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Migrating win10 HDD to new SSD

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Hello, I am sure I am asking a question that has been asked many times before but so far while I have been able to get some answers from Forum posts I am still a little confused and would like to get my process fully understood before I begin so I am hoping for some help from all the knowledge that seems to be on this forum.

I have a 1tb HDD with about 650gb of data, programs and OS on it.  The disk has two partitions although only one has a dive letter (C:).  I now have a 525Gb  SSD that I would like to migrate the OS and the software  to from my HDD.  Having read a forum post that it is not possible to clone from one drive to another when drives are different sizes I believe I must either migrate some of the HDD info to the SSD or as that may not be possible with Acronis then I may need to make a full disk copy then use Acronis restore to just move the OS and program files to the SSD.  At least I think that is what I need to do.  If I make a full disk copy do I use the WIN10->Control Panel->File History option or can I do it from Acronis?  If I do have a full disk copy can I then just restore the OS and Program directories to the new SSD from that copy using Acronis?

Currently much of the file data on the PC is also stored in the Cloud either at OneDrive or at Dropbox.  I can turn these off so should be able to reduce the space they currently occupy on my HDD and assume that when I reconnect to those accounts I will get the data downloaded again onto my selected drive (probably the SSD if enough space).

After I have the new SSD operating the PC I would like the old HDD to become a secondary drive available for storage but also to maybe run some of the software I would not transfer to the new SSD. Is this a feasible idea or is running software from a drive other than the main drive not a good idea? Also do I delete the old Windows OS from the HDD to prevent dual boot problems or should I solve that problem in another way?

I have two readily available network drives, one with 870gb free and one with 500gb free.  How much space should I expect a full disk backup to need and is it OK to backup to one of these two drives or would I be safer burning a DVD with an ISO of the copy?

If I can migrate and choose what I want to migrate do I install the new SSD into my PC with the existing HDD and then can I migrate from the HDD to the SSD which will be seen as a second installed drive.  If I do that how do I get the new SSD to take the C: drive letter from the HDD?

Sorry for the lengthy post and maybe I am overthinking this exercise but hope someone here can advise on my questions before I begin and wish I had asked them when I bump into problems.

Regards

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Lesliev wrote:

I have a 1tb HDD with about 650gb of data, programs and OS on it.  The disk has two partitions although only one has a dive letter (C:).  I now have a 525Gb  SSD that I would like to migrate the OS and the software  to from my HDD.  Having read a forum post that it is not possible to clone from one drive to another when drives are different sizes I believe I must either migrate some of the HDD info to the SSD or as that may not be possible with Acronis then I may need to make a full disk copy then use Acronis restore to just move the OS and program files to the SSD.  At least I think that is what I need to do.  If I make a full disk copy do I use the WIN10->Control Panel->File History option or can I do it from Acronis?  If I do have a full disk copy can I then just restore the OS and Program directories to the new SSD from that copy using Acronis?

Leslie, in order to migrate your 1TB HDD with 650GB of used data to a 525GB SSD you are going to have to reduce the size of your used data before even considering which specific method you want to use.  Put simply, 650GB does not fit into a 525GB space!  Not only that, but your 525GB SSD will run very slowly if you actually fill it to capacity - you should have around 20% free space on the drive at a minimum, so you only really have around 400GB of space available on the SSD to migrate your OS and Programs etc to.

Next point here is that you cannot use Acronis True Image to just move the OS and program files to the SSD - ATIH can only move everything.

Windows File History is totally unrelated to the Acronis program capabilities and cannot be used to make a full disk copy or migrate the OS etc.

Lesliev wrote:
Currently much of the file data on the PC is also stored in the Cloud either at OneDrive or at Dropbox.  I can turn these off so should be able to reduce the space they currently occupy on my HDD and assume that when I reconnect to those accounts I will get the data downloaded again onto my selected drive (probably the SSD if enough space).

See notes above about the actual space needed on the target 525GB SSD - you would need to move the local folder locations for your OneDrive / Dropbox accounts to a different drive where that data can be downloaded to and there will be sufficient free space to accommodate it.

Lesliev wrote:
After I have the new SSD operating the PC I would like the old HDD to become a secondary drive available for storage but also to maybe run some of the software I would not transfer to the new SSD. Is this a feasible idea or is running software from a drive other than the main drive not a good idea? Also do I delete the old Windows OS from the HDD to prevent dual boot problems or should I solve that problem in another way?

You will need to ensure that the SSD is working fine first.  Ideally, I would recommend either removing or disconnecting the HDD while you prove that the SSD is working OK, then reconnect / reinstall the HDD on a spare SATA cable to allow it to be reused (formatted and provisioned as needed).  I would not recommend trying to use the old HDD in any form of dual boot scenario.  Once the SSD is working, then reformat the HDD.  
Note: the SSD should physically replace the HDD in the computer, using the same SATA cable as the HDD was using to boot into Windows.

Lesliev wrote:
I have two readily available network drives, one with 870gb free and one with 500gb free.  How much space should I expect a full disk backup to need and is it OK to backup to one of these two drives or would I be safer burning a DVD with an ISO of the copy?

You full disk backup will be of a similar size to the amount of used data on your source disk drive, so if your 525GB SSD has say 400GB of used data, then your backup would be expected to be around 320GB if a compression rate of 20% can be achieved.  This can be stored on your network drive but I would not recommend trying to burn this amount of data to DVD, that is a whole stack of DVD's to manage!

Lesliev wrote:
If I can migrate and choose what I want to migrate do I install the new SSD into my PC with the existing HDD and then can I migrate from the HDD to the SSD which will be seen as a second installed drive.  If I do that how do I get the new SSD to take the C: drive letter from the HDD? 

Sorry, this is not possible - to migrate and choose what to migrate.  Reduce the size of data on the HDD to allow this to fit on the new SSD.

The steps you should be looking to follow, in outline, are:

  1. Reduce the data on the HDD to a size that will fit comfortably on the SSD and leave sufficient free space (approx 20% minimum).
  2. Create the Acronis bootable Rescue Media - this will be needed for the Restore steps below.  Test that the Rescue Media will boot your computer 'as is' and can see your HDD drive, plus can see an external backup drive connected via USB (where you will store a backup of the HDD on).
  3. Assuming that step 2. is OK, then boot back into Windows, use Acronis True Image to make a full disk & partitions backup of your HDD (including all hidden / system partitions) and store this backup image file on an external backup drive.
  4. Shutdown the computer.  Disconnect & remove the HDD drive.  Replace the HDD with your new SSD and connect to the same SATA cable.
  5. Boot from the Acronis Rescue Media with your external backup drive connected.
  6. Restore the entire disk backup from the external drive to the new SSD drive.
  7. Shutdown the computer.  Disconnect the external backup drive and eject the Rescue Media.
  8. Boot the computer from the new SSD and check that all is working fine with the restored OS & programs / data.
  9. Later, when you are confident that all is working OK, then connect the old HDD drive to a spare SATA cable.  Reformat the HDD and use this to store your user data, cloud storage folders etc.

Thank you Steve for the very comprehensive and clear response to my many questions.  I think you have laid out quite clearly for me the process and requirements I will need to follow to make this new SSD my primary drive.  Much appreciated.

I will be able to reduce my current HDD data load by turning off sync for the Dropbox and OneDrive folders prior to making the the backup of the disk and have already moved some data folders with images and music etc to a separate drive so will one way or another get my HDD disk capacity down to the 400gb you recommended.

I now however have a couple more questions so hope to again call on your knowlege and patience in these items.

Using either my NAS drive or my USB external HDD I calculate the backup of the 400gb will take about 6 hours.  Is that about what you would expect?

The Acronis vesrion I received access to with my SSD purchase is a LITE version and as I am only doing this once I am not keen to spend the additional licensing dollars to upgrade to the full home user version of the app.  It does seem however that the limited capability I have with this LITE version will give me the capability I need to achieve the process of backup and restore you have outlined.  Is that your take also on the software version I have?

Regards and thank you for your advice.

Les

Les, the time required to create a full backup will vary depending on a number of different factors, but the only real way to prove how long it will take is to run the backup.  

Your LITE version of ATI is an OEM version which may be both restricted in terms of some functionality and also of an older product version but it should still have the base Backup and Restore functionality that you require.

I would recommend that you should be doing regular Backups of your OS and user data - this shouldn't be considered just a once-off activity - there are too many threats in the 'wild' to trust to running any computer without the protection of having regular backups.