How to Transfer Windows 10 SSD to a New PC?

Can I move an SSD with Windows 10 to new computer?

It's amazing to change a new computer but it's troublesome to set up a new PC from scratch and get used to the new working environment. So, an inspiring idea about how to transfer Windows 10 SSD to a new PC was come up with. Here is a live example from Microsoft community:

"Hello, pretty soon I will be building a new computer with completely different hardware. Is there a process I have to do in order to transfer my SSD with my current OS (Windows 10) on to the new PC? Or can I just plug my SSD in and it will recognize all the new hardware?"

Can you transfer Windows 10 SSD to new PC? It's technically possible. Since Windows installation needs to have drivers for the hardware of your current computer, whether the old and new hardware have consistency has become a vital part in moving system hard drive. Let's discuss in detail.

▌ Situation 1. Transfer SSD to another PC with same hardware

If your new computer has the same hardware as the old computer, it's simple to migrate SSD with current Windows 10 or 11 system to the new PC. You can simply install the old hard drive onto the new computer and then enter the BIOS to set it as the priority item.

However, people seldom buy two computers with the identical hardware. Thus, in most cases, they will encounter the problem of hardware incompatibility, which is mainly talked about in situation 2.

▌ Situation 2. Transfer SSD to another PC with dissimilar hardware

If you are going to move Windows 10 SSD to a new computer that has different hardware from the old one, the operation becomes difficult. It needs different drivers, and the hardware abstraction layer won’t match the hardware in the new computer.

There are two solutions:

1. Reinstall Windows on the new computer as well as reinstall all your application software. It's admitted that reinstallation is time-consuming and laborious.

2. Clone your existing solid-state drive with the system on to the new SSD. It's supported by third-party software that can make it easy to transfer Windows 10 SSD to new PC. With a professional disk cloning tool, it's quick to clone the hard drive and your computer will be usable immediately after booting.

How to transfer Windows 10 SSD to a new PC?

As we mentioned above, disk cloning is a great option to migrate SSD to new Windows 10 PC. Next, we will demonstrate the detailed process to you, refer to the following context on how to move Windows 10 SSD to new computer carefully.

▶ Best software to transfer Windows 10 SSD to new PC

AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, the best disk cloning software for Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista, enjoys a good reputation on cloning hard drive with dissimilar hardware.

❆ It's easy to use. It's simple to handle, and very friendly to green hands. Its GUI interface makes it easy and clear to cloning hard drive to another.
❆ It's considerate. It can tackle different situations, such as cloning larger SSD to smaller disk, cloning SSD with bad sectors, cloning SATA to Nvme, etc
❆ It's reliable. A system disk contains multiple OS-related files. AOMEI software provides a good disk copy method for cloning system disk so that these files can be copied completely, and then you can boot from the cloned drive after cloning.
❆ It's versatile. It's not a simple disk cloner but a disk optimizer. It enables you to resize partitions and align SSD partitions on the new disk to boost its performance.

▶ Precautions to transfer Windows 10 SSD to new PC

Here is some preparations before following the process on how to transfer Windows 10 SSD to a new PC:

◆ A stable and continuous power connection is needed.

◆ Take out the system disk from the new PC, connect it to your old PC, and make sure it can be detected. If there is only one disk slot available, you can use a SATA-to-USB cable to connect the target disk to your device; if the new disk contains any important files, remember to back up beforehand because all data will be overwritten in the course of disk clone.

◆ Make sure the destination disk has enough storage space to hold all data from the original Windows 10 SSD.

◆ Download and install AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional on your old computer.

▶ Detailed tutorial to transfer Windows 10 SSD to new PC

After everything is prepared, it's time to see how to move Windows 10 SSD to new computer:

Step 1. Launch and open AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Go to "Clone" and "Clone Disk".

Tip: You can click "Migrate OS to SSD" in this step to transfer only OS to new PC.

Step 2. Select a disk clone method as you like.

◉ "Clone Disk Quickly" clones only used space to another disk.
◉ "Sector-by-Sector Clone" clones all sectors, whether used or not, to the target disk.

Step 3. Select your original SSD that holds your Windows system as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 4. Then select your new disk as the destination disk and click "Next". Tick "Optimize the performance of SSD" to make SSD 4K alignment if your destination disk is SSD.

Step 5. Then, you are allowed to resize the partitions on the new drive. Select the one you like and click "Next".

Step 6. After reading a note, click "Finish" and then click "Apply" to commit the operation.

Step 7. When the disk clone is completed, your Windows 10 SSD has been moved to the new drive. Reinstall the cloned disk back to your new PC, enter BIOS to change the boot order, and boot from the cloned hard drive. Then, you will get a new PC with the same SSD as the old PC.

Conclusion

How to transfer Windows 10 SSD to a new PC? It's very easy with the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Compared with reinstalling Windows and software, using disk clone to transfer SSD to another PC can save you a ton of time and energy.

What's more, AOMEI software behaves excellently in organizing your disks and partitions, such as deleting partitions, formatting hard drive, converting MBR to GPT, moving programs and files, etc. Besides, there is the Server edition for Windows Server users and the Unlimited edition for an unlimited number of Windows PCs.