Migrate OS from HDD to SSD

[bhavesh-sankhat]

Hello Team,

Recently, I've purchased Samsung SATA SSD of 250 GB for my HP notebook but here problem is that in this HP notebook with 1TB HDD have pre-installed Windows 10 64-bit OS.

How can I migrate or move Windows 10 OS from HDD to SSD?

Please guide me properly  in this.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Watch this video...

UPDATE: Using Macrium Reflect Free to Clone Windows to a Bootable M.2 SSD - YouTube

[WAWood]

@bhavesh-sankhat 

Understand that using MR version 7, you can NOT clone a 1TB drive to a 250GB drive -- it will not let you do that.  MR Version 8 PAID will allow you to do that, but it is not out yet.

To do this easily, the SDD has to be the same capacity as the HDD.  IF you get an SDD that is a lot smaller, then before you do the cloning, you have to shrink the largest partition on the HDD (usually the OS partition), to the size such that it, and the other partitions, fit easily on the SSD.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @WAWood 

According to the video you can use the free edition and clone to a smaller capacity hard drive.

[WAWood]

@Paul_Tikkanen 

OK ... but I've tried that numerous times and MR objected every time -- which is why they added it as a new feature in the new version of MR coming out this month.

[bhavesh-sankhat]

Hi, thanks for the suggestion but here my concern is that I really need to do cloning? Is there any other way for migration, like reinstall OS in SSD without lost my Windows-10 license ( which is digitally linked to my Microsoft account).

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The W10 product key/license is in your notebook's BIOS.

Temporarily disconnect your notebook's hard drive, and use the cloud recovery tool to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10, the drivers and the software that originally came with your notebook on the SSD.

Here is an info link for how to use that utility.

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (Windows 10, 7) | HP® Customer Support

You will need to remove Windows from your notebook's 2.5" drive or the PC will always want to boot from the 2.5" drive.

[bhavesh-sankhat]

I go through that link's description and watched the video also.

Here my final query is: after creating a bootable USB Drive using HP Cloud Recovery Tool, will it be safe to boot that USB drive directly on SSD? In the description and video, they are not talking about these kinds of topics that's why.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Yes, you should be able to use the cloud recovery tool on a M.2 SSD.

I have a HP notebook that only comes with a M.2 SSD and the cloud recovery tool works on that one.

[bhavesh-sankhat]

OK, then first I will create a bootable USB drive from HDD (which has original windows-10 OS), and after I will remove HDD from HP notebook and install SSD in it. The last step will be to boot the USB drive.

Am I Correct?