How to Migrate Hard Drive to SSD without Reinstalling OS?
Why migrate hard drive to SSD?
Compared to traditional hard drives, solid-state drives (SSDs) offer several advantages, including high writing and reading speeds, and improved overall performance. As a result, many users choose to upgrade to SSDs. For those who are unwilling to reinstall their operating system and lose their old data, a viable option is to migrate all their data from the hard disk drive to the SSD.
Replacing the HDD boot disk with an SSD drive can significantly boost your PC's performance, and scheduling regular defragmentation of your hard drives can also help maintain optimal speed and efficiency.
How to: migrate hard drive to SSD without reinstalling
Transferring all data, programs, and operating system from a hard drive to a solid-state drive (SSD) can be achieved by cloning the hard drive to the SSD. This process involves creating an exact copy of the hard drive's contents, including the operating system, programs, and data, onto the SSD, effectively replacing the hard drive with the SSD as the primary storage device.
➣ Here recommended you an easy-to-use and powerful disk cloning software, Qiling Disk Master Professional for Windows 10/9.1/8/7, XP and Vista.
✔ It enables the cloning of a large hard drive to a smaller solid-state drive (SSD), making it possible to upgrade to a faster storage device while maintaining the same amount of storage space.
✔ It enables you to clone MBR disk to GPT SSD.
✔ It allows you to clone only OS related partitions.
✔ It allows you to make an SSD partition for better performance during the cloning process.
➣ Now, have a look at preparation works for migrating all data from hard drive to SSD.
1. When choosing an SSD for your PC, consider the drive's form factor to ensure it fits in your laptop or desktop. Popular SSD brands like Samsung, Seagate, and Toshiba offer a range of options to meet your needs. Select the one that best suits your requirements.
2. To free up space on your hard drive and make the transfer to a smaller SSD more efficient, consider moving large folders that don't need to be stored on the SSD to another location on the hard drive. This will declutter your hard drive and reduce the time it takes to copy the contents to the SSD. By doing so, you'll be able to transfer the hard drive to the smaller SSD with less hassle.
3. Uninstall unused programs and delete unnecessary files to free up space on your current storage drive, allowing you to transfer them to the SSD.
4. Backup your current hard drive to prevent data loss in case of accidents. A good backup hard drive is the best way to protect your data.
➣ Then, refer to the detailed steps of how to migrate hard drive data to SSD without reinstalling.
To connect an SSD to your PC, ensure it's detected by your computer. If not, you may need to initialize the disk using Diskpart or Qiling Disk Master Professional to get it recognized.
You can download the demo version of Qiling Disk Master Professional to try it out first.
Step 1. To clone a disk with Qiling Disk Master, install and launch the software, then click on "Tools" in the main interface and select "Clone Disk".
Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you need to clone as the source disk and click "Next".
Step 3. Select the destination disk to store the data on the source disk and click "Next".
Step 4. You can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to "Sector to Sector clone" and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.
Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk, or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of an SSD drive if the target disk is an SSD.
Step 5. Once you've selected the source and target drives, click "Proceed" to start the cloning process. This will begin the actual transfer of data from the source drive to the target drive, effectively creating a duplicate of the original hard drive.
How to boot from the SSD after migrating?
If you can't boot from the SSD after migration, try disconnecting the source disk or swapping the connection socket of the destination and source disks before booting from the destination disk.
If your computer can't boot from the destination disk after migration, check if it supports EFI/UEFI. Qiling Disk Master allows you to convert the system disk between MBR and GPT disks.
Conclusion
With the help of Qiling Disk Master, migrating all data from a hard drive to an SSD without reinstallation is simplified. The Qiling Disk Master Professional is a versatile tool that goes beyond disk migration, allowing users to migrate the OS to a smaller SSD, reformat the old hard drive, or utilize the Server Edition for Windows Server users.