How to Migrate OS to SSD/HD

Nowadays, many people migrate OS to SSD/HD to enjoy the fast running speed of SSD or replace the old HD with a larger one. Well, how to migrate OS to SSD/HD free? By using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, users can migrate OS to SSD/HD in just a few clicks.

About Migrate OS to SSD/HD

In today’s era, computer hard drive is not only the medium to store and exchange data, it also provides an entertaining way. Users can download good music tracks and movies to the hard drive so as to listen to or watch them whenever they want.

As the size of files stored on the hard drive is increasing, the running speed and responding speed of computer will be greatly affected. Meanwhile, the appearance of SSD offers users a wonderful experience in speed. So to replace the old hard drive with a new SSD or migrate OS to new SSD becomes the first choice to improve computer performance and speed.

In addition, some large-scale online games are required to download to hard drive. This can easily make the old hard drive run out of space in a short time. The most direct and effective way to deal with this situation is also to replace the old hard drive with a new larger SSD or HD.

In both cases, if users don’t want to reinstall Windows and programs or don’t want to lose anything, we highly suggest using Migrate OS to SSD/HD feature of MiniTool Partition Wizard to do this, which is an easy and safe process.

Below is a detailed MiniTool Partition Wizard tutorial on OS migration.

Note: The migration process of Partition Wizard will destroy all data in users’ target disk, so users would better transfer data to another device or make a backup in advance. Yet, it doesn’t have any effect on the data in the original disk.

Tips:

If your laptop only has one SSD slot, you can use a USB-to-SSD converter to connect the target SSD to your device via the USB port.

However, if you don’t have such a converter, you can connect an external hard drive that has enough space to hold the OS and copy the system disk to that external hard drive using Copy Disk. Next, you can remove the old SSD from your laptop and install the new one. To migrate the OS to the new SSD, you’d better create a MiniTool Partition Wizard bootable drive, boot your device from the bootable drive, and then use the Copy Disk feature to migrate all partitions and data to the new SSD.

Step 1. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to get its main interface.

Step 2. Click on Migrate OS to SSD/HD in the toolbar.

migrate OS to SSD/HD

Step 3. Choose a right method to migrate system disk and click Next.

Option A. To Replace the System Disk

choose replace the system disk with another disk

Firstly, please select the target disk to migrate system disk to and click Next.

select a destination disk to migrate OS to

Then, choose a copy option. Alternatively, users can manually edit partition size by inputting exact partition size in MB, GB, or TB.

choose copy options

Tricks:

Align partitions to 1MB could help improve performance for SSD and advanced format disks, so please keep it checked if users are using such devices.
Checking Use GUID Partition Table for the target disk makes it possible to use all space of hard disk larger than 2TB, but UEFI boot should be enabled in BIOS.
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition doesn’t support migrating OS on MBR disk using GUID Partition table for the target disk.
If users want to migrate Windows which is installed on a GPT disk, they will not see the option Use GUID Partition Table for the target disk.

Next, read a popup note and click Finish to continue.

click Finish

At last, click Apply button to execute pending operations and tap Yes in pop-up prompt window to allow changes.

click Apply

Option B. To Migrate Windows Only

migrate Windows partition only

Here, users also need to select the target disk to transfer Windows 10 to and click Next.

choose a hard disk to migrate OS to

Then, select a copy option and click Next.

select a copy option

Next, read the boot note and click Finish.

read the boot note and click Finish

At last, click Apply button in the toolbar to execute pending operations and tap Yes in the pop-up prompt window to allow changes.

click Apply

SSD Best Sellers

Now you already know how to migrate OS to SSD/HD. Here are the best sellers on the SSD market. Choose one that fits your needs best.


Product Name	Intel 660p Series (1TB) SSD	Corsair MP500 (480GB) SSD	Samsung 860 EVO (250G) SSD	Samsung 970 EVO NVMe (500GB) SSD	Adata SU800 SATA (1TB) SSD
Brand	Intel	Corsair	Samsung	Samsung	Adata
Capacity	1TB	480GB	250GB	500GB	1TB
I/O Speed	Up to 1,800MB/s	Up to 3,000MB/s	Up to 550MB/s	Up to 3500MB/s	Up to 560MB/s
Pros	Very good NVMe performance most of the time. Extremely affordable. 5-year warranty.	Black printed circuit board. Copper strip technology. High-Performance. NVMe-Enabled.	Good overall performance. Outstanding endurance rating. Samsung Magician software. Hardware-Based encryption. Package with DRAM cache and cloning. 5-year warranty.	Affordable (relatively) NVMe drive. Excellent sequential reads Available in up to 2TB capacity. Almost 50% shorter file transfer times. 5-year warranty.	Adata SSD Toolbox. Acronis Data Migration. Fair pricing.
Cons	Slows to 100MBps writing during very long transfers.	High initial pricing. Low warranty terms. Lack of progress for the E7 controller.	Expensive.	Slows to just over 600MBps after cache is exceeded. Occasionally trails 960 Pro. Lower capacities could be cheaper.	Micron 384Gbit 3D TLC NAND. Low throughput. High latency. Low notebook battery life.
Rating Star

About The Author

Irene

Position: Columnist

Irene joined MiniTool in 2018 and has since become a professional in the areas of disk management and Windows tricks. Irene's expertise allows her to assist clients with managing their hard drives, optimizing their Windows operating system, and troubleshooting any technical issues that arise.