How To Transfer Data From A Hdd To An Ssd

If y'all're still using a traditional, spinning hard disk on your PC, you're missing out. Swapping it out for a solid-state drive (SSD) is 1 of the best upgrades you tin brand in terms of speeding upwardly your computer. It'll kicking faster, programs volition launch instantly, and games won't take then long to load anymore.

You lot could reinstall Windows from scratch, and in some situations, that may be preferable—only with the correct tools, you can become upwardly and running much quicker by copying your entire bulldoze over to the new SSD.

What You lot'll Need

ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G

Evidently, in lodge to upgrade to an SSD, you'll need to, well, buy an SSD. We have some recommendations, just if you're on a budget, nosotros have a separate list of inexpensive SSDs as well. Make sure to buy the correct form factor for your estimator (some laptops will use two.five-inch drives, while others might apply K.2 or mSATA drives), and get 1 big enough to fit all your data. If you have a 500GB hard drive at present, yous should probably jump for a similarly sized SSD (or larger, to arrange future information).

The only exception is if you're on a desktop figurer and accept room for multiple difficult drives. In that case, you could store Windows and your programs on the SSD while putting your music, movies, and other media on a 2nd, larger hd—though this can exist a bit more complicated, as we'll discuss beneath.

Orico Difficult Drive Docking Station

During this process, you'll need both your SSD and your old hard drive continued to your computer at the same fourth dimension. If you're using a laptop with only one hard bulldoze slot, that means you lot'll demand an external adapter(Opens in a new window), dock(Opens in a new window), or enclosure(Opens in a new window) that can connect your bare SSD to your computer over USB. (Once more, desktop users may not need this if they have room for 2 drives inside their PC—you tin just install it internally alongside your former hard drive.)

There are many different drive-cloning tools on the market, and unfortunately at that place'south no costless, i-size-fits-all option. If your drive manufacturer offers a migration program, that might be your best bet. For instance, if yous bought a Samsung SSD, nosotros recommend downloading Samsung Data Migration(Opens in a new window) and following the instructions in the user guide. Western Digital and SanDisk users tin use WD's version of Acronis True Image(Opens in a new window) to copy their data using these instructions(Opens in a new window).

For this guide, we'll exist using Macrium Reverberate(Opens in a new window)—it's a free drive-cloning tool that works with any brand of difficult drive and SSD. But download the installer for the free home version and run through the wizard to get it up and running on your PC. It's available to anyone, no matter what brand drive you accept, and then if your drive manufacturer doesn't offer a migration tool, Macrium Reverberate is your next all-time bet.

Once you've gathered your necessities, information technology'southward fourth dimension to get started.

*Deals are selected by our partner, TechBargains(Opens in a new window)

Support Your Information (and Gratuitous Upward Space)

Earlier you starting time messing with drives and formatting partitions, it'due south absolutely necessary to back up your information first. An adventitious click tin can result in you erasing everything, then do not continue until yous've backed information technology all up.

If yous don't have a fill-in yet, check out our favorite software for the task. Windows besides has File History for bankroll upward important documents, and an prototype file can save your entire system. Copying important data to an external hard drive volition as well exercise in a compression.

If you're upgrading to an SSD that'due south smaller than your electric current hard drive, yous'll want to take extra care hither. This isn't as mutual as it in one case was, thanks to bigger, less expensive SSDs, simply if that'southward the instance for you, you'll demand to delete some files and free upward space on your difficult bulldoze before cloning it. Otherwise, your data won't fit on the new drive. Once your data is prophylactic and secure, go on to the adjacent step.

Plug In and Initialize Your SSD

Plug your SSD into the SATA-to-USB adapter, so plug that into your computer. If it's a brand-new bulldoze, y'all probably won't meet the bulldoze pop upward in File Explorer, merely don't worry; it merely needs to exist initialized outset. Open up the Start menu and type "partitions" in the search box. Click the Create and format hard disk partitions choice, and Deejay Direction will open. Information technology will prompt you to initialize the bulldoze using either the GPT or MBR division table.

I'll be using GPT for my SSD, since I have a modern PC with a UEFI firmware. If you accept an older PC with a traditional BIOS, you may need to employ an MBR partitioning tabular array. If you lot aren't certain, look up your specific model of PC or motherboard to run across which blazon of firmware it uses.

If you lot aren't prompted to initialize the drive, and don't see it in Deejay Management, double-check that it's properly connected to your estimator, and that the enclosure or dock is powered on (if necessary). Run into our guide to troubleshooting a hard drive that won't show upwards for more.

Once the bulldoze has been initialized, you should see the drive show up in the bottom pane of Disk Management every bit unallocated space. From there, you should exist skilful to go.

Clone Your Drive

Open Macrium Reflect and you lot should meet a list of drives in the main window. Notice your current drive—it'll listing your C: partitioning with a Windows logo—and select it. Click the Clone This Disk button that appears below that bulldoze to start the cloning wizard.

This will bring upward a new window where you will choose your destination bulldoze—in this instance, your empty SSD. If your SSD is the same size as your erstwhile drive, make sure the box all the way to the left of your source disk is checked, as shown above, so click Select a Disk to Clone. Choose your SSD from the drib-down list, and click Next.

If your SSD is significantly smaller than your quondam drive, this may require an extra footstep. Reflect volition attempt to automatically shrink partitions with free space to fit it all on the bulldoze, but in my experience, it doesn't always do this intelligently, and may leave out i of Windows' recovery partitions. If yous experience this trouble, yous tin manually elevate each partition downward to the SSD, and click Cloned Partition Properties on your primary C: drive to resize information technology manually.

If your SSD is larger than your one-time drive, it may leave some unused space on the drive—in which case you'll want to select your main partition, click Cloned Partition Properties, and expand the drive to fill that empty infinite.

Click Next and yous'll be asked if you want to salve this fill-in schedule. You can uncheck that box and click OK to run the backup at present, in one case. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on how large the disks are, and so go lookout man Netflix and come back later.

When it's done, you can exit Macrium Reflect. You should run into your new SSD in File Explorer, complete with all your information.

Install Your SSD

Side by side, shut downward your computer. It's time to install that SSD in your machine permanently. If you have a laptop with just one hard drive slot, you lot'll need to remove your sometime hard bulldoze and replace it with your SSD. This is a bit dissimilar on every laptop.

If you have a desktop PC with more than 1 difficult bulldoze slot, y'all can leave your old hard drive in as actress storage, and just install your SSD alongside it.

Reboot From Your New Drive

In one case yous're finished installing the SSD, you lot'll demand to tell your computer to boot from it. (This may not be necessary on laptops with just 1 drive, simply if you experience issues booting, information technology can assist on some PCs.) Turn your computer on and enter its BIOS/UEFI setup—this is a bit different on every PC, simply it'll usually say something like "Press DEL to enter setup" on the boot screen, so yous'll desire to press the corresponding central equally information technology starts up.

From in that location, wait for your BIOS's kick options. These will be in a different spot depending on your computer, simply once y'all find them, select the option to modify the kicking sequence. Cull your SSD from the listing as the get-go boot bulldoze, then head back to the BIOS'south chief carte to leave, saving your settings.

Your computer will reboot, and if all went well, it should plop you lot dorsum into Windows faster than always before. Open File Explorer and cheque to confirm that your SSD is, in fact, the C: bulldoze. If everything looks expert, y'all're ready to rock.

If your old drive is all the same installed, y'all tin can erase information technology and use it to store extra files, or y'all can disconnect information technology entirely. Best of all, your computer should feel significantly snappier without having to commencement from scratch.

Like What You lot're Reading?

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or chapter links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.