Top 2 Ways to Migrate OS to Crucial SSD in Windows 11/10/8/7
Why transfer operating system to Crucial SSD
While hard drives are still a popular choice for their storage capacity and affordability, solid-state drives (SSDs) are gaining recognition for their higher speed and lower power needs.
Solid-SSDs (solid-state drives) are significantly faster than traditional hard drives due to their underlying technology. Unlike traditional hard drives, which physically track down information by spinning, SSDs are based on NAND flash memory technology, making them much quicker at accessing and writing data.
Crucial, a reliable brand owned by Micron Technology, has over 30 years of experience in the memory industry, utilizing cutting-edge NAND flash memory technology. This makes it a smart choice to migrate your OS to a Crucial SSD and use it as your boot drive.
How to migrate system to Crucial SSD
If you've purchased a Crucial SSD, you'll need to transfer your operating system to the new drive. This process varies depending on your operating system.
Reinstalling the system with a CD after installing an SSD can be too much trouble. A better option is to directly backup or clone your OS (Windows 11/10/8/7) to the solid-state drive, which can be done using a powerful Crucial SSD clone software, saving you time and effort.
With so many products on the market, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. However, I prefer software that is quick, safe, and complete in its features, especially when it comes to migrating an operating system. That's why I recommend Qiling Disk Master Standard.
Three things impressed me most about it:
Comprehensive It's not just about system migration, but also offers functional modules like backup, sync, clone, and more, addressing various data-related issues with practical options.
Concise The interface is very user-friendly, making it easy to navigate without needing guidance, and the performance is quite fast.
Free The software offers a complete free edition that covers all the basic features for data protection and OS migration. For users who need more advanced features, there are options available for different user groups.
Transferring Windows to a Solid-State Drive (SSD) is a relatively easy process. To do so, you'll need to follow a series of steps, which can be broken down into several key tasks.
Preparations before SSD migration
- Install Crucial SSD
Regardless of the approach you choose, it's essential to connect the Crucial SSD to your PC, and the specific steps will depend on your PC's configuration.
>> If your PC only has one slot, you'll need a USB to SATA adapter to connect the Crucial SSD as an external drive, allowing you to migrate your OS to the SSD via USB, then replace the internal hard drive with the Crucial SSD. This makes the process less complicated.
>> If your PC has two slots, you can install the SSD as a secondary disk and directly migrate the OS to the Crucial SSD without needing a cable.
- Clean up your current disk
If the new SSD has a smaller capacity than the current disk, you can manually delete unnecessary data to free up space before migrating to the new SSD using Qiling Disk Master, which allows you to backup or clone only used sectors.
Be cautious when editing files in system-related partitions, as modifying unknown files can lead to system instability or crashes. Only make changes to files you're familiar with or have been instructed to modify.
- Download and install migration software
Download the Crucial SSD migration software Qiling Disk Master Standard and install it using a simple wizard.
Method 1. Transfer OS to Crucial SSD for free
The process of transferring Windows to another SSD can be interpreted as backup and restore, but due to the complexity of system files, it's recommended to use a reliable program like Qiling Disk Master Standard to handle the task.
How to transfer OS to Crucial SSD:
1. After launching Qiling Disk Master Standard, a concise interface with several functional modules on the left sidebar appears. To begin, go to the Backup section and select System Backup, which allows you to back up Windows and create an image of the system partition.
2. The system partition will be automatically detected as the source data. Simply select a destination path, edit the task name for easier identification, and click proceed to create a system image.
3. After finishing the backup, go to the Restore tab, click Select Task, and choose the task you just created. Then, click Next to proceed.
4. Select the option to restore the system to another location, then choose the Crucial SSD as the destination for the system image, and click "Next" to proceed with the restoration.
5. After installing the Crucial SSD, restart your computer and boot up Windows on the new drive.
Tips:
- The backup is running in intelligent mode by default, which saves space and time by only backing up used sectors. However, you can also choose to back up all sectors by clicking Options > Backup Mode > Intelligent Sector > Make an Exact Backup.
- To prevent unexpected system breakdown or disk failure, you can create a Windows PE bootable USB or CD in advance to start up your computer and restore your system image when needed.
Method 2. Clone system disk to Crucial SSD directly
The first method to migrate the system to a Crucial SSD does work, but it involves both backup and restore. If you're looking for a quicker alternative, you may want to consider cloning instead.
Qiling Disk Master Professional enables you to clone a hard disk drive to another, allowing you to migrate the operating system and all data partitions to an SSD, or clone just the OS using the ystem Clone feature, which directly copies the Windows OS to a Crucial SSD without manual partition specification.System Clone feature, which directly copies the Windows OS to a Crucial SSD without manual partition specification.
Here's a free demo to demonstrate the cloning operations:
Please go ahead and give the example
✎All data on the destination SSD will be erased, so make sure to back up any important data before proceeding.
How to migrate hard drive with OS installed to Crucial SSD:
1. Launch Qiling Disk Master Professional, select Disk Clone under the Clone tab, and choose System Clone to transfer only the operating system.
2. Select the disk you want to clone as the source disk, then hit the Next button.
3. Choose the Crucial SSD as the destination disk, and click Next to continue.
4. Confirm the operation and click Proceed to start the cloning process, where you can also optimize it by editing the partition, aligning with an SSD, or cloning sector by sector.
5. When the clone progress reaches 100%, click Finish to exit the interface.
Tips:
- SSD Alignment If your destination disk is a SSD, enabling this option will boost the reading and writing speed for solid state drives.
- Sector by Sector Clone Clone all sectors, including blank or logically bad sectors, regardless of usage, which will increase the cloning time.
- Qiling Disk Master Professional supports cloning both MBR and GPT disks, allowing for conversions between the two, including MBR to MBR, GPT to GPT, and conversion from MBR to GPT or vice versa.
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To maximize the use of disk capacity, you can try three options in the Edit Partitions section to adjust partition size on the destination disk.
👉Copy without resizing partitions: It will not resize the partition size.
👉Add unused space to all partitions: It will reallocate the unallocated space to each partition of the target disk, appropriate for the disk size.
👉Manually adjust partition size: This tool enables you to expand unallocated space to any partition on the destination disk, requiring manual adjustment of partition size.
Conclusion
Qiling Disk Master Standard allows you to migrate your operating system to a solid-state drive (SSD) for free, and also serves as a comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery solution, helping to prevent computer problems and simplify operations.
The Standard edition is sufficient for personal use, but the paid editions offer more advanced features, such as direct system cloning in the Professional edition and OS migration to a new server with Qiling Disk Master Server.
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