Migrating to SSD (Windows 10)

kcblair, welcome to these user forums.

If I understand correctly, you have a working dual-boot system with Windows 7 and 10 each running from their own dedicated HDD and you are looking to upgrade your Windows 10 HDD to a new SSD.

My recommendation would be to limit the number of changes that you will be introducing at one time - do not start migrating your Win 10 OS and also start changing SATA ports at the same time!

Do one of these or the other but not both together!

In terms of migrating from the HDD to SSD for your Win 10 OS, this should be done completely outside of Windows using the Acronis bootable Rescue Media on CD/DVD or USB stick.  I would recommend taking a full backup of the HDD to an external disk drive before starting this process, especially if you are intending to use the Acronis Clone wizard - this will give you an immediate recovery capability should anything go wrong.

Secondly, it is a good idea to unplug any uninvolved disks before starting the migration process - this will keep them safely out of the way and prevent a wrong drive being selected by accident.

Please see KB documents: 

48386: Acronis True Image 2015: Cloning Disks   

56634: Acronis True Image 2016: Cloning Disks  (included as has a video tutorial)

1540: Difference between Backup and Disk Clone

Note: Backup and Restore can be used as an alternative to using Cloning and will achieve the exact same end result.

See also webpage: Check if your PC uses UEFI or BIOS as the Acronis Rescue Media should be booted in the same mode as your Windows OS.

Some other gotchas:  

• The SSD should be connected exactly where the HDD is connected now - this is to preserve the Windows Boot Configuration Data settings which link the drive to the SATA port to enable it to boot successfully.  The HDD can be connected to a different SATA port for the purpose of cloning.
• Do not attempt to boot your Windows 10 OS from the SSD with the original Win 10 HDD also connected - both drives will report the same disk signature to Windows which can cause problems!

Thank You Steve,

Okay,  I have created a W10 Recovery Drive on a Flash drive, from W10.  There is no data (photos, music, doc, etc) on the W10 HHD.  Only OS and software. Do you consider this a backup of the W10 HHD ?  

Next, I will make a  "Acronis bootable Rescue Media" , not sure how to migrate to the SSD, outside Windows, using this part of Acronis. 

Yes, I will unplug all HHD's when I perform this process.  To understand this, I can unplug the W10 HHD from SATA-3 port "1",  insert the SSD into SATA3 port "1", and plug the W10 HHD into , say SATA3 Port "0" . Correct ?  When the process is complete, I can then,  plug the W7 HHD back into it's orignal SATA3 port "0" Correct ?  Then, I can plug in the old W10 HHD and reformat, correct ?

I have also, defraged this W10 HHD in preparation.

My disks are "basic"  and listed as "MBR" .  

Again, thank you Steve for your assistance.  I'm in no hurry to complete this operation, until I got it straight in my head,  but been wanting to do try a SSD for some time.  Prices have fallen, so thought this is a good time.

EDIT: Ok, I have created the Acronis bootable Rescue Media disk, I have re-read the info on booting from that disk.  Thanks. 

EDIT: I have also created a "System Image Backup".

Ken B.

Hello Steve,

After following all the instructions, the clone operation failed. First "MFT bitmap corrupted"  Second try, I used in manual mode.  Target (SSD) not enough space. 

The Source (Window 10) has only 40GB of used space. Disk Mngt says, Cap. 465GB, Free 418GB (Healthy), Boot, Pagefile, Crash Dump, Primary Partition.

So, 40GB should fit onto the 240GB SSD. I'm lost.

Any ideas ?  Thank you so much

If you are seeing "MFT bitmap corrupted" then this needs to be resolved before doing anything else - the Master File Table is essential to the correct working of your drive where the error is reported as this is the index for all files on the drive.

Check to see if the error shows which drive number this is for but note that Acronis starts numbering drives from 1 whereas Windows starts at 0.

Run CHKDSK /F /R for the drive with the MFT problem.

Next, check your SSD from within Windows Disk Management and check that it shows the full size (240GB or very near) as being either unallocated or as free space if it is formatted for NTFS.

Once you have resolved / checked the above, then give the clone a further try.

Alternatively, you can use Acronis Backup and Restore instead of cloning, make a full Backup image of the entire Source OS drive & partitions, to an external disk drive, then Restore that backup to your SSD drive.  You can do this in the same way that you would for cloning, i.e. Make the full Backup image from within Windows to the external drive, then boot from the Rescue Media, with the original Source OS drive remove / replaced by the SSD and with the external backup drive attached, then Restore the backup to the SSD from the external drive.

MFT (master file table) suggests you have disk corruption on the source drive.  Please launch an elevated command prompt and run

C:/sfc /scannow           <enter>

When that is done, then run: 

c:/chkdsk /f /r  <enter>

You will be prompted to reboot to complete the chkdsk since the disk is in use - let it do it's thing - it could awhile on a 500GB drive (especially if there is a lot of data or if being run on a mechinical drive).

http://forum.acronis.com/forum/3121#comment-5010

When both checks are done on the original drive, then try your clone operation again.  

As for the manual issue size problem.  Because of the bad sectors on the disk, it looks like Acronis is resulting to a sector by sector backup to try and get past the disk errors.  This would attempt to copy the entire disk, including free space (500Gb) so if your new disk is smaller, there wouldn't be enought room.

I have a feeling that chkdsk will help you out and would allow the automatic clone to proceed.  However, if possible, and highly recommened, please take a full disk backup to have as a safetynet and recovery point - just in case.  

Thank You Steve,

Will run the chkdsk, I sort of suspected that issue.  After removing all my files (photos, doc, music, etc) off to another internal drive, I did a complete "System Image Backup" using W10, to a USB 3.0 ext. drive.  Is it possible to place that "System Image" onto the SSD, with the SSD plugged into the W10 SATA port ?   Also, I didn't do anything to prep the SSD, as  initializing.

Thank You Bobbo_3C0X1,  Going to run that chkdsk.  There is only 40GB on that source disk.  

See webpage: Restoring system image to a different harddrive? for your question about the System Image Backup - this was written for Windows 7 but the principle should be the same for Windows 10.  The particular response in the article is number 2.

You can use the system image created using Windows 7 backup to restore to a different hard drive. These are the steps:
1. Boot into the repair disc / Windows installation disc
2. Select "Reimage your computer"
3. Connect the disk which contains the backups.
4. Choose the recommended system image or choose a different one if you wish.
5. On the next page select the time period of the image you want to restore to. Click Next.
6. Now choose "Format and repartition disks".
Go ahead and complete the wizard. 

Note that this will format and repartition the new disk and restore the volumes contained in the image. This will restore the OS, applications and data contained in the critical volumes (volumes required for Windows to run).

Hello Bobbo,

Ok, Completed the scannow.  But when I get to c:/chkdsk /f /r, it just hangs @ 10%... stopped the process after 1 hr. 

Hello Guys, 

I think the other problem is that my W10 is on a "primary Partition" 475GB, although only 40GB is being used.  I don't think I partitioned the W10 OS when I installed it.  In "Disk Manager" I see no other partitions.  Possible reason why this won't fit on my 240GB SSD ??

I don't think that the OS being on a primary partition or the total size is an issue, it is the used space which is most important, but the real issue remains fixing the NTFS file system issues, in particular the MFT bitmap corruption.

In all honesty I would expect CHKDSK /F /R to run for a long time where one hour is only a small portion of that time - you will need to let it run to completion.

Yup, either chkdsk needs more time to complete or there is something really wrong with the disk.  Chkdsk should complete even if there are bad sectors/blocks on the disk.  It's going to need to go through the entire disk (not just the currently written data) and it's going to be slower on a spinning disk than say an SSD or PCIE NVME hard drive - perhaps kick it off before you go to bed tonight and see if it complets overnight while you're sleeping.

If chkdsk wont' run, there's no way a backup is going to. 

Good idea guys,  will let it run during the night.  Will PC shut down when finished ?  

Again, thank you all for the assistance.  I, have been waiting to try out a SSD,  just wanted to get W10 in with W7 .  While I have been struggling with this,  I discovered I needed to enable AHCI in bios and tweak the registry, that complete.

Hello Guys,

Well , I let chkdsk run all night.  My got up before me,  and noticed the computer was at the windows 10 login widow.  So I'm assuming all is good.  Is there any where that the results are logged in ?

Thank You

The CHKDSK results will be recorded in the Windows Event logs - type event logs in the Start > search box.

Thank You Steve and Bobbo,

After Acronis Clon process did it's thing ,  I have a bit of issue booting, "winlod.exe" was missing.  So I put in my W10 repair disk and did the StartUp repair and BINGO, into W10 on a SSD ride.  Before, I tried the System Image , from the W10 installation disk, and got some sort of msg, the system image was created in BIOS and the ??something?? was EUFI or UEFI ??  Any way, that's when I opped in the system repair disk. 

Now, I'm guessing I should create a System Image of this SSD, correct ?  And a new Systen repair disk ?? 

Anyway, this thing fly..............s,  I'm talking not turbo charge, but super-charged. 

Now, when I finf a good deal in another SSD,  WIndows 7 will the boost treatment. 

This old fart (70), finds it a lot easier to  build and play with computers , then diagost them.  But I got.

Again, thank you guys for hanging with me.

Ken B.

Ken, thanks for the feedback and glad to hear you have a working solution after doing the clone.

I would recommend a new System Image of the SSD if you have been doing so before, this will reflect any driver changes etc.  Not sure that you would need a new System Repair disk as this shouldn't have changed unless you have also updated to a later version of Windows 10 such as the Anniversary Update (1607).  Make a full SSD disk backup using your Acronis software to an external drive to protect your investment in time and sweat.

Thanks Steve,  did those backups. No update to W10.  So, now with USB 3.0 and a SSD, next upgrade a SSD for the W7. Then for Christmas,  Z170 MoBo and 6th gen i5 (K) , if that pc doesn't fly off the desk,  nofhing will.

Ken