Windows 10: HDD crashed, installed new SSD, recovered HDD - what to do next?

Windows 10 - older desktop computer. First the story:Had a 1TB HDD running everything. It started to struggle to boot. I put "buy a new drive" on my to-do list. And of course, it died before I replaced it. Procrastination 1, human 0.So before giving up, I purchased a new SSD, installed it, made a copy of a windows install media USB flash drive from my work computer, and loaded windows on the new SSD. Tried to read the HDD from that. It recognized it first, then pretended it didn't see it and it disappeared. Kinda like that person at the party that you think is your friend, but they pretend not

:)

 

OS on new SSD, keep existing data on HDD and use as external drive

Hi,

use steps you suggested, there should be no problem.

Just replace HDD with SSD first then run installation. Do not forget to remove Windows files from HDD after the end of a process.

 

Windows 10 on HDD to a new SSD

I have recently replaced the 500 GB HDD in my laptop running Windows 10 with a 480 GB SSD. The laptop was fully configured with my applications and other settings. The steps I took were as follows:

1) Shrink the C: drive so it was significantly smaller than the SSD (by at least 100 GB) using the Disk Management tools in W10.

2) Copy all the files from D: onto an external HDD.

3) Download Ubuntu Linux and burn on to a DVD.

4) Download Windows 10 from Download Windows 10 and burn this on to a DVD.

5) Close down and boot the laptop from the Ubuntu DVD from step 3 (I used a USB DVD rewriter).

6) Plug in the external HDD.

7) Open a Linux terminal and cd to the external HDD.

8) Copy the C: partition to the external HDD using a command such as:

dd bs=1024k if=/dev/sda1 of=C-drive

where sda1 is adjusted to point to the correct partition.

9) Close down and remove the external HDD.

10) Remove the HDD and replace with the SSD.

11) Perform a clean install Windows 10 from the DVD from step 4. Deleting all partitions from the SSD if it has had any created on it. When it asked for the product key, there was an option to enter it later. Make sure that the C: drive that is created is
the same size or bigger than the C: drive was on the HDD.

12) Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 then run the command

dd bs=1024k if=C-drive of=/dev/sda4

With the clean install of W10 64bit, sda4 was the C: drive on the SSD after the installation.

13) Reboot from the SSD. The first couple of times my laptop reported errors and went into repair and diagnostic cycles. The last one said something like Reboot or Go to further tools. I cannot remember the exact messages but the meaning was as I have described.
I rebooted and Windows 10 came up and ran perfectly.

14) With the SSD working I shrank the C: drive a few GB to make sure the physical space was the same size as the actual filesystem.

15) Create a D: format it and copy all the saved files on to the new D: from the external HDD.

Job done. All my applications worked perfectly and the laptop connected to my wireless network without needing the pass phrase re-entering. I had tried several other ways of cloning the HDD to the SSD, but as the SSD was 20 GB smaller this was the only way
I managed to get it to work.

I hope this helps others to make the HDD to SSD transition.

 

Copying Windows 10 to new SSD from existing HDD while upgrading to SSD from HDD.

Hi,

I'm thinking about updating my 2 years old laptop from HDD to SSD. Since my HDD is still in working condition, I plan to use it as an external HDD. I have a pre-installed Windows 10 Home on my laptop.
Is it possible for me to transfer it to the new SSD while upgrading? If then please tell me the steps to follow.

Thanks and Regards,

Arjun.