How to Migrate Windows 10 OS from Old School HDD to Super Fast SSD on Laptop

Introduction

In the ever changing Computer Hardware industry Laptop or other computing device becomes obsolete very quickly. Laptop is supposed to have a lifespan of 3 years or so but people use it for much longer period because we do not need latest hardware for basic surfing, emailing or media consumption.

But what if your computer becomes so old that you are not able to perform even general tasks with ease. You will start thinking of upgrading your Laptop. It is easier to upgrade a Desktop but not a Laptop as they are designed keeping mobility in mind hence adapting to small form factor. With so much constraints you end up with two options, either upgrade Ram or HDD or both. You may think of upgrading the Ram first, but usually RAM is not the one which is the cause of slowness of your computing device. Normal Spindle based Hard Disk Drive (Usually 5400 RPMs) is the primary reason for all your computing woes.

Now when you know what need to be upgraded, what should you do. Should you upgrade to higher capacity HDD or a HDD with higher Spindle speed(7200 RPM). in reality neither will help you much.

The best possible solution is upgrading to Solid State Drive or SSD. Solid State Drive, as the name suggests is chip based (same as your RAM)  technology and uses no moving part. It is usually 5-6 times costlier in terms or per GB cost. But it is many times faster then the normal HDD, hence it helps speed the booting process dramatically and application load time is reduced to many folds. Webpage load time is reduced and suddenly you feel like you have upgraded from Legendary Luna Moped to Harley Davidson Cruiser in literal terms. The difference is so much visible.

In My case I’ve a 5+ years old top end (At that time) Processor, i.e. Intel Core i7 base Touch Screen Laptop from Lenovo with 8 GB or RAM and 1 TB HDD. In all these years applications became bigger and with time the application load time took a toll. Now It took over 6+ minutes to boot the Laptop completely and allowing me to be able to start using any application on my laptop.

After migrating Windows 10 OS from my Old HDD to Samsung 860 Evo 250 2.5 inch Sata III internal SSD MZ -76E250BW SSD Drive in my laptop I’m able to start using applications within 30 seconds of booting.

Check my Blog on the Samsung 860 EVO 2.5 inch SSD here: Samsung-860-evo-250-2-5-inch-sata-iii-SSD

After installing SSD the boot time has reduced to less than 20 Seconds now. Application load times improved dramatically. I’m able to start playing Fortnite within 30 seconds of launching it. Webpages are loading amazingly faster now. Shutdown time has reduced too. Seems like I’ve bought a brand new Laptop.

To help refresh your Laptop or other computing device here is the steps I used:

Disclaimer: Before moving ahead please note that I take no responsibility for loss of your data (Take Backup before starting) or any damage to the hardware you are using or anything else explained in this blog. Please research more if you have any doubt or message me and I may respond to your query.

Buy Samsung SSD and Hard Drive Caddy:

• Buy a compatible Hard Drive Caddy for fixing the New SSD in the DVD Rom Bay. I bought this product  DAHSHA-Upgraded-Caddy-9-5mm from Amazon.in

• Buy Samsung or your preferred SSD drive with the capacity of your choice. I bought Samsung-250GB-Internal-SSD from Amazon.in.

Install the SSD in Hard Drive Caddy and install in Laptop

• Install the SSD in the Hard Drive Caddy. Check my video for this blog on Mickytechie Youtube Channel. Subscribe, like, comment suggest.
• Remove the Keyboard to access the DVD Drive screw. Remove the Screw and push the DVD Drive out. Check Channel suggested above.
• Install the Caddy in the DVD Drive Bay. Verify the settings on caddy and change the switch to A B or C as necessary.
• Boot the system to BIOS settings and check if the SSD is being detected.
• Ensure that the boot sequence is chosen to the Older HDD at this moment.
• Now boot the Operating System and Login.

Download and install Mini Tools for OS Migration

• Go to minitool.com and download “MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition” from the download portal.

• Install the application.

Open the Mini Tools Application for OS Migration

• Open the “MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition” for OS Migration.
• Check the state of all Disks and their partitions

• Select the source disk which needs to be replaced. In this case it is Disk 1 in above picture.
• Start the process of Migrating OS by clicking to the “Migrate OS to SSD/HD” button.

• Clicking it will take you to next step. Here choose Option  “A” as we are Migrating from Disk 1 to Disk 2 Entirely. Click Next.

• Now Select the destination Disk. In My case it was Disk 2. If you have more than 2 Disks then Choose carefully. Click Next.

• You will get a warning that all data in destination Disk (Disk 2 in my case) will be destroyed. Click Yes.
• Next screen will take you to the review page. Let “Fit Partition to entire disk” selected. It will utilize entire destination disk and resize all partitions appropriately. Click Next.

• This will be the step, advising you to change boot sequence to new disk (Disk 2 in my case) after the completion of task. Click Finish.

• Next screen will summarize all the operation you have configured. You need to Click “Apply” Button at the top left to start the Operation.

• Cloning operation will start immediately.

• Soon enough you will get a warning that C (or the OS Drive) drive is being used. It is obvious as there are lots of background and foreground application running on a PC all the times hence it is required to restart the PC to resume the cloning operation. Click Restart button to boot to resume to the dos mode of cloning operation.

• The PC boots in DOS mode and cloning operation starts in DOS mode. Ignore my shadow Please 😉

Now since the process is complete you must change the BIOS boot sequence to SSD and boot OS on Disk 2 (SSD) in a jiffy. If you have moved your data from older HDD to another HDD for cloning purpose, you may now move your data back to the old HDD so that you can use it.

Installing SSD will give new life to your Laptop. The improvement in user experience is quite high. Try it and let me know in the comments.