Upgrading HDD to SDD

[James Mallett]

Hi there,

I am currently in the process of upgrading my Laptop by replacing the current HDD with a SSD and then using the HDD as an extra hard drive. I would however like to run my windows off the new SSD. When i purchased the laptop it came with windows 8, which i upgraded to windows 10 while it was still free.

Is there a way for me to get windows 10 onto the new SSD without having to purchase it? for example clone it or copy it across somehow?
Because the only other way I can think of to get windows running off the new SSD would be to reinstall windows 8, which i would then not be able to upgrade to 10 without purchasing it...

Please advise the best way to go about solving this issue, thank you!

 

[Jimbo22]

Yes...you can use any of those 3rd party software....like Macrium, Acronis to do that. Also, depending on the SSD you buy.....some have migrating software that you can download that will do exactly that. Samsung's "Magician" Software is the only one I know of, off the top of my head. Check the SSD you're intending on buying website to see if they have a cloning software.

 

[James Mallett]

Yes...you can use any of those 3rd party software....like Macrium, Acronis to do that. Also, depending on the SSD you buy.....some have migrating software that you can download that will do exactly that. Samsung's "Magician" Software is the only one I know of, off the top of my head. Check the SSD you're intending on buying website to see if they have a cloning software.

I will be upgrading to a Samsung 750 EVO SSD. I had a look over their magician software now and seemed that it is for hard drive cloning and optimization, unless i have misunderstood something.

I would like to only copy across the windows OS to the new SSD and leave all other files and programs on the original HDD. The new SSD is 250gb and the current HDD is 1tb, so there is too much stuff to clone everything, which is why I would only like to copy the OS

 

[nmsuk]

Or they could just install windows from an dvd/usb created by the Windows 10 media creation tool and start lovely and clean on the new SSD.

 

[James Mallett]

Or they could just install windows from an dvd/usb created by the Windows 10 media creation tool and start lovely and clean on the new SSD.

Good to have some validation, this is what I was planning on doing, I have already downloaded a windows 10 .iso file to use.
But by doing this, would my windows product/ activation code be valid for windows 10? Considering my laptop was purchased with windows 8 installed and later upgraded to windows 10. Also, how would I get the necessary codes from my current system to use when installing.

 

[Neemobeer]

I would also recommend just doing a clean install on the SSD. Your key should be activated for Windows 10.

 

[Neemobeer]

Windows 7 and 8.1 licenses will activate windows 10 provided you did the free upgrade or did a clean install prior to the july 29th free upgrade promotion

 

[orange juice911]

Clean install is great but system clone is also acceptable. If you have some software that are hard to install for twice, cloning system drive to SSD is your best way. Samsung SSD should have built-in SDM (Samsung's Data Migration). If you don't find helpful, try this clone HDD to Samsung SSD.
Regards.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

I haven't personally tested the AOEMI Backupper cloning for the use that's being recommended by OJ here above. I also don't believe any of the rest of the W10 folks here have tested that either. Not saying it won't work, but in my attempts last year and earlier this year, the AOEMI program would not produce viable W10 backup images to external media that would be restoreable. AOEMI may have fixed this, but as I've spent thousands of hours experimenting with W10 image backups for almost 2 years now across all major brands of image backup software, I have to ask the question here of OJ>>> OJ, did you personally try this? I also am not aware of the AOEMI's ability to extract the W10 OS from an old mechanical drive and just the W10 OS itself to a new SSD drive. To my knowledge, this is not possible with any of the W10 image software programs available on the market today. That was part of the OP's question in his first post. I'm very sure about Macrium and Acronis, not so sure about EASETodo; we'd have to ask Mike Hawthorne, as he's our resident expert on that program.

If someone has found a way to do this, I'm sure we'd all be interested in hearing about it.

Best,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[orange juice911]

Hi BBJ
You mentioned this issue

the AOEMI program would not produce viable W10 backup images to external media that would be restoreable.

. As far as I am concerned, you have to restore the backup image that created by AOMEI Backupper only use the same software. It is true that you cannot restore it using other image software. AOMEI Backupper released new version 3.5 version. Maybe you can try that again.
I believe that every function was tested for many times before it is released. I am talking about cloning, partition cloning. It will clone system drive to SSD, along with data, installed programs. I know we cannot clone only OS to SSD. But if you install only system programs on one partition, that would be clone OS only.

 

[Jimbo22]

There may be a difference between the Standard version vs the Pro version when restoring an image to a specific HDD/destination. I can't find a comparison chart for the 2 from Aoemi website.

 

[Jimbo22]

Seems there's an "unlock" for the standard version for a system clone......

• **System Clone: If you want to do system clone using AB Standard, you should first unlock it by sharing a message to any of your social media. AB Paid editions support the feature directly.

Reference Link: AOMEI Backupper Edition Comparison

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Wow! Thanks, Bass for looking into that . I'll have to give it a try later this Fall. Right now, I'm buried up to my eyeballs in virus and ransomware repairs. Trying to get ready to go on Vaca and all.

If I can get the AB clone to work, and we can get 1 more regular or Admin here to try it on W10 or W10 AU, we could add it to the "recommended image backup program list for W10".

Cheers!
BBJ