# Is it possible to transfer the entirety of my OS HDD to a new SDD without reformatting?



## Mattzart (May 6, 2018)

I upgraded my copy of Windows 7 to W10 during that free upgrade period, so I'm not looking to double dip on the OS if I don't have to. I've also got my main DAW installed on the C: Drive, so I'm hoping there's a way to transfer all my software and projects, too.

So is this possible? I'd like to just plop in an SSD, put that entire C Drive onto it and hopefully turn it on and open my programs without a hitch.

I'm going to finally invest in some SSD's (500GB each, 4 total maybe). My main bottleneck these days seems to be disk usage.


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## TravB (May 6, 2018)

Have done this MANY times (DAWs and business machines). I use a second computer with a USB3 dual bin external drive dock (Startech, $50 a Newegg.com) with the original HD and new SSD inserted. Then clone the HD to SSD with the great FREE cloning/disc imaging software from Macrium called Reflect. Fast and easy, no issues. There are numerous ways and other software to accomplish this task. The one I've described has worked extremely well for me. And if I recall correctly, Samsung SSDs (which I HIGHLY recommend) include cloning software as well and can be done with a simple USB to ESATA adapter and therefore no second computer or drive dock required.


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## Near Decision (May 6, 2018)

Short answer: yes. 

To transfer an entire hard drive's contents to an SSD, and have the ability to boot from that SSD, you'll need to *clone* the drive, using a drive cloning tool like EaseUS Disk Copy or Acronis True Image. Unlike just simply making backups and clean-installing Windows, cloning a drive makes a bit-for-bit copy of what's on the drive, warts and all. The key important detail here is that it preserves your Windows installation and the digital license that you implicitly got when you upgraded to Windows 10. So, no fear of having to double-dip (especially if you have a limited NS-OEM license); when the time comes to physically swap drives, you shouldn't notice anything different.

This assumes that you currently have everything -- DAW files, projects, samples -- on one drive, and want to keep it that way.

If you anticipate that you will have some extra SSDs in the system for moving sample libraries and such, then the best thing to do is uninstall or delete them from the C: drive before cloning it.

So, step by step, this is what the process might look like:

*BACK UP your current data.* Your projects; your audio files; your pictures; your DAW configuration files; back it all up to an external drive, to the cloud, whichever is most handy.
If you have an external hard drive, now is the time to copy your sample library data folders to this drive so that you don't have to re-download them or re-install them from discs. You will need to point Kontakt/Play/UVI to the new drive or location where these sample library folders are later.
Is your data backed up? _You sure?_ Good; then, uninstall/delete anything that you will be moving off of your C: drive.
Plug in your new boot SSD into another internal SATA port on your motherboard or into an external drive enclosure.
Using the _Disk Management tool_ in Windows, *initialize* and format the SSD as an NTFS drive.
If your new boot SSD is smaller than the size of the Windows partitions, then you will need to shrink the current C: drive to be the same size or smaller than the SSD.
Use a drive cloning utility (like the ones mentioned above) to clone your current C: drive to the new SSD. Feel free to grab some lunch or get outside while this happens; it'll be a while.
Once the cloning process is done, shut down the computer.
Swap out your current HDD for the fresh SSD.
Start it up. Windows should boot as normal.
After verifying all is well, now is a good time to shut down the PC, and install those other new SSDs if you have them. Make sure to format them properly.

It looks like a lot of steps, might sound scary, but it's fairly simple. As long as you don't rush things, you'll be fine. After all, you have backups of everything.......... right? 


Cheers!

- Justin


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## Gerhard Westphalen (May 6, 2018)

I've done this a number of times with normal SSD's and never had any issues. What doesn't work is to try to clone it to an M.2 drive. I tried more than 5 times using various tools and it never worked with the computer not recognizing it as bootable. My only option would be to do a fresh install so I had to return the drive. 

Interestingly, I've tried doing the opposite to free up an SSD on an older computer and the computer became insanely slow (much much slower than you'd expect with an HDD). Maybe it has something to do with how it's fragmented or something but I had to put the SSD back in to make it usable.


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## ptram (May 7, 2018)

I'm on a Mac, and would like to move to a newer Mac. I’m thinking to clone the old boot disk to the new one. But I still hesitate, because I have a ton of protected software, and don't know if I will have to re-authorize them, maybe losing an authorization and risking - with some older software - to not be able to receive support from the manufacturer.

Should I assume that cloning will also move authorizations to the new disk?

Paolo


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## DAW PLUS (May 8, 2018)

It depends on the copy protection. eLicenser, serial and iLok is no issue. With serials, you may need to unregister first, it depends on the license type. If you still have stone age chalenge-response keys, you need to unregister them first. But I haven't seen any software using this in the last 10 years.


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## chrisr (May 8, 2018)

Gerhard Westphalen said:


> What doesn't work is to try to clone it to an M.2 drive. I tried more than 5 times using various tools and it never worked with the computer not recognizing it as bootable..



Oh dear sorry to hear this. I have been planning to move my system drive from a sata SSD to one of the new generation m.2's at some point this summer.

Has anyone else here tried that and had any success? I'm going to start doing a bit of reading up about this (specifically migrating boot to M.2) and will report back if I find any useful info.


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## DAW PLUS (May 8, 2018)

Whether you can boot depends on whether that M.2 slot is bootable. Check the motherboard manual...


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## garyhiebner (May 8, 2018)

ptram said:


> I'm on a Mac, and would like to move to a newer Mac. I’m thinking to clone the old boot disk to the new one. But I still hesitate, because I have a ton of protected software, and don't know if I will have to re-authorize them, maybe losing an authorization and risking - with some older software - to not be able to receive support from the manufacturer.
> 
> Should I assume that cloning will also move authorizations to the new disk?
> 
> Paolo


On a Mac it's easy. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current system drive to a new one. No need to re-authorize software. And I think there's a 30-day fully functional demo of Carbon Copy Cloner that you can use


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## Shad0wLandsUK (May 8, 2018)

it certainly is with Carbon Copy Cloner on a mac or there are others for Windows

One is: Acronis True Image 

Which I use and it does a lot more than simply copying and cloning


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## Shad0wLandsUK (May 8, 2018)

garyhiebner said:


> On a Mac it's easy. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current system drive to a new one. No need to re-authorize software. And I think there's a 30-day fully functional demo of Carbon Copy Cloner that you can use


Sure is...currently using it


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## Gerhard Westphalen (May 8, 2018)

DAW PLUS said:


> Whether you can boot depends on whether that M.2 slot is bootable. Check the motherboard manual...


My M.2 slot was most definitely bootable as I did a fresh install without any issues but no cloning tool (Acronis, Carbon, Macrium, Samsung's own) worked even after trying to clone certain parts of the driver but not others. Never had any issues doing SSD>HDD or SSD>SSD and have done those countless times but SSD>M.2 was impossible. The farthest I got was an endlessly spinning Windows loading screen.


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## Mattzart (May 8, 2018)

Awesome news! Thanks for all your help, guys.


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## chrisr (May 8, 2018)

DAW PLUS said:


> Whether you can boot depends on whether that M.2 slot is bootable. Check the motherboard manual...



Have you actually done it successfully yourself - specifically from a Sata SSD system drive to M.2?



Gerhard Westphalen said:


> My M.2 slot was most definitely bootable...



Gerhard here's an interesting read I found that mirrors some of what you saw.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-3674844/finally-cloned-sata-ssd-ssd.html


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## dzilizzi (May 8, 2018)

You didn't say how big your HDD was. I have had issues going to a smaller drive. Cloning will want to copy everything on the drive, so you need to have less stuff than the size of your new drive. And copying usually requires free space. 

That said, I always keep my old drive as is (no reformatting) until I am sure everything is working perfectly. It is much easier to throw the old drive in, fix an issue, then put the new drive back in, than it is to try to get some companies to give you new authorizations.


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## chrisr (May 8, 2018)

and this https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/migrate-sata-iii-ssd-to-m-2-nvme-ssd-solved.2500490/

which makes the point to be sure to install the correct nvme driver before cloning the ssd.


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## Mattzart (May 8, 2018)

dzilizzi said:


> You didn't say how big your HDD was. I have had issues going to a smaller drive. Cloning will want to copy everything on the drive, so you need to have less stuff than the size of your new drive. And copying usually requires free space.
> 
> That said, I always keep my old drive as is (no reformatting) until I am sure everything is working perfectly. It is much easier to throw the old drive in, fix an issue, then put the new drive back in, than it is to try to get some companies to give you new authorizations.



HDD is 250GB,SSD will be 500GB.

Good tip!


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## DAW PLUS (May 9, 2018)

chrisr said:


> Have you actually done it successfully yourself - specifically from a Sata SSD system drive to M.2?


No, as we tend to avoid M.2 as a boot drive, we prefer its speed for samples or media. On some smaller systems with a single drive (not for audio) we do boot from M.2, but those are fresh installs. I'd need to check with tech colleagues what their experiences with cloning are. Not a daily routine for us.


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## Wally Garten (May 10, 2018)

garyhiebner said:


> On a Mac it's easy. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current system drive to a new one. No need to re-authorize software. And I think there's a 30-day fully functional demo of Carbon Copy Cloner that you can use



Is there an advantage to doing it this way rather than using the built-in Migration Assistant? (I am in the same boat -- just got a new Mac, need to move all my plugins over.)


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## dzilizzi (May 10, 2018)

I'm not a Mac expert, but with PC's, migration doesn't always install programs. Cloning should be an exact copy, so you shouldn't need to install anything. Though I have had to "fix" the boot sector on my PC. It is pretty easy to do. Once I do that, my other programs all pretty much work without a problem. I've only used migration to transfer data files. I think it is just a fancy copy/paste program.


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