How To Install Windows 10 On A New Ssd

If you're even so using a traditional, spinning hd on your PC, you're missing out. Swapping it out for a solid-state drive (SSD) is ane of the best upgrades you can make in terms of speeding up your computer. Information technology'll boot faster, programs will launch instantly, and games won't accept so long to load anymore.

You could reinstall Windows from scratch, and in some situations, that may be preferable—but with the right tools, you lot can get upwardly and running much quicker by copying your unabridged drive over to the new SSD.

What You lot'll Need

ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G

Obviously, in order to upgrade to an SSD, y'all'll need to, well, purchase an SSD. We accept some recommendations, but if yous're on a budget, we have a dissever list of inexpensive SSDs likewise. Make sure to buy the right form cistron for your calculator (some laptops volition use 2.5-inch drives, while others might use M.ii or mSATA drives), and become one big plenty to fit all your data. If you have a 500GB hard drive at present, y'all should probably spring for a similarly sized SSD (or larger, to adapt future data).

The but exception is if y'all're on a desktop computer and have room for multiple hard drives. In that case, you could store Windows and your programs on the SSD while putting your music, movies, and other media on a second, larger hard disk—though this tin exist a bit more complicated, as nosotros'll discuss below.

Orico Hard Drive Docking Station

During this process, y'all'll need both your SSD and your erstwhile hard drive connected to your computer at the same time. If you're using a laptop with only one hard drive slot, that means you'll need an external adapter, dock, or enclosure that can connect your blank SSD to your reckoner over USB. (Again, desktop users may not demand this if they have room for two drives inside their PC—you tin just install it internally aslope your one-time hard bulldoze.)

There are many different drive-cloning tools on the market, and unfortunately there'southward no gratis, one-size-fits-all option. If your drive manufacturer offers a migration program, that might exist your all-time bet. For example, if you bought a Samsung SSD, we recommend downloading Samsung Information Migration and following the instructions in the user guide. Western Digital and SanDisk users can use WD's version of Acronis True Image to copy their data using these instructions.

For this guide, we'll be using Macrium Reflect—information technology's a gratuitous drive-cloning tool that works with any brand of hard drive and SSD. Just download the installer for the free home version and run through the wizard to get it up and running on your PC. It'southward available to anyone, no matter what brand drive yous have, so if your drive manufacturer doesn't offer a migration tool, Macrium Reflect is your next best bet.

In one case you lot've gathered your necessities, information technology'south time to go started.

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Dorsum Upwards Your Data (and Gratuitous Upwards Space)

Before you starting time messing with drives and formatting partitions, information technology's absolutely necessary to dorsum up your information offset. An adventitious click tin can result in you lot erasing everything, so do not continue until you've backed it all upward.

If you don't have a backup yet, cheque out our favorite software for the job. Windows also has File History for backing upwardly of import documents, and an image file tin save your entire system. Copying important data to an external difficult drive will also exercise in a compression.

If you're upgrading to an SSD that's smaller than your current hard drive, you'll want to take extra care here. This isn't equally mutual equally information technology once was, thanks to bigger, less expensive SSDs, but if that's the case for y'all, you'll need to delete some files and free up space on your hard drive before cloning it. Otherwise, your data won't fit on the new drive. In one case your data is prophylactic and secure, continue to the next pace.

Plug In and Initialize Your SSD

Plug your SSD into the SATA-to-USB adapter, then plug that into your calculator. If it'due south a brand-new drive, y'all probably won't see the bulldoze pop up in File Explorer, just don't worry; information technology just needs to exist initialized first. Open the Start menu and type "partitions" in the search box. Click the Create and format hard disk drive partitions option, and Disk Direction will open. It volition prompt you lot to initialize the bulldoze using either the GPT or MBR partition table.

I'll exist using GPT for my SSD, since I have a modern PC with a UEFI firmware. If you have an older PC with a traditional BIOS, you may demand to employ an MBR partition table. If you lot aren't sure, wait up your specific model of PC or motherboard to encounter which type of firmware it uses.

If you aren't prompted to initialize the bulldoze, and don't see it in Disk Management, double-check that information technology's properly connected to your reckoner, and that the enclosure or dock is powered on (if necessary). See our guide to troubleshooting a difficult drive that won't evidence up for more.

Once the drive has been initialized, you should run into the bulldoze show up in the bottom pane of Deejay Management equally unallocated infinite. From there, you should be skillful to go.

Clone Your Drive

Open up Macrium Reflect and you should see a list of drives in the main window. Find your current bulldoze—it'll list your C: partition with a Windows logo—and select information technology. Click the Clone This Disk button that appears below that drive to start the cloning wizard.

This will bring up a new window where yous will choose your destination drive—in this case, your empty SSD. If your SSD is the same size as your old drive, make sure the box all the mode to the left of your source disk is checked, as shown above, and so click Select a Disk to Clone. Cull your SSD from the drop-down list, and click Adjacent.

If your SSD is significantly smaller than your old drive, this may crave an extra step. Reflect will attempt to automatically shrink partitions with free infinite to fit information technology all on the drive, just in my feel, it doesn't e'er do this intelligently, and may leave out one of Windows' recovery partitions. If you experience this trouble, you can manually drag each partition down to the SSD, and click Cloned Partition Properties on your chief C: drive to resize it manually.

If your SSD is larger than your sometime drive, it may exit some unused space on the drive—in which case yous'll want to select your master partition, click Cloned Partition Properties, and expand the drive to fill that empty space.

Click Next and you'll be asked if you want to save this fill-in schedule. You lot tin can uncheck that box and click OK to run the backup at present, in one case. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on how large the disks are, then go watch Netflix and come dorsum later.

When it's done, y'all can exit Macrium Reflect. Yous should see your new SSD in File Explorer, complete with all your information.

Install Your SSD

Next, shut downwards your computer. It'due south time to install that SSD in your machine permanently. If you have a laptop with but one difficult drive slot, yous'll need to remove your old hard drive and replace it with your SSD. This is a fleck different on every laptop.

If you lot accept a desktop PC with more than one difficult drive slot, y'all can get out your old hard bulldoze in every bit extra storage, and just install your SSD aslope it.

Reboot From Your New Drive

Once you're finished installing the SSD, yous'll need to tell your computer to boot from it. (This may not be necessary on laptops with only one drive, just if you experience problems booting, it tin can help on some PCs.) Turn your computer on and enter its BIOS/UEFI setup—this is a bit different on every PC, merely it'll unremarkably say something like "Press DEL to enter setup" on the boot screen, and so you'll want to press the corresponding key as it starts up.

From there, expect for your BIOS's boot options. These will be in a different spot depending on your computer, but one time you detect them, select the option to change the boot sequence. Choose your SSD from the list equally the kickoff boot bulldoze, then head dorsum to the BIOS's master menu to exit, saving your settings.

Your computer volition reboot, and if all went well, it should plop you dorsum into Windows faster than ever earlier. Open File Explorer and cheque to confirm that your SSD is, in fact, the C: drive. If everything looks skillful, you lot're ready to rock.

If your old bulldoze is still installed, you tin erase it and utilize it to store extra files, or yous can disconnect it entirely. Best of all, your estimator should feel significantly snappier without having to offset from scratch.

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