Upgrade SSD

salmben · 11 May 2016

Hello geniuses,

I have an issue that I have not been able to figure out for the life of me and I am praying someone will be able to help!!

Background; I have a very expensive HP mobile desktop running 10 Pro. It came with a 128GB SSD which is where the operating system and programs are installed. I use the computer for work and I simply do not have enough room for all of the programs that I use. There is an additional 500GB 7200rpm HDD in the computer. Initially, I tried to make that the primary drive so that programs and such would install there instead of on the C drive. That failed. I finally broke down and bought a 500GB SSD to replace the SSD that came in the computer.

Problem; no matter what I do, I cannot get the information to move from the SSD to the HDD so that I can them move it onto the new SSD. I have tried cloning, imaging, backup and recovery disks, I even tried to create a bootable USB drive to boot from so I could then transfer the files, but I could not get it to boot from the USB. No matter what I do, I cannot get the computer to boot to either the HDD or the new SSD.

It seems like it would be a simple thing, clone it, boot to the clone, install new SSD, clone to that and then boot from there. I know there is always the option of doing a clean install, but it would take days to reinstall all of the software.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer!!

Cliff S · 11 May 2016

Create a system image to either the 2nd internal or an external drive, take out the old 128, put in the new 50o and reimage.
Now to boot to the reimaging USB, either go into your BIOS and use the one-time boot menu(instead of changing boot order) or when booting use what ever F(Function) key for your PC to change the boot option. Some PC's simple use the Esc key. Note you need to spam the key, by repeatedly tapping it until the boot options come up.

I just did a fast search, and it looks like you need to spam F9

To resolve this issue, perform the following steps:

Power off the computer.
Power on the computer.
Verify the USB 3.0 device appears in the F9 boot menu.

HP Support document - HP Support Center
This is for another problem, but states which key is your one-time boot menu.

salmben · 11 May 2016

Thank you for the quick reply!!

How do I create a reimaging USB, or is that the same as the bootable USB that I couldn't get it to boot from? I did try the one time boot order and it still wouldn't work.

Cliff S · 11 May 2016

Are you using Macrium Reflect to image? Or any other 3rd party tool?
They usually have an option to create a bootable WinPE recovery drive.

salmben · 11 May 2016

I tried Macrium and a couple others. I will have to give it another go and see if I can get it to work. That is what I was trying to do, I must have been missing a step somewhere.

Thanks again!

NavyLCDR · 11 May 2016

salmben said:

Thank you for the quick reply!!

How do I create a reimaging USB, or is that the same as the bootable USB that I couldn't get it to boot from? I did try the one time boot order and it still wouldn't work.

What I have found works very well:

Let Media Creation Tool create a Windows 10 bootable installation USB for you:
https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qim...t_to_webp=true

Download Kyhi's recovery drive:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

On the Windows 10 installation USB created by Media Creation Tool, rename the boot.wim file in the sources folder to boot.bak. Copy the boot.wim file from Kyhi's recovery drive (in the sources folder) to the sources folder on the Windows 10 installation USB.

Kyhi's recovery drive contains Macrium Reflect Free and, if you need to do something with Windows 10 installation all you do is run setup.exe from the USB drive from the command prompt or file explorer on Kyhi's recovery drive. It's a great USB flash drive to have stashed away for emergencies.

Cliff S · 11 May 2016

Rescue Environment - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase