How do I clone Windows partition (not drive) to bootable SSD?

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  1. Posts : 275
    Windows 10
       #1

    How do I clone Windows partition (not drive) to bootable SSD?


    I have a desktop machine with an HDD that I partitioned into a small bootable partition for Windows and applications, and a much larger partition for data. I did this anticipating that at some point I would want to be able to clone the Windows partition to an SSD which would be much smaller than the HDD. However it is not obvious to me how to do the cloning. I can find instructions for cloning one drive to another and making it bootable, but I haven't found instructions on how to copy just one partition to another drive and make it bootable. How should I go about doing this?
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  2. Posts : 42,734
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #2

    Hi, one way would be to clean install Win 10 (same build as now) to your SSD, then image just your Windows partition on your HDD and restore that image to the SSD in place of the Windows partition. E.g. use Macrium Reflect (free) - hopefully you're already using disk imaging.

    On booting automatic repair may kick in and fix things, or run Startup repair.

    Issues to consider:
    Using AHCI for SSD for improved performance
    Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after Installation | Tutorials

    Is your existing installation MBR or UEFI?
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  3. Posts : 275
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for the reply. Yes, that seems like a logical suggestion. This machine is MBR. I'm really just at the stage now of checking that it's feasible without too much fuss before I go shopping for the SSD.
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  4. Posts : 42,734
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #4

    You could consider
    Convert Windows 10 from Legacy BIOS to UEFI without Data Loss | Tutorials

    if your machine supports UEFI

    You would also need to ensure you make your HDD just a data disk, and remove the Windows partitions- you don't want two bootable disks in your PC.

    In particular when configuring your SSD first time, make sure that's the only disk present.
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  5. Posts : 275
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Thank you!
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  6. Posts : 3,505
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #6

    Connect the SSD as second, boot into your current Windows installation. Install Macrium Reflect. Use it to clone all partitions except the large data one (drag them to the blank SSD in the order they appear). This should work. Remove the old disk, boot from SSD. If successful, put the old disk second (in BIOS, boot priority) and then you can delete all other partitions and expand the data to get all disk.
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  7. Posts : 14,046
    Windows 11 Pro X64 22H2 22621.1848
       #7

    Post a screen shot of Disk Management. See this tutorial: Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of

    Make sure you expand the fields as shown so all data can be seen.
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  8. Posts : 275
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Ztruker said:
    Post a screen shot of Disk Management. See this tutorial: Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of

    Make sure you expand the fields as shown so all data can be seen.
    How do I clone Windows partition (not drive) to bootable SSD?-capture.png
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 3,505
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #9

    So in Macrium Refrect you drag the 215.32GB partition to the empty space and then the 450MB partition. If there is any partition before you drag it first. These should fit on a 240GB SSD.
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  10. Posts : 1,750
    Windows 10 Pro
       #10

    dalchina said:
    You could consider
    Convert Windows 10 from Legacy BIOS to UEFI without Data Loss | Tutorials

    if your machine supports UEFI

    You would also need to ensure you make your HDD just a data disk, and remove the Windows partitions- you don't want two bootable disks in your PC.

    In particular when configuring your SSD first time, make sure that's the only disk present.
    Does this approach work if there are multiple Windows 10 partitions on the MBR disk?

    x509
      My Computers


 

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