You are preparing to upgrade your PC with a new SSD. So, your plan is to install the new SSD first and then reinstall Windows 10 on it? Wait, you don’t actually have to take the time to reinstall Windows. This article will show you how to easily move Windows 10 to an SSD without reinstalling the OS. This will save you valuable time and keep all your data intact.
What You Need?
All you need is the iSumsoft Cloner tool. iSumsoft Cloner is a powerful yet easy-to-use disk cloning tool for Windows that helps you copy or clone Windows systems, data partitions, and even entire hard drives. It allows you to copy your Windows 10 installation directly from your computer’s original hard drive to the SSD. This is one of the best solutions for moving Windows 10 to an SSD without reinstalling the OS. The tool has the following features.
- Copy only Windows OS from one hard drive to another, and remain the copy of Windows bootable on the target drive.
- Clone an entire hard drive to another, and remain the copy of Windows and all other data working properly on the target drive.
- Back up Windows or a partition as a single, compressed file and let you restore it when needed.
- Work for all versions of Windows 11/10/8/7 and all brands of HDDs and SSDs.
Follow the steps below to move Windows 10 to an SSD without reinstalling the OS.
Step 1: Install or connect the SSD to your PC
Before starting to transfer Windows 10 directly between your old hard drive and SSD, you must first ensure that the SSD is installed or connected to your computer.
- If you want to add a new SSD to your computer while keeping the old hard drive, you will now need to install the SSD properly in the SSD bay on your computer’s motherboard.
- If you are planning to remove your computer’s old hard drive and replace it with the new SSD, don’t do that just yet; instead, you need first to connect the SSD to your computer using a USB adapter.
After that, log in to Windows 10 and then open the Disk Management app. A dialog will automatically pop up saying that you must initialize the disk, click OK, and the new SSD will be initialized immediately.
Right-click on the new SSD and select New Simple Volume to assign a new drive letter to it.
Step 2: Install iSumsoft Cloner on Windows 10
Now that your SSD is ready, download and install iSumsoft Cloner on your Windows 10 if you haven’t already. It is a small app that takes only a few minutes to download and install. You need to open any browser and go to iSumsoft official website to download the iSumsoft Cloner program. Once the download is complete, run the downloaded isumsoft-cloner.exe program and follow the setup wizard that pops up to install the software on your computer.
Step 3: Move Windows 10 to SSD without reinstalling
Launch iSumsoft Cloner on Windows 10, and it will automatically detect all drives connected to your computer, including those installed internally and those connected via USB ports. Moreover, all disks and partitions are displayed in the interface, just like you see them in This PC.
Select the Copy option in the upper left corner, select your system drive with your Windows 10 OS as the source partition, and then select the SSD as the target partition. In addition, make sure that the Set target partition as boot disk is checked, which ensures that the SSD is bootable after you transfer Windows 10 to it.
Everything is ready. Now click the Start button in the bottom right corner, and the software will immediately start copying and migrating your Windows 10 to the SSD.
Wait for the copy process to complete, which usually takes 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the used space on your operating system drive.
When the software page prompts the message “The Copy Completed successfully”, your Windows 10 has been successfully copied to your SSD.
Step 4: Boot your computer from the SSD.
After you’ve finished copying your Windows 10 to the SSD, now is the time to use the SSD as your computer’s primary hard drive and boot Windows 10 on it.
If you are looking to remove your computer’s original hard drive and replace it with the SSD, now is the time to install the SSD inside your computer. Then, when you turn on your computer, it will automatically boot from the SSD without any additional setup.
If you are in a situation where you have added an SSD to your computer while keeping the original hard drive, you will now need to change the boot settings to make your computer boot from the SSD. Follow the steps below.
- Shut down your computer and then turn it on again. Once it starts, immediately press and hold the Start menu button (usually F12 or Esc) until the Start menu appears.
- On the Start menu, choose the SSD as the boot device, and your computer will boot from the SSD.
In either case, after your computer has finished booting from the SSD, the copy of Windows 10 will run perfectly on the SSD without any problems, just as it did on the computer’s old hard drive. All your files, applications, and system settings are intact.
The wrapping up:
An SSD is one of the best upgrades you can make to your desktop or laptop computer. However, you may face a system migration problem during this upgrade process. Reinstalling Windows 10 on the new SSD is a feasible solution, but it takes more time, and you’ll need to set up your Windows and apps from scratch. Fortunately, you can avoid such trouble by disk cloning if you want to. iSumsoft Cloner is a good option to copy or move Windows 10 to an SSD without reinstalling the OS.