How to Move Windows to Another Drive – Top 5 Steps

In This Article, we Discuss How To Move Windows To Another Drive. It saves you the trouble of a full reinstallation of the OS and ensures that your files, apps, and settings are preserved. I am sharing the Top 5 Steps to help You Easily.

How to Move Windows to Another Drive

For a large number of computer users, at some point, they wish to Move Windows to another Drive. Maybe the present hard disk is full, or maybe they are looking to replace it with a faster SSD, but that knowledge of how to move Windows over is very useful.

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Why Move Windows to Another Drive?

One of the primary reasons that people wish to Move Windows to another Drive is performance. Over time, traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) tend to slow down. By which we mean that if you put the operating system on a solid-state drive (SSD), you will see faster boot times, quicker software launch times, and, in general, much smoother performance. Also, a reason to move Windows to another drive is for space management. If your present drive is small or is very full, moving Windows will improve your storage organization.

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Items to Bring When You Move Windows

Before you move Windows to a different drive, do the following.

• Backup your data: Although the process is for the most part safe, we still recommend you back up your files.
• Choose the Best Drive:  See to it that the new drive has sufficient space for Windows and other applications.
• Get Cloning Software: If you are looking to transfer Windows to a different drive, the best way is with disk cloning or migration software. Programs such as Macrium Reflect, EaseUS Todo Backup, and AOMEI Partition Assistant make this process easy.

Steps to move Windows to another drive

There are 5 Steps to move Windows to another drive. There are as Follows:

Step 1: Install the New Drive

If you are adding a new SSD or HDD, do so properly to your computer. Before you proceed, make sure it is recognized by the system.

Step 2: Download and Install Migration Software

Once installed, run the software and go to the clone or migrate your system option. This step is very important as it will copy your whole Windows install.

Step 3: Select the Source and Target Drives

When it comes to moving Windows to a different drive, the software will ask you to choose your present drive (source) and the new drive (destination). Do check that you have the right drives to which you are referring to avoid data loss.

Step 4: Start the Migration Process

Upon verification of the settings, the software will begin to clone your Windows installation. Also, based on the amount of your data, this process may take some time.

Step 5: Set New Drive as Boot Device

Once your clone is complete, reboot your computer and go into the BIOS settings. There, you will set the new drive as the primary boot drive, which in turn will make sure your computer boots Windows from the new location.

Benefits After You Move Windows

Upon successful migration of Windows to a different drive, the change is immediate. If you have moved to an SSD, you will see faster boot times, apps opening almost instantaneously, and reduced lag during multitasking. Even if you moved Windows to a larger HDD which there is the former the benefit of more space and improved performance, which in turn removes the issue of storage limits.

Common Issues and Fixes

At times when you move Windows to a different drive, you may experience boot errors. This is usually the case when the bootloader didn’t copy over correctly. Most cloning tools will take care of it, but should they fail, in which case you will have to use the Windows recovery disk to fix the boot issues. Also, there is a chance that Windows may not activate after the move. If that is the case, you can use your product key to reactivate.

Conclusion

In summary, what we see is that when you take Windows over to a different drive, there is an improvement in terms of speed, storage, and also reliability. Also, with the right set of tools, the process is very easy and also most rewarding.