How to move windows to another drive without reinstalling?

[LennoxGroveLill]

The internal HHD runs slow after upgrading to Windows 11 25H2 and I am ready to add a fast SSD drive for booting. I want to move windows os, apps and personal files from the current hdd to ssd. What is the best way to do that? I don't want to reinstall Windows 11 as it will delete my files and installed apps. It could take a lot of time to set up the device after reinstall.

I checked the built-in file history feature that comes with windows, but it can't help for moving windows to another drive. It is only used for data backup.

[Venom21]

Check if accepted solution of this post helps:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Operating-Systems-and-Recovery/Moving-OS-from-one-drive-to-ano...

[Ouslin]

To move Windows to another drive without reinstalling, especially when you want to transfer everything—OS, applications, and personal files—completely free, the best method is to clone your current HDD to the new SSD. This way, you can boot from the SSD as if nothing has changed, and all your data and installed programs will be preserved.

Important Tips:

• Make sure to back up important data before starting if you are going to move windows to another drive without reinstalling, just in case.
• If the cloning software offers a "resize partitions" option, use it to utilize the full capacity of the SSD.
• After booting from the SSD, verify that all files and programs are intact.

[Niasaka · Accepted solution]

Here are a couple of good methods for moving windows to another drive:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/windowsinsiderprogram/how-can-i-transfer-or-migrate-...

[Srikar4]

When you move Windows to another drive without reinstalling, before migrating, open Disk Management. Right-click on your old HDD's disk label (e.g., "Disk 0") and select "Properties". Go to the "Volumes" tab. Next to "Partition style" it will say either Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT).