How to migrate os to new ssd

[Deemsen]

Hi, i just bought a new ssd to install into my hp elite Compaq 8200 sff, can Someone tell me how to Migrate my hdd to my ssd and make it my boot drive, i still Wanda use Both the drives bcs i have a 250gb hdd and its just not enough, so i bought a 256gb ssd.

greetings Damian

[mdklassen · Accepted solution]

> Product Name: HP Compaq Elite 8200 SFF

> I just bought a new ssd to install into my hp elite Compaq 8200 sff.

Tight fit -- a SFF ("small form factor") chassis usually has little room for adding another disk-drive.

Fortunately, the SSD is "small" (in width/length/height), and is insensitive to vibration.

So, you can literally "hang" it anywhere that it can be attached to a SATA cable and to a power lead.

> How to migrate my HDD to my SSD and make it my boot drive,

Did the SSD come with "disk-cloning" software, or a hyperlink to use to download such software?

Is the HDD manufactured by SEAGATE or by WESTERN DIGITAL?

If so, there is free "disk-cloning" software, downloadable from the respective manufacturer's web-site, that an copy, block-for-block, from the HDD to the SDD.  It can also "shrink" and "expand" the partitions, if the two devices have a different storage capacity.

Once the copying is done, reboot, and enter BIOS SETUP mode, and change the "Boot Order" to make the SSD the "primary" boot-device.

P.S.

#1: After booting from the SSD, run the Windows "Disk Cleanup" utility, to remove unnecessary files.

#2: After booting from the SSD, run "Disk Defragmenter", and configure it to NEVER try to "defragment" the SSD.

Doing so will not increase the speed of the SSD, and it just adds extra "wear" on the SSD.

#3: You might want to change the "volume-label" on the HDD, to be different from the label on the SSD.

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[Deemsen]

Thank you very much for the reply, i dont know the ssd comes with cloning software, because it hasnt arrived yet, iT should arriving Tomorrow i think (its a samsung drive from a laptop, its Second hand and is 1 Year old with about 2k operating hours, its second hand because im a child and dont earn much money) But i do know that i have a western Digital drive so i Will download iT in a sec

again thank you for the reply and i Will do this tomorrow

greetings damian

[Deemsen]

Also, i found this https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02781693

and it says ssd up to 160gb, but what would happen if i install the 256gb drive i bought?

greetings Damian 

[mdklassen]

>  It says SSD up to 160gb, but what would happen if i install the 256gb drive i bought?

If you were to order that computer from HP, the SSD that they would supply would be 160 GB, or less.

Almost-all current motherboards can handle disk-drives and SSD up to 2048 GB (2 Terabytes), and some can handle much-larger devices.

[Deemsen]

Ooooohhhh okay, thank you so much for your help! I’ll let you know if something Goes wrong, but i have 1 more question, would it be better if i just install new Windows on the ssd and then copy my whole hdd to it except for Windows? Do i get any performance benefits?

[mdklassen]

>  Would it be better if i just install new Windows on the SSD and then copy my whole HDD to it except for Windows?

That will not work.

As you installed programs (MS Office, Adobe Reader, Audacity, iTunes, et cetera) onto the HDD, each "installer" wrote files into the 'WINDOWS' folder, and added entries to the Windows Registry.  So, simply copying the 'Program Files' folder from HDD to SDD will not correctly "install" those programs.

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[Deemsen]

Oooh okay, but is there a huge performance difference between fresh And cloned? And is it worth all the time for downloading everything again and setting everything up again?

[mdklassen]

>  is there a huge performance difference between fresh And cloned?

If you "clone" from one HDD to another HDD, the performance will be the same, unless the underlying technology of the new HDD is better than the underlying technology of the old HDD.  The new HDD might have a larger internal "cache", and it might spin 33% faster (7200 RPM versus 5400 RPM), to increase its performance.

If you "clone" from HDD to SSD, there will be a great improvement in the disk I/O performance -- faster data transfer, and no "rotational-delay".

If you reinstall Windows on a new HDD, and then run Windows Update, then its performance will not be any better -- definitely not a "huge" performance improvement.

> And is it worth all the time for downloading everything again and setting everything up again?

Depends.  If you would rather use your computer for something useful (job-related, or software coding), then all the time "lost" by "downloading and setting up" is a waste of your time.

Disk-cloning probably replaces an out-of-warranty disk-drive by an in-warranty, faster, disk-drive, while retaining all your programs and all your personal files.  Total "outage" time is under 2 hours.  If you "flatten-and-rebuild", you're looking at a full day, or more, depending on slow the Windows Update (and installing programs, and reloading data from an external backup) will be.

[Deemsen]

Okay, thank you very much, i Will try that. 

My ssd should be delivered tomorrow