Copy windows 10 to another drive. Transferring the system to an SSD without reinstalling - the best ways

In this tutorial, we will show you how you can transfer Windows 10 and all installed data to a new hard drive. The same process can be applied when transferring data to an SSD. We will be migrating from a 250 GB hard drive to a 1 TB drive. Below in the picture is my main disk, which contains operating system and all my files. 1 TB is also installed. To see this we have to go to Disk Management because it is not formatted. So, click on This PC->Manage->Disk Management. As we can see, the 1 TB disk is not even initialized. In this case, make sure there is boot record and click OK to initialize.

Our source drive is drive 0, which is my 250 GB hard drive. It contains my operating system and all data. Disk 1 is the destination disk. We will clone everything on this disk. Also, make sure the destination drive is empty, and if you have information there, make sure you make a backup because the destination drive will be overwritten by the information from the source drive, in this case drive 0. With this set, we're moving forward and should close Disk Management here.

So, for this tutorial we will use Paragon Hard Disk Manager Premium. This program is no longer free. You can probably download it for free, but you won't be able to clone it. This is the program that is used; this program does not slow down the operating system, like most free programs, which we used before. So once you have it installed, go ahead and launch it.

Click on Transfer Operating System and read the following Note carefully.

The target disk will be replaced with information from the source. Click Next and now it is automatically recognized by the operating system and the wizard itself will tell you that it is going to copy the operating system Windows system 10 64 edition which is located on drive C which uses 16 GB on a 250 GB hard drive for a 1 TB drive.

Remember that both drives in this case are serial ATA. Now you can also choose which folders to copy, but by default all folders will be selected. Now check the “use all available space for the OS partition” checkbox. If you don't check the icon, it will create a smaller partition on the larger drive. If you don't know anything about a section, make sure to check the mark. Then click the copy button.

The copying process may take some time depending on how much information needs to be copied there. Once this is done, make sure to read it.

We intend to summarize it for you. You have two options.

Using the first one, you can delete the source drive as soon as the cloning is done and keep the drive as your primary drive. Second: you can go into the BIOS and select the target disk first boot device. In our case, we deleted the original disk. Go ahead and click the close button.

After this, we must restart the computer under Windows control 10, remove the source disk and save to the destination disk, which is 1 TB. However, if you want to keep booting from it, then select the target drive as the first boot device in the BIOS.

Now, as you can see, there is a normal reboot and it’s as if nothing happened and the download proceeds with new hard disk. You can click on my computer and you will notice that you are using a 1TB drive rather than a 250GB drive.

All your data and operating system are activated and ready to go.

That's it. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

When replacing an HDD or transferring a system from one computer to another, you need to know how to transfer to another drive or SSD. This is done so as not to install Windows from scratch, but simply make a copy from the old media and continue to use it.

You can transfer Windows 10 in various ways, but they are all quite similar and differ, perhaps, in the programs with which we copy Windows to another hard drive or SSD.

You can transfer the OS to an SSD or HDD, a regular optical disk or a flash drive with a large amount of memory. In this case, the technique will remain the same, only it may take more time.

We transfer using standard Windows tools

On Windows 7/8/10, there are already standard tools that allow you to transfer the system to a third-party hard drive. Therefore, if you do not want to install or buy additional software, you can do this procedure using these tools.

To create a copy, you will need two drives, one of which will be used as an image location, and the second as a means for system recovery. Typically, the role of the first is played by an HDD or SSD, and the role of the second is played by a regular flash drive, which will first need to be formatted.

  1. Open the Control Panel and find the “Backup and Restore” item there.
  2. Then select “Create a system image”.
  3. We indicate the connected hard drive or SSD we have selected.
  4. We wait until the creation of the image is completed.
  5. Select “Create a system recovery disk” and specify the flash drive there.

All. The system has been successfully transferred to a hard drive or SSD.

AOMEI Backupper Standard

You can also transfer Windows 10 to new media using AOMEI Backupper Standard. It is absolutely free and easily performs this function. The process of creating a copy again consists of two stages: creating, directly, a Windows 10 system image and creating a boot disk.

  • Install AOMEI program Backup Standard.
  • Launch and select the “Create Bootable Media” section in the “Utilities” tab.

Create Bootable Media section

  • Select the second media type (WindowsPE).
  • Then we indicate which media will perform this function. It is worth remembering that the flash drive must be formatted, since all information from it will be deleted during the creation of the media.
  • Open the “Backup” section and select “System bacup”.

  • Next, in the first paragraph, we indicate the disk that currently contains Windows 10; usually the program determines it itself.
  • In the second paragraph, we indicate the HDD, flash drive, SSD to which the system will be copied.
  • Click the “Start” button at the bottom.

The system image on another device and the installer for it are ready. For storage Windows image 10, you can use any media, but it is better if they are devices that use a USB channel, since transferring data via USB will be faster than to an optical disk. In general, the speed depends on parameters such as the amount of data being transferred, the speed of the USB port or optical drive.

After this, you can restore the system to the SSD or hard drive with which you replaced a similar old computer device. To do this:

  1. Launch the bootable media.
  2. The program window appears, select the “Restore” section.
  3. Using the “Patch” button we set the path to the system copy.
  4. Click “Yes” and then “Next”.
  5. Next, select the media on which the system will be deployed.
  6. We check the data and click “Start”.

So, now we have completely transferred Windows 10 to another hard drive or SSD, which replaced the previous one.

Acronics True Image is one of the most common applications that perform this task. The developers also tried to make porting Windows as simple as possible. The program, unlike the previous one, supports the Russian language.

  1. Install and launch Acronics True Image.
  2. Select the section regarding disk cloning.
  3. Place a marker next to the automatic mode.
  4. Select the source disk.

Acronics True Image will commit full cloning, after which the HDD will contain a copy of the entire system, which can be installed. Cloning usually takes 30–40 minutes, sometimes a little more, depending on the power of the PC itself.

In addition to these programs, there are many more offering to perform a similar procedure. As a rule, all these processes are performed in them at the same time, and the availability for the user is approximately the same. However, most of these utilities or programs are paid, since they can perform a lot of other actions that are of little interest to us.

Transfer to another computer

Transferring from one drive to another is much easier than transferring to another computer. In this case, inconsistencies may appear or the operation will end in failure. To prevent this from happening, it is important to know the features of such a transfer.

Firstly, it is worth removing your antivirus and image mounting programs (DaemonTools, Alcohol 120%) before you plan to make a copy, as it may interfere with recovery on the new computer. And secondly, use a special utility to move Windows 10.

If you want to transfer the system to another computer using an old hard drive without replacing it later, then it will be even easier to do all this. If you want to use another HDD or SSD, then after completing the algorithm given below, you may also have to perform the algorithms that were described at the beginning of the article.

C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe

  • Enter: “C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe”,
  • The Sysprep utility starts. She will prepare Windu for movement.
  • Check the box next to “Prepare for use”, “Shut down” and “Go to the system welcome window (OOBE)”.
  • We disconnect the hard drive and mount the new computer.
  • We go through standard and easy procedures for registering a new user.

That's it, now Windows 10 is present in the previous configuration with all the files on the new computer.

Some utilities allow you to immediately mount an HDD or SSD containing the system, without encountering errors when transferring Windows. You will only be required to enter license key product, then you can start using the old data.

We can conclude that there is nothing complicated either in transferring Windows from computer to computer, or in copying it to third-party media, be it a hard drive or SSD. You can do this yourself, without the help of professionals. The main thing is to strictly follow the instructions given above.

Many users try everything possible methods improve the performance of your computer. For this purpose, in addition to standard overclocking using special utilities, install in your system unit more modern types of storage media, namely solid-state drives, which have higher data transfer rates.


Thus, they are faced with the need to migrate the operating system from a standard 3.5-inch hard drive on an SSD drive, however, the whole problem is that not everyone knows how to implement this.

What are the benefits of moving the OS to a solid state drive?

Before considering the main methods of transferring dozens to a solid-state hard drive, it is necessary to understand the main advantages of this, in addition to more high speed reading electronic data that the user receives.

Probably every user has encountered the fact that some applications or processes on the computer take a very long time to complete. This is due to the fact that conventional hard drives are unable to quickly write and read information. However, the situation changes dramatically if you install an SSD drive in a laptop or desktop computer and transfer Windows 10 to it. It would seem that there is nothing wrong with this, but the difference is very noticeable. The system will begin to work noticeably faster and significantly less time will be spent performing the same tasks. At the same time, it is recommended to transfer exclusively the OS to a solid-state drive without any third party programs. However, if there is a need to transfer the entire system as a whole, with all installed utilities, then with the help of some tools you can do this.

General transfer information

There is a misconception among novice users that to transfer an operating system from one hard drive to another, you just need to copy all the contents. However, such a transfer will lead to nothing, and the system itself simply will not work. The transfer is a systematic process that can be performed using the tools integrated into the top ten or third party utilities, which were developed to perform this task. It is worth noting that no matter which transfer method you choose, it is very simple and does not take much effort and time. In addition, this process is as automated as possible, so no special actions are required on the part of the user.

In this article we will dwell in detail on each of existing methods transferring dozens to an SSD drive, and also consider the most popular applications with which you can implement this idea.

Standard means

Move ten to hard drive type SSD can also be done using standard Windows tools. In this case, this tool is the “Data Backup and Restore” section, which can be found in the “Control Panel”. This method is one of the simplest, since there is no need to search the Internet for various applications from third-party developers and install them on your computer.

So, you've installed a brand new solid-state drive in your system and want to transfer Windows 10 to it. Where to start? The first step is to create a system image and write it to optical drive or a USB flash drive from which the OS will be restored. After starting the recovery process, you will need to specify the path to the drive on which the previously created image is located. It is recommended to disable it during the transfer. old HDD from motherboard to avoid the occurrence of various kinds of problems. In addition, if in the future you use the old hard drive to store personal information, you must first format it. If this is not done, then both operating systems that are located on each drive will conflict, which will make normal work on the computer impossible.

Regardless of whether you use a laptop or a desktop system, the process of transferring dozens from a standard HDD to an SSD is absolutely identical, except that installing a solid-state drive in a laptop yourself will be quite problematic, and when contacting service center you will have to shell out a considerable amount. In addition, if the factory warranty has not yet expired, then installing any hardware will void it, so you should think very carefully before doing anything.

Third Party Tools

An alternative to standard Windows tools, with which you can transfer ten to a solid-state drive, are special applications from third party developers. Today you can find a great variety of them on the Internet, however, when choosing one of them, you must take into account the fact that some utilities were developed exclusively for hard drives a certain manufacturer, so with hard drives of other brands they will work unstably or will not function at all. For example, the Acronis True Image utility is designed for HDDs from WD, the Seagate Disk Wizard application works perfectly with hard drives of the same name, and manufacturer Samsung He developed proprietary software for his products. If we talk about universal programs that can work with all models of hard drives, then it is worth noting Paragon Migrate OS.

Paragon Migrate OS to SSD

Paragon is a very famous developer software, who has many various utilities both free and commercial, designed to perform various functions. One of the most famous applications is Paragon Migrate OS to SSD, with which you can transfer the operating system from one HDD to another. It is worth noting that you will have to pay for this program, since it is not freely available, however, it is worth it. Paragon Migrate OS to SSD is powerful tool, designed to transfer the system to an SSD drive. Its work is fully automated, so all that is required from the user is to start the process and wait for it to complete. The utility supports transfer as soon as system files OS and user personal data, however, the first option is more preferable, since it saves a lot of time and free space on the hard drive. You can select your preferred transfer mode in the program settings. It is worth noting that after completing the system copying, you will need to go into the BIOS and install the solid-state drive as the primary bootloader.

Acronis True Image

Another popular tool for working with hard drives is Acronis True Image. The utility has a simple and intuitive interface, as well as stable operation. It is universal and works equally well with hard drives from all modern manufacturers of computer components on the market. However, it is worth noting that if your PC has a WD hard drive installed, then to transfer dozens to it, it is recommended to use a special build of this program, which is called WD Edition.

Transferring the system to a solid state drive using Acronis True Image is best done in automatic mode, which can be launched from the “Disk Cloning” section. The time it takes to complete a copy depends on the overall size of the system as well as the speed HDD operation, from which the transfer is carried out.

Seagate DiscWizard

As you can easily guess from the name, the utility was developed to work with hard drives manufactured by Seagate. As for the main aspects of the work and the tens transfer process itself, this tool is an almost complete copy of the two previous applications discussed earlier. Copying also occurs using a wizard that performs all actions without user intervention, so even the most retarded user can figure out Seagate DiscWizard.

Samsung Data Migration

This is another representative of narrow-profile utilities designed to service Samsung hard drives. The developer has implemented a step-by-step wizard in his product, following the recommendations of which you can transfer Windows 10 to a solid-state drive without any problems. The main advantage of Samsung Data Migration is the possibility of selective transfer, thanks to which the user can independently specify the types of data that will be copied to new hard disk. This is very useful feature, since solid state drives have a significantly smaller capacity compared to standard HDD, so literally every gigabyte counts. As for the transfer process itself, as in the case of other similar utilities, it is brought to the maximum level of automation.

Macrium Reflect

Another application for transferring tens, which has free license, is Macrium Reflect. The main advantage of this software is its full compatibility with all hardware, so this utility stands out against the background of many others that can only be found on the network.

According to consumer reviews, Macrium Reflect has great functionality and allows you not only to transfer the operating system from one drive to another, but also to create images of the system and burn it to a CD, which can be used as boot disk. Thus, if you are looking for a universal application with which you can perform absolutely any operation with hard drive, then this program is impossible would be better suited to you.

What else do you need to know about cloning Windows 10?

So, we have looked at the most common tools for system transfer, however, we still need to talk about some nuances that need to be taken into account when performing this procedure. On many computer forums you can find a lot of information about such a utility as AOMEI Backupper Standard. It is also free and allows you to copy ten to an SSD drive. However, it is not recommended for novice users to use it, since system cloning occurs by creating a bootable CD or flash drive, and directly transferring it from there to a solid-state drive. This process is more labor-intensive and requires the user to have certain skills. However, which tool to use is entirely up to you.

Good day, readers of my blog.

SSD drives are becoming more and more popular every year among ordinary computer users. This was achieved thanks to a significant reduction in price and an increase in basic characteristics. This type of equipment is used in great demand as the device on which the operating system is installed. But in order not to waste time restoring all functionality again, you can simply do Windows transfer 10 on SSD. This procedure will allow you to restore system functionality in the shortest possible time. At the same time, all functionality will be fully preserved. But unlike working with a HDD, the system speed will increase noticeably.

It’s worth saying right away that transferring photos, video files or music from HDD to SSD is not entirely correct use. The fact is that the latter have a limited rewrite limit. And obviously active frequent rewriting can damage it. But the same cannot be said about standard hard drives, because they serve for a long time, and at the same time remain in excellent condition. At the same time, regular hard drives have a relatively small clipboard - this significantly increases the response time of programs. That’s why many people purchase new drives to transfer the operating system to them.

Windows 10 on an SSD is a great combination as it has many advantages, including:

    High speed of information processing.

    Low heat generation.

At the same time, the operating system consists of files that do not require constant updating - they are only read. Therefore after Win installations on a solid-state drive, the work will be significantly accelerated, but the device’s resource will be consumed slowly.

How to choose?( )

During SSD selection, it is important to pay attention to several basic parameters:

    possible number of rewrite times;

    memory type;

    manufacturing company.

It must be said right away that if you are going to install the tenth version of the OS from Microsoft on an SSD on a laptop or PC, it is better to choose models from 120 GB. There are devices from 64 GB, but it is better not to consider them as the main device. And this is confirmed by several reasons:


That is why the solid-state drive for the operating system should not be less than 120 GB.

Connection and setup( )

So, let's proceed directly to the process itself:

After that, in the section " Computer"You will be able to see the new device under the letter we specified.

OS transfer( )

There are a lot of programs for completely moving the operating system from one disk to another. They are both free and offered for money. Generally speaking, the software differs only appearance. At the same time, the operating algorithm is almost identical. Each of them simply clones the existing system onto another storage device. Therefore, there is no need to study the operating instructions for all of them - just get acquainted with one of them. At the same time, the interface is intuitive throughout, which allows almost any user to do everything that is necessary.

Software that is suitable for cloning:


Well, as you can see, there are a lot of programs that allow you to transfer information from one device to another. It is worth noting that the OS itself does not provide for cloning to an SSD using Windows. Therefore, you need to use third-party applications.

Transfer process( )

In order not to talk about each software separately, I will introduce you to the system from Acronis. First you need to find a program. It is worth immediately noting that a special key must come with it. Without it, functionality will be limited. To download this application use my course called

So, to make a clone of your existing drive, you need to do a few steps:


After all the preliminary steps are completed, the program will ask you to reboot your device. Then the Acronis application menu will appear on the screen, showing the copying process. When the process is completed, the computer will automatically turn off.

Disk selection( )

After everything is finished, you need to set it so that Windows will now start from the solid-state drive:

    Turn on the computer and go into the BIOS.

    We go to the menu in which the loading order is set. We indicate the disk on which we now have a clone. You can find out how to set the disk loading order.

    We save and exit.

One way to avoid losing data, system settings, software products and documents is to transfer the installed Windows 10 OS from an HDD (hard drive) to one that is more resistant to mechanical stress and fast SSD drive. The transfer is performed not only for the purpose of quickly restoring files, but also for the purpose of replacing HDD drive on SSD. Therefore, it makes sense to understand in detail how to competently transfer the Windows 10 operating system from a hard drive to an SSD drive.

We use built-in functionality

SSD drives are silent, have a large clipboard, which affects the speed of the PC, and have no moving parts, which guarantees durability. But SSD disks, unlike HDDs, have a limited number of overwrites, so before you perform Windows saving 10, you need to understand the process. It will not be possible to repeat the procedure endlessly.

The easiest way, which gives the least number of errors when migrating the OS, is using the built-in functionality. The rewrite operation is performed as follows:
Important! The image recorded on the media is used to restore the system. If, while working with a PC, the user adds important software products or changes system parameters, the procedure should be repeated and overwritten the old image. You should not use an SSD drive to store photos and other frequently updated files. Repeated rewriting will exhaust the limit, but on average the disk resource lasts for 7 – 10 years.

Migration Tools Available for SSD Drives

Large manufacturers of solid-state drives Samsung or Seagate, for example, produce special software products for data cloning along with disks:

DiscWizard- software released by the Seagate brand for transferring information to SSDs of its own production. A very capacious program that covers virtually all user needs: deleting confidential information, cloning the system, transferring OS settings and software products, file recovery, etc.;


Data Migration- the software is designed to work with manufactured SSD drives Samsung. The program helps optimize the disk's potential, searches for drivers, clones the system, etc.


The listed software products are comprehensive packages that are used to backup all data from the HDD to SSD drives or only the necessary sections of the main disk. With their help, you can clone the operating system and create disks for booting the system.

Important! Using software products native to the SSD reduces the risk of errors during the cloning process.

There are also universal programs. Acronis has released free True Image software for backup OS on SSDs of any brand: Kingston, Samsung, Seagate, etc. On the Internet you can find many paid and free analogues- Paragon Drive Copy, Macrium Reflect, etc. To start the process, you need to download the software from the manufacturer’s website and install it on your PC. Installation is performed using the classic method.

How to transfer using Acronis True Image

The True Image program is considered the most popular and easiest to use. It is equipped with a Russian-language interface, but requires activation during operation (you can bypass the procedure). This is done by registering on the network. After installing the software, you should not immediately start cloning. SSD drives are not as capacious as hard drives, so system C should be streamlined:
  • Clean partitions, or only system C (System). Remove all unnecessary traces without traces;
  • Defragment the system space;
  • Fix system errors.
All of the above can be done using built-in OS services. They are located in the Properties menu of each section. Called by clicking right button mice. After fixing the errors file system and the section itself, you need to connect solid state drive to PC. Launch double click Acronis True Image. Next proceed like this:
  1. go to menu " Tools»;
  2. select program block " Cloning...»;
  3. put a dot next to automatic mode. Manual setting The transfer process is used when it is necessary to clone only the system space or select a list of important partitions;
  4. select the cloned space. In automatic mode there will be only one object; manual mode there will be as many objects as the number of disks the hard drive is divided into;
  5. select target media - connected external storage. At this stage, the program will ask you to exclude those files that do not require cloning;
  6. checking the selected data. If something is selected incorrectly, you can use the menu " To" And " After»;
  7. press " Get started" and confirm rebooting the PC.
From this point on, the cloning process has begun. The procedure will take up to 13-30 minutes. Depends on the volume of the data packet being saved. Once the PC has turned off, the procedure is completed.

What do we get?

The user's actions after completing the cloning process depend on the purpose of migrating Windows 10 from HDD to SSD. In 8 out of 10 cases, the operation is performed to replace the hard drive with a faster drive. To do this, you just need to select it as the main one in the BIOS. The OS will always boot from a high-speed storage medium. Since OS files are static and are not overwritten as often as those used by the user, installing an SSD as the main drive has many advantages:

The freed HDD can be safely used to store photos, videos, etc. In other cases, the cloned data is used to restore the system. The procedure for transferring a data package is simple, so follow the instructions and remember the overwrite limit.
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