Need to Transfer OS to SSD in Windows
SSD is not new to computer users, and many users want to transfer OS to SSD in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP, Vista due to its excellent performance, such as, faster reading & writing speed, it’s said to be 10 time than HDDs. This need is especially apparent when the computer is running very slowly or experiencing disk failures.
Install OS on a SSD disk, usually to a larger one, thus you can not only enjoy its great performance, but also has a larger capacity. Finally, you can install many applications and store any data you want without worrying about the capacity.
In addition, other users may want to keep an intact copy of their original operating system, settings, installed programs, personal data, etc instead of a fresh install. And cloning is the best way to transfer OS to SSD without reinstalling.
Then, let’s get started to learn more about system migration and the stepwise guide.
Prepare for system migration
The system migration process seems to be very easy, you just need a cloning hard drive to clone OS and then replace the old HDD with new SSD, change boot order and let your computer boot from the cloned SSD disk. But before that you need to do a lot of preparation work.
A reliable system migration software
A reliable system migration software is the core of transferring OS to SSD successfully, thus you need to pay more attention when choosing a software. Free disk clone software – AOMEI Backupper Standard will be a great choice.
It supports cloning OS from smaller drive to larger drive as well as cloning OS from large HDD to smaller SSD (as long as the used space of HDD is smaller than or equal to SSD), and you can boot from the cloned drive without any obstacle. And it is able to further improve the reading & writing speed of SSD disk.
Connect new SSD to your computer
Whether you are currently using desktop or laptop, there are 3 useful methods in total. All of them applies to desktop computer, but laptop users prefers the last two methods.
- Install the SSD inside the same machine.
- Connect the SSD via a SATA-to-USB cable to your computer.
- Use an external hard drive enclosure for a connection. If the new SSD is an NVMe disk, you need to use PCIe M.2 adapter.
Free up disk space to ensure a smooth migration
Usually, the new disk is required to larger than old disk, otherwise the cloning process will fail. But you can easily clone a disk to a smaller one with a reliable system migration software. Please note you need to make sure the used space of larger disk is smaller than or equal to the smaller disk. If not, please delete some useless files via Disk Cleanup, uninstall programs you are no longer use, etc.
Backup files you don’t want to lose in the system partition
The system migration will delete all the data on the system partition or disk, thus if you don’t want to lose any of them, please back up them with a free backup software. You can still use AOMEI Backupper Standard. Its File Backup supports backing up files to external hard drive or you can directly make a cloud backup to ensure data security.
After making these preparations, you can continue to see below and transfer OS to SSD step by step.
Transfer OS to SSD without reinstalling in simple steps
Now, yo can transfer OS to SSD with system migration software – AOMEI Backupper Standard. Here you will use its Disk Clone feature to complete this task easily. Please follow the steps below.
Step 1. Download and install AOMEI Backupper Standard. Then, launch it and click “Clone” ->“Disk Clone” to start this migration process.
Step 2. In the Source Disk window, select the disk with Windows installed and click Next.
Step 3. In the Destination Disk window, choose the new SSD to receive OS and data on the system partition. Then, click Next.
Step 4. In the Operation Summary window, you can see the disk partition style, disk number, disk size. Confirm these information and click tart Clone to transfer OS from HDD to SSD.
There are 3 features you may want to use in the lower location of this window.
“SSD Alignment”: It makes full use of 4k alignment technology to accelerate the performance of SSD disk, thus you can boot your computer faster, open a browser quickly, etc.
“Edit Partitions”: It’s used to adjust partition size of the destination disk, you can choose manually resize the partition or simply make it fit on the target disk. If the destination disk is MBR, you can easily convert it to GPT disk.
“Sector by Sector Clone”: It allows you to clone all sectors of a hard drive to another one, thus making an exact copy of original disk.
Take your action
If you also want an easier way to transfer OS to SSD without reinstalling Windows, you could try this software right now! And you can enjoy some useful features during the cloning process, such as, SSD Alignment, Edit Partition, Sector by Sector Clone.
