Hi looking for the easiest and hassle free as possible way, to clone Windows 10 from 500GB HDD to 240GB SSD, seen a tutorial using easus, clone and back, on YouTube using a usb to sata cable, is this a good way to proceed, or could I run into problems, looking for any suggestions Thanks.
Likely advice here would be to make an image and restore it, rather than clone.
Macrium Reflect Free edition would be the most recommended software.
Cloning can work, but is more likely to lead to problems.
How much space is currently occupied on the 500 GB drive? If it's under 220 or so, you should be OK. Otherwise it wouldn't fit.
Last edited by ignatzatsonic; 28 Jun 2020 at 17:02.
No it's practically an empty drive apart from Windows obviously, because I just done a reset, so a clean install of windows is my best option, how do I go about this and will it be possible with only one working HDD, the other is an optical drive, and will I be able to boot the image from a flash drive as it's an older PC and I don't know if I will have that option in the BIOS screen, and I'm out of practice with all this stuff, thanks.
???
You say a clean install is your best option.
Why not do that then?
Neither imaging or cloning are clean installs.
There are Macrium tutorials on this site and much discussion of it on this sub-forum.
Images are NOT booted. Images are made and then restored to a hard drive. AFTER restoration, the drive is bootable. The image by itself, unrestored, isn't of much use.
If you were experienced with Macrium, you could do the whole job in maybe an hour, with a 97 to 99 percent success rate.
But you aren't experienced.
So you have to consider the hours devoted to figuring out Macrium compared to the hours required to do a clean install and re-installation of your programs.
Think that over. If you can do the latter in say 10 hours, you might be better off doing that rather than learning Macrium---and learn Macrium later after you are up and running on the 240 GB drive.
That's my take. You may want to dive into Macrium instead---which is OK, but you have to deal with a learning curve.
I've successfully used a USB to SATA cable and MiniTool Partition Wizard (free) to clone HDDs to SSDs.
Like ignatzatsonic said in his first post.. maiking an Image and restore it is what most would recommend here. I'm not sure about learning curve here.. nor the percentage of success. Think it is much higher
Install Macrium free, select all partition that are required to boot and make image of it. Then boot with USB (that you previously made) and restore that partitions to new drive.
Obviously, you external drive is recommended, although, you could make an Image to internal, but on different partition...
really simple process
Ok as I said I'm out of touch with all this so you have to excuse my ignorance, last time I messed around with PC was around 10 years ago I said clean install because I thought that's what people were meaning by creating an image, now I know it is not, I've been bombarded with lots of different ideas, not here but other places.
So if I wanted to go with a clean install could you give me a link to a tutorial on how it's done, and is it possible if you haven't purchased a retail copy of windows, and all you have is an OEM version that was upgraded from Windows 8, thanks.
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10
Start with the above link.
I assume your Windows 10 is activated and legit.
If you get stuck or are confused, start a new thread in the Installation subforum.
OEM shouldn't be a factor. Changing to a new hard drive is OK with an OEM license.
Basically---you need to get a USB flash drive of 8 GB or larger and make bootable Windows 10 installation media on it. Then boot from it and follow the prompts to install Windows. If the new drive has any partitions on it (it shouldn't if new), you'd delete all of them as part of that process.
You can try cloning or imaging instead if you don't really want a clean install.
Thanks yes I think it is a legit copy, I bought the PC refurbished about 5 years ago and I was able to upgrade to windows 10 for free as I said, and it updates, Can I obtain the product key from the drive if needed instead of reading it off the label attached, and will I need to deregister my product key first in order to create the new windows disk, because Microsoft will think I'm using one key for two devices, sorry for all the questions but I'm practically a novice again I'm usually messing around more with Android stuff, thanks.
Assuming your Win 10 is currently activated, a permanent record of that should already be on Microsoft's activation servers. Your PC should be recognized without issues. If not, you can interact with them via telephone or possibly even online to get it straightened out. But there typically are no issues.
If you in fact have the Product Key on an attached label of some kind, I'd certainly keep it written down in case you have to talk to Microsoft. I'd suspect you can contact MS beforehand and let them tell you if your Product Key is legit.
Deregistration not needed as far as I know. Maybe someone will chime in. I've always use retail rather than OEM licenses, so there may be some oddball stuff I'm unaware of.
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