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If I Copy All The Folders Of My Hard Drive to Another One, Will It Boot?

I get a new SSD and plan to use it to upgrade my old hard drive. Can I just copy all data from the old HDD to the new SSD? Will the SSD be bootable after copying? If not, how can I move all data to another drive and make it bootable?

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Larissa· Answered on Dec 20, 2023

No, manually copying all folders from one hard drive to another won't make it bootable because many OS files are protected, and you can't copy them. Moreover, many boot sectors and folders are hidden somewhere, requiring system access rights while copying.

Suppose you want to migrate all data from one hard drive to another and make it bootable. In that case, the best and most convenient way is to clone the hard drive, which will create an exact copy of your old hard drive, including the operating system, boot sectors, settings, installed programs, etc.

It is a pity that Windows OS doesn't have an inbuilt cloning utility, so you must seek help from some professional HDD/SSD cloning software, like EaseUS Disk Copy.

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Support Windows 11/10/8/7

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It is a reliable tool with robust disk, partition, and system cloning features. With it, you can clone and move all data from HDD to SSD, clone a larger hard drive to a smaller one, or vice versa.

Designed with a user-friendly UI, you can complete the hard drive cloning process with only a few clicks. Now download this helpful program on your Windows computer and start cloning.

Connect the new hard drive to your Windows computer.
Launch EaseUS Disk Copy and select Disk Mode.
Choose the old disk as the source disk, and click Next.
Choose the new disk as the target disk, and click Next.
Adjust the disk layout, and click Proceed to start.

When the cloning process finishes, all the information on the old drive will be copied to the new one, including the boot sectors.

Download the smartest and easiest Disk Cloning Software

Use EaseUS Disk Copy to upgrade small HDD, replace old/failed hard drive, migrate OS, clone HDD to SSD without reinstalling data.

Free Download

Support Windows 11/10/8/7

100% Secure

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