Windows 10 - Change of system drive

[apertotes]

Hello!

I have Windows 10 installed in a 500 gb SSD. I still have 80 gb of free space but I am certain that at some moment, sooner than later, I will run out of space. Seeing how 2 TB drives are already kinda affordable, I have started thinking about moving up. But I do not want to install W10 from scratch. When I installed W10 for the first time I spent a considerable amount of time customizing it. And I am not talking about wallpapers and nature sounds. I modified several Group Policies, added many tasks to the scheduler, set users' permissions the way I wanted them to be, etc. I do not even remember everything I did. Even though I like W10 much much less than W7, now I find that my customized W10 is tolerable.

So, my question is: is there a way to move my system into a bigger drive in an easy and reliable fashion (and, possibly, for free)?

 

[eidairaman1]

Don't bother putting the operating system on another Drive just look up that other Drive and set up its partition file system

 

[sneekypeet]

Clone it with one of the many options available for free. I am sure those that still clone drives will have some pointers as to which is better, but I tend to look at the drive makers web site and see what they offer/recommend to use with their products.

 

[Fangio1951]

Hello!

I have Windows 10 installed in a 500 gb SSD. I still have 80 gb of free space but I am certain that at some moment, sooner than later, I will run out of space. Seeing how 2 TB drives are already kinda affordable, I have started thinking about moving up. But I do not want to install W10 from scratch. When I installed W10 for the first time I spent a considerable amount of time customizing it. And I am not talking about wallpapers and nature sounds. I modified several Group Policies, added many tasks to the scheduler, set users' permissions the way I wanted them to be, etc. I do not even remember everything I did. Even though I like W10 much much less than W7, now I find that my customized W10 is tolerable.

So, my question is: is there a way to move my system into a bigger drive in an easy and reliable fashion (and, possibly, for free)?

hi m8,

I've done this with a few SSD drives since W10 first launched.

I've gone from normal SSD: 256Gb Corsair - 5125Gb ADATA to Samsung M2 - 512Gb using the manufacturers cloning s/w and haven't had any problems migrating the C: drive.

regards

 

[apertotes]

Don't bother putting the operating system on another Drive just look up that other Drive and set up its partition file system

Sorry, can you give me a bit more details? What do you mean by "look up that other drive and set up its partition file system"?

 

[MrGenius]

I use Acronis True Image WD Edition(freeware, but a WD HDD/SSD might be required) or AOMEI Backupper(freeware, no requirements) for clones these days. Both work very well...usually. And yes, cloning to a larger drive is possible with both. But seems to work more reliably with Backupper. The only time I've had it work correctly with True Image WDE was using 2 WD drives. With just 1 WD drive I couldn't get it to resize the image to fit/completely fill the larger drive. It said it would, then didn't.

 

[eidairaman1]

Sorry, can you give me a bit more details? What do you mean by "look up that other drive and set up its partition file system"?

Here
https://www.isunshare.com/windows-10/add-a-hard-drive-to-this-pc-in-windows-10.html

If you install a new hard drive right beside your existing drive that already has operating system on it you'll save time by making the new drive just a storage Drive

 

[OneMoar]

clone it with macrium reflect or install as a second drive

 

[opojare]

The simplest way is just clone disk with Macrium Reflect

Download free version
Choose Create image partition required to backup and restore Windows
Fire up new disk
Choose Restore image to new disk

It is even easier with larger new disk as you don't have to resize it.
Windows activation will just take care itself.

 

[Jetster]

Clean install, you will find that your custom Windows install is outdated. Its more work than a clone but you will learn more about 10 and have a better system to boot. Pun intended

I have done both many many many times. I never regret the clean install

 

[OneMoar]

The simplest way is just clone disk with Macrium Reflect

Download free version
Choose Create image partition required to backup and restore Windows
Fire up new disk
Choose Restore image to new disk

It is even easier with larger new disk as you don't have to resize it.
Windows activation will just take care itself.

you don't need to image first you can do direct drive to drive clone

 

[apertotes]

Clean install, you will find that your custom Windows install is outdated.

Why would my Windows install be outdated?

 

[OneMoar]

Why would my Windows install be outdated?

no reason to at all
clone the drive set it as the boot default
done

 

[Jetster]

Why would my Windows install be outdated?

Because of windows updates and changes made by MS, changes in programs, personal preferences, needs of your network so on
I just prefer a clean install, but just clone it if you want

 

[Voluman]

Hello!

I have Windows 10 installed in a 500 gb SSD. I still have 80 gb of free space but I am certain that at some moment, sooner than later, I will run out of space. Seeing how 2 TB drives are already kinda affordable, I have started thinking about moving up. But I do not want to install W10 from scratch. When I installed W10 for the first time I spent a considerable amount of time customizing it. And I am not talking about wallpapers and nature sounds. I modified several Group Policies, added many tasks to the scheduler, set users' permissions the way I wanted them to be, etc. I do not even remember everything I did. Even though I like W10 much much less than W7, now I find that my customized W10 is tolerable.

So, my question is: is there a way to move my system into a bigger drive in an easy and reliable fashion (and, possibly, for free)?

Yes, there are various free cloning programs that doing that. Like above: Macrium, Easeus, Acronis, etc

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I do not recommend cloning/moving to a HDD, stick with the SSD. Even if the new drive is a SSD, instead, use it as data storage or even as a back up drive.

 

[John Naylor]

Sorry, can you give me a bit more details? What do you mean by "look up that other drive and set up its partition file system"?

You have the 500 GB SSD installed as C:\ and connected to your lowest numbered SATA port.

You install the new drive D:\, connect to your 2nd lowest numbered SATA port. Done.

Any new stuff you install gets installed to D:\

 

[apertotes]

You have the 500 GB SSD installed as C:\ and connected to your lowest numbered SATA port.

You install the new drive D:\, connect to your 2nd lowest numbered SATA port. Done.

Any new stuff you install gets installed to D:\

Is that wise? I mean, having the OS and half of the programs in a drive and the rest of programs in a different drive? I may speak from the 90's, but I always thought that was not a very good solution.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I split my steam installs over 2 drives, ones I play frequently and ones I dont. SDD gets the most played games.

 

[eidairaman1]

Is that wise? I mean, having the OS and half of the programs in a drive and the rest of programs in a different drive? I may speak from the 90's, but I always thought that was not a very good solution.

I have no problems, your OS is on a ssd so its gonna be fast access. W10 doesnt really like being on a hdd as its boot drive

I split my steam installs over 2 drives, ones I play frequently and ones I dont. SDD gets the most played games.

I keep games on a velociraptor, i dont put anything but important apps on the SSD.

 

[apertotes]

I am under the impression that a few posters believe that I am planning on moving my OS to an HDD. When I said that 2TB are starting to be affordable, I meant 2TB SSDs, so my intention is to get one of those and move my current system over there.

 

[eidairaman1]

I am under the impression that a few posters believe that I am planning on moving my OS to an HDD. When I said that 2TB are starting to be affordable, I meant 2TB SSDs, so my intention is to get one of those and move my current system over there.

Ok if you don't want to keep the drive, I'd suggest a fresh clean installation to get rid of any garbage that may have built up in your current drive over time.

I never like cloning because of drive size differences.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I am under the impression that a few posters believe that I am planning on moving my OS to an HDD. When I said that 2TB are starting to be affordable, I meant 2TB SSDs, so my intention is to get one of those and move my current system over there.

thats what happens when people are not clear the first time. Regardless, i see no need to change anything, adding a drive HDD or SSD for storage is not a bad thing.

 

[wangqiang]

Hello!

I have Windows 10 installed in a 500 gb SSD. I still have 80 gb of free space but I am certain that at some moment, sooner than later, I will run out of space. Seeing how 2 TB drives are already kinda affordable, I have started thinking about moving up. But I do not want to install W10 from scratch. When I installed W10 for the first time I spent a considerable amount of time customizing it. And I am not talking about wallpapers and nature sounds. I modified several Group Policies, added many tasks to the scheduler, set users' permissions the way I wanted them to be, etc. I do not even remember everything I did. Even though I like W10 much much less than W7, now I find that my customized W10 is tolerable.

So, my question is: is there a way to move my system into a bigger drive in an easy and reliable fashion (and, possibly, for free)?

YES, you can move your customized system into a bigger driver in an easy way. But that usually requires a third-party software. I used to turn to AOMEI Partition Assistant, it is a FREE os cloning software. It supports cloning os from MBR disk to MBR disk.

 

[Salty_sandwich]

Another good one for the job is clonezilla