Windows 10: Report: Microsoft wants SSD boot drives in Windows PCs

Microsoft appears to be pushing manufacturers of Windows PCs to ship Windows 11 devices with Solid State Drives (SSD), according to a report by storage industry analyst Trendfocus.



Windows 11 PC manufacturer may use platter-based hard drives or Solid State Drives, as current requirements focus on storage space exclusively. According to the Windows 11 minimum system requirements, Windows 11 devices need to have at least 64 Gigabytes of storage.

One operating system feature, DirectStorage, requires an NVMe SSD, but it is an optional feature that would just not be available on devices with classic hard drives or non-NVMe Solid State Drives. DirectStorage promises to improve the loading performance of PC games.

On average, Solid State Drives offer better performance than classic hard drives. The user experience would improve on most devices, if classic hard drives would be replaced with SSDs. Not all SSDs offer the same level of performance, as low-budget SSDs often fail to take advantage of the technology.

Manufacturers on the other hand do not seem to be to happy about it, and the main reason for that boils down to cost. Classic hard drives are cheaper than Solid State Drives: a 1TB hard drive start at around $30 if you buy them to build a PC from scratch. Manufacturers may get them for even less. SSDs with 1TB of storage start at around $60, on the other hand.

Manufacturers could cut the storage capacity of the SSD in half or reduce it even more to bring down costs, but that would make the device less attractive.

The decision to push manufacturers to use SSDs in their devices affects low-budget devices for the most part. Most PCs use Solid State Drives already as the boot device, but the capacity of the SSD is usually less than 256 GB. Some PCs use hybrid storage solutions, a SSD for the operating system and booting, and a platter-based drive for storage.

Closing Words


Replacing a platter-based boot drive with a Solid State Drive improves the boot performance and operations noticeably. Microsoft has not changed the requirements for its Windows 11 operating system, but there is a chance that it will do so in the coming year. It is unclear whether the change would block PCs with classic hard drives from receiving future Windows 11 updates, but enforcement would certainly lead to catastrophe and confusion.

Even more manufactures might switch to a hybrid solution that adds a boot SSD with limited capacity and a larger platter-based drive to PCs. It is a good compromise, but adds another component to the PC.

Now You: which storage devices do you use on your PCs?

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Unable to boot Windows after cloning it to SSD

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I understand that you are facing issues while booting the PC after cloning Windows to new SSD. I would like to know what happens when you try to boot the PC to desktop using SSD?



The reason you are not able to boot the PC is that the files required to boot Windows are still recognizing the HDD as the main drive. I would suggest you to try rebuilding the BCD files and see if you are able to boot the PC using
SSD.



Kindly follow the steps below to rebuild the BCD.

1. Create a bootable media and boot the PC using the media.
2. On the Install Windows screen, select Next >
   Repair your computer.
3. On the System Recovery Options screen, select
   Troubleshoot> Advanced options > Command Prompt.
4. Now type in the commands and hit enter: BOOTREC /FIXMBR
   
   BOOTREC /FIXBOOT
   
   BOOTREC /scanos
   
   BOOTREC /rebuildbcd
5. Restart the PC.

If the issue persists, please get back to us with the results of the troubleshooting steps to assist you further.



Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

SSD as Boot Drive? How?

Well, I have Windows installed on the SSD, along with the drivers and browser. Now, I'm trying to install other stuff (Steam, games, etc.), but the mechanical drive isn't showing. I'm sure I missed a step?

 

Cloning to SSD then swapping drive letters


@SamHobbs
What you want done is very simple and can be done in short period of time. Here's my suggestion:
There's 2 modes that Windows can be installed: UEFI and the old legacy MBR. Open Disk Management, look at the disk where your C drive is, if there's a

1. EFI System Partition, your Windows was installed using UEFI.
2. System Reserved partition, your Windows was installed using MBR

Next, Connect your SSD to an available Sata port (no need to format or do anything). Download: Macrium Reflect Free . Install and run. Follow the steps below:

1. From Macrium, click on image this disk under your C drive and save it to either an Internal or External Drive. This will create a single backup image of the whole disk containing your C drive.
2. Again, from Macrium, click on Restore tab and select the image created from step 1, Select your SSD as the destination drive, click Next->Finish
3. Exit Macrium. If your Windows was installed using MBR, Open disk management and make sure the SSD is marked "Active" else go to next step.
4. Shutdown your PC. Disconnect the HD containing Windows C drive then connect your SSD to it.
5. Reboot. Your PC should boot and the Windows should have C as the drive letter.

NOTE: The procedure above is to backup your Windows to an image file then copy it back to the SSD. This ensures proper cluster size aligment for the SSD. In addition, Macrium also perform Trimming for the SSD. This is more preferable than cloning.