If you want to transfer data from HDD to SSD, you can use "copy and paste", or apply the disk cloning method that can more easily migrate all content from HDD to SSD.
By
Emily
/ Last Updated May 4, 2023
So I just got my SSD in the mail but sadly my dad (who recommended it and was goigng to help me install it) isn't going to be home for the holidays. I wanna give it a shot myself though, though it'll be my first time. Do you guys know how to transfer HDD to SSD? Also can I keep the hard drive in my computer for additional storage? Thanks a lot!
Installing a solid-state drive is one of the most effective ways to speed up your computer because it is much faster in reading and writing, quieter during working and more durable than traditional hard disk drive (more details can be found in the table below). So it is a wise choice to replace your old HDD with an SSD drive to make your computer work better. However, how to transfer data from hard drive to SSD? Today, we would like to introduce two ways to do this job in Windows 11/10/8/7.
When it comes to migrating data from HDD to SSD drive, most users might think about “copy & paste” first of all, which is a traditional way for moving data between different hard drives. To do that, you have to right-click the files and choose “Copy” or “Cut” option, and go to your SSD partition and right-click a blank space to choose “Paste” option.
For moving a small amount of data to SSD, that could be a nice method. What if you need to transfer a large amount of data or the files are in different directories in one partition? What if the “Copy and Paste” function does not work? Moreover, some pasted system files or program files cannot work as they did before. Therefore, we prepare another method to show you how to move files from SSD to HDD.
To move mass data (including programs, videos, images, documents, music, etc.) from HDD to SSD, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional provides a secure, easy, and fast way. You can use it to migrate files to SSD by cloning your old HDD to SSD drive through the following two different clone methods.
1. Clone Disk Quickly: only copy the used space to another disk, so you can copy a larger disk to a smaller disk in this method.
2. Sector-by-Sector Clone: copy all sectors of the disk to a target disk no matter it is used or not. This method can copy the deleted or lost files.
No matter which method you choose, you can optimize the SSD performance in the disk cloning operation. Moreover, after migration, the OS or programs can start up successfully. You can also use the tool to transfer only one or multiple apps from SSD to HDD.
Now please download the Demo version and learn how to transfer data from HDD to SSD through the cloning method.
Before proceeding:
√ Connect the destination SSD drive to a Windows computer and make sure it is detected successfully. If you are using a laptop with only room for one drive, you might need a SATA-to-USB adapter.
√ Back up everything you need on the SSD drive since all data will be deleted from it during the cloning process.
√ You can delete some unnecessary files or applications from the HDD in advance to make it smaller to fit the target SSD drive better.
Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro, click the disk you want to copy. Click "Clone" from the top toolbar and select "Clone Disk".
Step 2. In this window, choose a suitable copying method based on your special requirements. Then click “Next” to continue.
Step 3. Select the SSD drive as the destination disk. And tick the “Optimize the performance of SSD” option at the bottom, which can improve the performance of your SSD. Click “Next”.
Step 4. Now, you can edit your destination disk in this window if you choose “Clone Disk Quickly” method in step 2.
Step 5. In the main interface, click “Apply” to execute the operation.
The above demonstration is based on transferring all data from non-system hard drive to SSD drive. But I have found many users are asking: “how do I move Windows 10 from HDD to SSD?”.
Actually, you just need to choose the system disk as the source disk and follow the instruction. If you want to only transfer Windows 10 partition to SSD drive, not all partitions, you can try the “Migrate OS to SSD Wizard”, which can move only Windows 10/8/7 volume to another hard drive without boot issue.
For transferring Windows 10 from HDD to SSD drive, you need to note:
1. If you are planning to clone system MBR disk to GPT SSD drive, you need to ensure your motherboard supports EFI/UEFI boot mode, or you can first convert GPT into MBR before cloning.
2. After cloning, you need to restart your computer, enter the BIOS environment and change boot order to boot computer from destination disk.
In this article, we have shown how to transfer data from HDD to SSD in Windows via two different methods. Hope you can find the best way to do the job. AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional does not only support transferring data from HDD to SSD, but also supports moving data from HDD to HDD or SSD to SSD. Besides that, AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro also allows you to clone partition to SSD.
To perform cloning tasks in Windows Server such as cloning Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, 2012, etc to SSD/HDD, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Server instead.
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