration software

Samsung Data Migration is software designed to quickly, easily and securely transfer all data (including current operating system, software and user data) from the memory used to the new Samsung SSD.

Although this software is specifically designed for Samsung SSDs and is not compatible with other companies’ SSDs, it is enough for your target storage to be a Samsung SSD .

EaseUS Todo Backup software

Another software that can be used is EaseUS Todo Backup. The free version of this software has all the features we need. Be sure to hit Custom on the Install Additional Software page when installing this program, and remove all the ticks, otherwise there will be a lot of unnecessary software installed on your device.

Data Backup

Clearly, you need to back up your data thoroughly before performing any operation on your hard drive.

Windows system disk repair

This step is only for hard work. If your Master Boot Record crashes in the process, you will be able to use this disk and fix the problem in minutes.

Step One: Sort the Hard Drive

If your SSD drive is smaller than your current hard drive (which is usually due to the high cost of the SSD drive), you need to free up extra space.

To check the capacity of both drives, connect your SSD to your computer and wait for it to appear in Windows Explorer. Right-click on any drive and click Properties (or you can use the Ctrl + Enter shortcut). The pictures below show that the old 1GB drive and the new SSD have 2GB of storage.

You probably will encounter this problem as well, so you need to free up extra space before moving on to the next step.

First, delete the files you don’t need. Removing additional programs and using Disk Cleanup is another good way.

You have a few options to save your extra files:

External Hard Drive: If you have an external hard drive you can use it for temporary or permanent storage of files.

Second internal drive: This option is not usually available for laptop users, but if you are a desktop user and have a separate internal drive or can provide it, you can use it to save your files. We recommend that you use your SSD memory for Windows, applications and games and a regular hard drive to store common files (documents, movies, music, etc.).

Cloud: If you don’t have a hard drive and don’t want it, you might want to use a cloud like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive. Keep in mind that uploading files to these services may take several days or weeks depending on their size. After uploading all files to the cloud you can delete them from your system.

Note: Since your new SSD drive is smaller than your current hard drive, you need to find a permanent location for your files, so it’s best to choose among the options above.

Step Two: Update the SSD Format

SSDs are a nascent technology field, and many of their early generations had many bugs and problems. These issues were resolved only with form updates. Every SSD manufacturer has its own way of updating the form. See the manufacturer’s site for detailed information on how to update your SSD. The best time for this update is when there are no files available yet, so the chances of losing data are zero.

Step Three: Clone the drive with Samsung Data Migration

Now is the time to run the main event and drive the clone.

considerations

۱. When cloning, all Samsung SSD destination data is erased and no data can be recovered. If you have data on your SSD, be sure to backup (this software is not capable of backup).

۲. Even if the operation fails, the source drive data will not be harmed. Of course, backups are still recommended.

۳. Before running the clone operation, make sure you have a Samsung NVMe driver installed on your device. This driver can be downloaded from Samsung site .

Hardware prerequisite

Part Necessity
operating system Windows XP SP2 (32bit)
Windows Vista (32 / 64bit)
Windows 7 (32 / 64bit)
Windows 8 (32 / 64bit)
Windows 8.1 (32 / 64bit)
Windows 10 (32 / 64bit)
RAM Memory 1 GB or more
Disk space 1 MB for installation
Types of Supported Partitions MBR, GPT
Disk origin The source disk should include the operating system installation
Destination disk The destination disk can be one of the following options:
Samsung SSD 970 PRO Series
Samsung SSD 970 EVO Series
Samsung SSD 960 PRO Series
Samsung SSD 960 EVO Series
Samsung SSD 950 PRO Series
Samsung SSD 860 EVO Series
Samsung SSD 860 PRO Series
Samsung SSD 850 EVO Series
Samsung SSD 850 PRO Series
Samsung SSD 850 Series
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Series
Samsung SSD 840 Series
Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series
Samsung SSD 830 Series
Samsung SSD 750 EVO Series
Samsung SSD 470 Series

Normal clone (source disk is smaller than destination disk)

Step 1 . Run the Data Migration software and hit the Start button.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Connect the destination disk. If the destination disk is connected, its status is displayed in the Target Disk section.

* You may need an M.2 PCIe / USB converter for this connection.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Start the clone by clicking Start .

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Process status can be tracked with the software progress bar. The time required depends on the volume of data and the speed of your source disk. Note that files that are running cannot be cloned, so be sure to close the files.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . After the clone is completed, a green tick will appear.

samsung data migration

Normal clone (source disk is larger than destination disk)

Step 1 . Run the Data Migration software and hit the Start button.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Connect the destination disk. If the destination disk is connected, its status is displayed in the Target Disk section.

* You may need an M.2 PCIe / USB converter for this connection.

Step 1 . On the Disk Analysis and Cloning Settings page, click Next .

samsung data migration

Step 1 . On the Disk Analysis Summary page, click Next .

samsung data migration

Step 1 . In this section, the software will look for your files for listing.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . If you have a list of files that you see that you want to discard, then go to step 2 and then step 2 .

Step 1 . Click the Browse button.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Select the folders you want to scan. To scan the entire disk option Scan all folders and to scan specific folders, select them after Scan selected folders .

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Scan for new files you selected.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Select the files you want to remove from the clone. Use the information displayed in the software to adjust the volume and continue selecting until the text under the Browse button is ready to be converted to the Target Disk.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Click Next on the Clone Exit Files screen.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Go to Step 2 to clone all files except the selected files, to Step 2 to delete the selected files and the remaining files to Clone, and to Step 2 to save the selected files to another space.

Step 1 . To clone all files except the selected files, select Clone everything except the selected file and click Next .

samsung data migration

Step 1 . To delete the selected files and the remaining files, select Delete the selected file (s) and continue cloning and click Next .

samsung data migration

Step 1 . To save selected files to another storage, select Save the selected file (s) to another storage device and continue cloning . Now select the memory you want to save the selected files to and click Next .

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Start the clone by clicking Start .

samsung data migration

Step 1 . Process status can be tracked with the software progress bar. The time required depends on the volume of data and the speed of your source disk. Note that files that are running cannot be cloned, so be sure to close the files.

samsung data migration

Step 1 . After the clone is completed, a green tick will appear.

samsung data migration

EaseUS Todo Backup

Another solution is to use EaseUS Todo Backup software. Run this software and click the Clone option on the home screen.

First select the source disk. This disk is your Windows system drive. There are three partitions in our system: Boot partition, Windows partition and Recovery partition. To clone all three partitions we make sure there is a tick next to them. Click Next to continue.

You should now select your SSD as the destination drive. In our system, this hard drive has 4GB of dedicated disk space. Make sure you select the destination drive so that no data is lost.

Put a tick next to the drive and tick the Optimize for SSD option. This option works best for your SSD.

Now before you click Next , take a moment and click the Edit button next to your SSD.

EaseUS will show you a preview of the final result. Make sure you have all the partitions and the size of each.

If you need to resize each partition, first select a partition and drag it between two partitions as shown below.

Click OK when all edits are complete. Double check everything and finally Proceed to start the clone operation.

If you see the following warning, tap OK .

Operation time depends on the volume of source drive and the speed of both the source and destination drives. In our system, this operation took about ten minutes.

If you encounter any errors during the operation, you may need to use third party defragmenting tools. In some cases, system files stored at the end of each drive may have difficulty resizing the drive.

Click Finish when the operation is finished.

As you can see in the picture below, our new drive is now displayed in the Windows Explorer file. The only step left is to start using the new drive.

To do this, turn off your device, remove the old drive, and replace the new drive with the old one. Turn on the device now. Windows should automatically boot from your new drive.

If you are using a desktop system and do not want to access the drives, you should go into the system BIOS when booting (usually holding down the Delete button while displaying the Windows logo). From the BIOS settings, you can change the boot priority of the drives and move the new drive to the first priority. Now with your system settings and reboot saved, Windows will be called from your new drive.

After the SSD reboot it should be known as the C drive. If this does not happen, check the accuracy of all of the steps above.

Step Four: Last Settings

 

When Windows launches from the new drive, only a few minor adjustments remain to ensure the best SSD performance.

Make sure TRIM is turned on:

Make sure TRIM functionality is enabled. TRIM is a command that enables SSDs to be managed efficiently. Open the CMD and enter the following command:

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

This long command has a short output; zero or one. If you see 1, TRIM is not active. This feature is enabled if you see 0. Enter the following command to enable this feature:

fsutil behavior set DisableNotify 0

Make sure defragmentation is off. SSD drives do not require defragment tools. Windows should set this up automatically, but check for sure. Open the Start menu and type in the run box: dfrgui . Now pressing the Inter Disk Defragmenter button opens.

Click on the Schedule button and then on Select Disks, uncheck the SSD (which should be your C drive) and click OK .

You probably know that Windows has several folders for each user (Download, Document, Pictures, etc.) that exist in your Windows drive. You can also redirect these special folders so they don’t take up space on your SSD.

To do this, first right-click on the specific folder (Documents for example) and go to Properties> Location> Move to change the location of that particular folder.Windows to SSD

Another important point about other SSD modifications and manipulations. Many SSDs offer suggestions for boosting performance, turning off Superfetch, or disabling the page file (which may cause software crashes if memory is lacking). These days, for optimum SSD operation, there is no need to configure other than the simple settings mentioned above. Windows to SSD

The proposed changes will enhance the performance of your SSD and will definitely not cause any side effects. Be careful with the settings you see in online articles.

Cloning the disk will save you many hours of time having to spend on reinstalling Windows, software and settings. Windows to SSD

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