Xfer Windows 10 to new M.2 SATA SSD help

Hi,

Took delivery of new Samsung EVO 250GB M.2 SATA SSD today (thanks to JackE for your help) and will be fitting it tonight (hope the motherboard already comes with a spare screw because the card didn't) and transferring Windows 10 to it to use as boot device only. Can anyone assist with the cloning procedure. I'll be transferring from a 1TB HDD

What software do you recommend? ie Acronis, Samsung Magician
Will the software also transfer the hidden factory restore partition?
Do I need to do anything with the size of the partition on the new SSD drive. Will the software format the drive for me or do I need to do that beforehand?

I understand that I need to fit the SSD first, do the transfer, then change the boot order in BIOS.

Is there anything else I'm forgetting?

Thanks for all your help.

Rob

Accepted answers

JackE

Congrats. Let me suggest that you leave well enough alone on the EVO for now unless it's 99-44/100% full. Just start adding new stuff to the HDD. Then, one by one, start taking programs off the EVO if it really bothers you that much. If it were mine, I'd probably leave the EVO alone and just start using the HDD for adding new programs and storing files created by old programs that are now on the EVO. Maybe kinda sloppy and wasteful but there's so much space on these new drives and they're so fast nowadays, why bother and risk screwing something up?

Jack E/NJ

All comments

JackE

If you got the Samsung migration magician, use that. if not, you can use Macrium Reflect or AOMEI backerupper freeware. Here's an overview for cloning a larger HDD onto a smaller SSD. https://www.backup-utility.com/clone/clone-large-hdd-to-smaller-ssd-4348.html Basically, you first shrink the size of the HDD's C:\ partition you want to clone so it's about the size of the new SSD also leaving room for the EFI file and system reserved partitions. Jack E/NJ

Rob99

Thanks JackE. Tried using minitool partition wizard but without any success, so just trying your suggestion of Samsung Migration Tool.

When I first installed the ssd it showed up in BIOS and Windows device manager but after messing about with minitool partition wizard it dissapeared completely from BIOS! although still detected by Windows. Samsung Magician reckoned it was frozen when I tried to reset it to factory setting (via a USB Boot )so I've tried reseating it but it still doesn't show in BIOS. Only way it will show up in BIOS is if i change to legacy mode which is of no use.

Anyway about 50% done cloning now so will let it finish and see what happens.

Rob99

Right, cloning finished and successful. Had to turn on the SSD in Computer Managment as it was showing as offline and now everything is working fine (even showing in BIOS in UEFI mode) so thanks JackE for all your help.

Just need to find a way so all my programs load from the HDD and not the SSD as all I want on that is the OS.

JackE

Congrats. Let me suggest that you leave well enough alone on the EVO for now unless it's 99-44/100% full. Just start adding new stuff to the HDD. Then, one by one, start taking programs off the EVO if it really bothers you that much. If it were mine, I'd probably leave the EVO alone and just start using the HDD for adding new programs and storing files created by old programs that are now on the EVO. Maybe kinda sloppy and wasteful but there's so much space on these new drives and they're so fast nowadays, why bother and risk screwing something up?

Jack E/NJ

Rob99

Agreed, at the moment there's 188 GB free on the SSD so plenty of space. As you say, any new stuff will get saved to the HDD and if needed I can xfer the odd program to HDD if I really need to. Just aligned the partitions properly and it's so much faster. Boots up in less than 10 seconds! Uninstalled Minitool because it's a load of rubbish

. Thanks again for all your help.

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