Make smaller SSD as boot

Hi,

I recently purchased a M.2 SSD (256GB) for my Nitro 5 and am running into an issue. I want to move my OS to it and have it as bootable but it is smaller than my current HDD (1TB). All software I tried to use does not work because I keep getting errors that the target drive is smaller than the source. I am not trying to transfer all my data, just the OS.

Is that even possible?

I was thinking on last case scenario on just installing a fresh copy of W10 on the SSD trough a recover drive (had one done since I bought the machine) but am not too sure on how to proceed.

Any suggestions or tips would be helpful.

Thanks!

Accepted answers

MaClane

Good night smartinez281 !

In the original HDD of your machine there is the Windows recovery partition created by Acer.
During the current software warranty period, this partition must not be erased or damaged.
In that case you can clone Windows 10 and its partitions.
For this, the SSD space must be the same size as the HDD.
So ideally you should back up all your data to another location, remove everything that is unnecessary, defrag the disk, and shrink the size of the Windows partition to fit on the SSD.
You can use some cloning software such as Minitool Partition or Macrium Reflect.

Remember that in case you need to trigger the warranty at some point, you must remove all installed hardware and replace all that have been removed and back up your data.

Watch this video about cloning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0PyZIqecII

All comments

MaClane

Good night smartinez281 !

In the original HDD of your machine there is the Windows recovery partition created by Acer.
During the current software warranty period, this partition must not be erased or damaged.
In that case you can clone Windows 10 and its partitions.
For this, the SSD space must be the same size as the HDD.
So ideally you should back up all your data to another location, remove everything that is unnecessary, defrag the disk, and shrink the size of the Windows partition to fit on the SSD.
You can use some cloning software such as Minitool Partition or Macrium Reflect.

Remember that in case you need to trigger the warranty at some point, you must remove all installed hardware and replace all that have been removed and back up your data.

Watch this video about cloning: