Necessary to migrate OS from HDD to SSD
In today’s era, most desktops, laptops and other computer
devices come with traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD) which are kind of outdated and
slow. Meanwhile, along with more applications, programs, files being downloaded and
stored on the Hard Disk Drive, the computer’s running and responding speed will be
affected significantly.
When the slow computer does not support some basic
operations like surfing, emailing, media consumption, many users are more likely to
upgrade either RAM or HDD, or upgrade both of them. But in fact, RAM is not the
actual cause for computer running slowly, so this won’t make much visible
difference. Instead, it is the (HDD) with slow spindle speed (around 5400
revolutions per minute) that leads to the slowness of computing devices.

Therefore, upgrading the old, slow HDD to a new and extremely fast Solid State Drive
(SSD) is the most recommended way to speed up an old computer. Since SSD is much
faster in reading and writing data than HDD, you can enjoy a speedy boot process and
the applications/Webpage will load very quickly (for more difference between SSD and
HDD, refer to “SSD
vs HDD: Which One is Better for You to Select?”). A big day and night
difference!!
How to Move OS to SSD drive?
To migrate OS to SSD drive or another HDD, you can perform a clean reinstallation,
which always requires an operating system installation disc. Moreover, all your
precious data on the original system drive will be erased, so you need to set up OS,
download and install some programs again. Quite time-consuming and troublesome!
Luckily, there is another better choice: directly migrate OS from HDD to SSD drive,
which will directly transfer all data (original OS, programs, applications) on the
system drive/partition to another SSD/HDD.
But the real problem is how to realize such OS migration from HDD to SSD drive? here
comes this tutorial to help you.
Part 1. Getting everything prepared
Basically, you will have to prepare something for this OS migration to work. Here is
what we recommend:
> A good-condition SSD drive. Its free space should be large enough to
store all data on your original system drive. If not, you can try to delete unnecessary
files from your current SSD drive to free up more disk space.
> Make a data backup. It is never a good idea, at any time, to start messing
around with your hard drive without a backup. To avoid data loss during the
migration, please make a full backup of your important data before starting.
> OS migration tools. For moving Windows operating system, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant. For
transferring Mac operating system, SuperDuper is a good choice.
Part 2. Start the process
>> First of all, we will show you how to migrate Windows OS from HDD to SSD
drive via AOMEI Partition Assistant.
Step 1. Double click AOMEI Partition Assistant icon and open it. In its main
interface, you can get all disk/partition information. Click “Migrate OS to SSD”
under “Wizard” column.

Step 2. Then you will receive a note about this operation, you can click “Next” to
continue.

Step 3. In this window, you need to choose an unallocated space on Solid State Drive
or HDD. Only when the unallocated space is selected, then the “Next” button is
clickable, or it will grey out. So if it is without unallocated space, you need to
first create unallocated space.

Step 4. Here, you can resize partition and decide
the location of this (system) partition being created. Then hit on “Next”.

Step 5. Then, a brief note will appear, teaching you how to deal with possible
Windows failing to boot problem after migration.

Step 6. Now, you will return to the main window now, click “Apply” on the top left
and then “Proceed” to make this OS migration operation to take effect.

To move Windows Server, try its Server edition.
>> In order to migrate Mac OS to SSD, you will need to connect your SSD drive
to Mac computer and take the following steps to get this job done.
Step 1. Access “Disk Utility” (Apple’s own free software) on Mac computer: Click on
the “Spotlight” icon on the menu bar. Type “Disk Utility” in the search field. Then
double-click on “Disk Utility – Utilities”.

Step 2. Choose the connected SSD. Generally, it will be listed in the sidebar to the
left under “External”. And click “Erase” option to erase SSD drive.
Step 3. Now, you can go to “https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html”.
Click “Download” on the right side of the webpage to download it onto your Mac
computer.
Step 4. Install and launch SuperDuper. Usually, Super Duper will open automatically
as long as the installation is finished. If not, you can open it manually in the
“Applications” folder in the Finder.
Step 5. Select your Mac current operating system hard drive under “Copy” column,
select the target SSD drive under “To” column and select “Back up-all files” in the
“using” column. When everything is done, click “Copy Now”.

Step 6. Then, you will need to type your user password to allow the disk copying.
Step 7. Click “Copy” to confirm that you want to clone the Mac hard drive to SSD.
When the process is completed, click “OK”.
Part 3. You’re almost finished…
To make Windows operating system boot from new SSD drive, do as following:
Step 1. Restart your computer and enter “BIOS” setup.
Step 2. Use the arrow keys to go to the BOOT tab. System devices appear in order of
priority.
Step 3. To give an SSD drive boot sequence priority over the hard drive, you can move
the SSD drive device to the top of the boot sequence list.
Step 4. Save and exit the BIOS setup utility.
To make Mac operating system boot from SSD drive, do as below:
Step 1. Keep both old and new SSD drives connected to your Mac computer;
Step 2. Go to “System Preference” > Click on “Startup Disk” > Select new SSD
drive as the new boot drive;
Step 3. Replace the old boot drive with new SSD: Right-click on the old SSD drive in
“Finder” > Select “Eject Only Macintosh HD”;
Step 4. Shut down the Mac computer, install new SSD drive to it, and then reboot
computer again.
Now, enjoy a faster boot time or apps loading time on your new SSD drive. I sincerely
hope this guide help you to migrate OS to SSD successfully.