How to Transfer OS to SSD Without Reinstalling Windows

Personal buyers and computer manufacturers are likely to choose SSD as a thinner, lighter and faster alternative to HDD in recent years. Undoubtedly, SSD has become the trend of top-rank hard drive storage choices in 2019 and will be in the next few years. After investing some money in a new SSD, what are you going to do subsequently? Replace the old HDD with the new SSD, I guess. There is a way to transfer your Windows 7,8, or 10 installations to an SSD without reinstalling Windows. It's easier and more energy-efficient than fresh install OS, as long as your current operating system runs well and you don't need to install Windows OS on the SSD from scratch.

PreparationWhat Matters When Transfer OS to SSD

Most people are interested in finding a hard drive migration software to directly move OS from one hard drive to the other. It takes only a few steps but saves a great amount of time. Hence, if you're looking for a capable but easy-to-use OS migration software, think EaseUS Partition Master as a dependable and convenient choice. It can transfer OS from HDD/SSD to SSD without reinstalling Windows on your own.

Before we start officially, let's check some preparatory works. After getting ready with all the mentioned points, just begin right away with the procedure.

First, connect your SSD to your computer

If you're using a desktop, you got many ways to connect a second solid-state drive to your computer. For example, install the SSD alongside your old hard drive in the same machine; connect the SSD via a SATA-to-USB cable to your computer, or use an external hard drive enclosure for a connection. Laptop users can use the two latter ways.

Second, back up your hard drive data

We cannot stress the importance of data backup for many times. We can't expect everything goes safe and sound all the time, but we can arm ourselves with a complete backup. A simple Ctrl C + V could take as a temporary method for backup, or you can use whatever backup and recovery software you're accustomed.

Third, download EaseUS Partition Master

This is the key step. Simply click the download button here. It only takes a few seconds to complete the download.

Fourth, do some hard drive cleaning if necessary

SSD is generally smaller than HDD, so you don't wish to transfer the system junk files to the new empty SSD, right? It's a great idea to release some disk space or clear up some system-related junk files before cloning OS to a new hard drive. You can tidy up your current hard drive by using the EaseUS Partition Master's system optimization feature. See how to clean up C drive.

ProcedureHow to Migrate OS to SSD

Three tips on using EaseUS Partition Master in the right way:

• Boot disk cannot be selected as the destination disk.
• All data on the destination disk will be erased when you clone the source hard disk to the destination disk.
• The destination disk may be smaller than source disk, but it should be equal to or larger than the used space on the source disk. 

Note: The operation of migrating OS to SSD or HDD will delete and remove all existing partitions and data on your target disk. If you saved important data there, back up them to an external hard drive in advance.

 

Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Master, select "Migrate OS" from the top menu.

Step 2: Select the SSD or HDD as the destination disk and click "Next".

Warning: the data and partitions on the target disk will be deleted. Make sure that you've backed up important data in advance. If not, do it now.

Then click "Migrate" and "OK" to continue.

Step 3: Preview the layout of your target disk. You can also click the disk layout options to customize the layout of your target disk as you want. Then Click "OK" to continue.

Step 4: A pending operation of migrating OS to SSD or HDD will be added. Click the "Execute Operation" button and click "Apply" to start migrating your OS to a new disk.

After transferring OS from HDD to SSD, you can also use EaseUS Partition Master to resize/move partition on SSD.

EaseUS Partition Master supports sector by sector and file by file disk copy. It also supports MBR disk copy and GPT disk copy.

CompletionHow to Boot Cloned OS from SSD

There are two ways to handle the SSD after the OS transfer.

1. Use only one SSD on your computer or laptop

This is an easy case. After migrating OS from the old drive to the new, this time take out the HDD and leave the cloned SSD as the boot disk. 

2. Boot Windows from SSD but also keep the old HDD as a storage drive

When you have two hard drives, both of which contains an operating system, you need to change the boot order from the HDD to SSD in BIOS. To change the boot priority, follow the below guide:

• Start the computer and long-press F2 consecutively during the initial startup screen. (If F2 doesn't work, try ESC, F1, F8 or F10)
• Enter BIOS setup, and use the keyboard up/down arrows, give a boot sequence priority to the Solid State Drive over the Hard Drive.
• Save and exit the BIOS setup utility.
• Your computer should restart with the changed settings.