Windows 10: Move Windows to new drive using a system image

Hi all!

My C drive, an old SSD, appears to be reaching its end of life. I am occasionally running into complete system freezes after which I have no other choice than to hit the physical reset button.

I would like to move the current Windows installation over to my secondary SSD. I have already created a system image using the build-in tool in Windows, and have created a repair disc (USB). I assumed it would be possible to simply install the system image to a different drive, but unfortunately it doesn't appear to be as easy as I hoped it would be.

To summarize the disk layout (these drives are all internal):

• C: SSD - contains Windows and holds the MBR (the defect one, will be retired)
• D: SSD - is partitioned as a GPT drive (the secondary drive I want to move Windows to)
• F: HDD (this drive contains the image and other data)

The F drive also contains a Linux installation, which has its bootloader on the C drive (the defect SSD carries all boot data). It is no problem for me however to lose this Linux installation as it's only for experimental use and I intend to reinstall it anyway.

I have no clue how to install the system image to the secondary SSD (currently marked D. Is it actually possible at all, and if so, how can I achieve this?

Thanks in advance!

:)

 

Buying a new harddrive for my old computer.

You could get an external hard drive, back your current installation, then restore it on the new drive or clone the drive.

System Image - use this if the drive you are going to replace it with is equal to or larger than the drive it is replacing.

How to: Create a system image in Windows 10

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

How to restore a Windows 10 system image to an existing or larger storage device

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

Clone - make and exact replica of the drive to the new one:

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/clone-move-win...

 

System Recovery to a New Drive in Windows 10 using a stored system image.

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

From the description, we understand that, using the recovery disk and selecting recovery using the system image, it will not restore and you get error message saying
original SSD drive is locked.

We suspect that the issue is due to the firmware is not updated. Hence we suggest you to follow the steps and check.

Step 1: Perform clean install of Windows 10.

How to: Do a clean install of Windows 10

Refer the article from the link:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki/insider_wintp-insider_install/how-to-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-10/aef0ae63-2117-41ee-a8ea-4a3181625b08

Step 2: Update the SSD firmware

Every Solid State Drive (SSD) manufacturer pushes out firmware update to address technical issues, bugs, and improve SSD performance.

Step 3: Try to restore from the recovery image and check if the issue persists.

Hope this information helps, Let us know if you need further assistance.

 

Welcome to TenForums @Thomas14

The built in system imaging from Microsoft is very basic, in fact it is a deprecated feature in the Fall Creators Update. I'm not surprised you are having problems using it.

Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

As the old SSD is MBR and the one for the D: drive is GPT you may only be able to replace the C: SSD with a new one and restore the image to that (as MBR again). Booting may be a problem otherwise. @NavyLCDR may be able to help further...

 

A lot depends if the drive has corruption or bad blocks if it has then copying will just Cary over the errors and could mark the new drive with bad blocks. It's better to download the latest Windows ISO and do a clean install then you have a new system

 

Yes welcome Thomas.

While the drive is getting older have we determined it is at fault.

Have we got any SMART data from drive? (Seagate tools)

Is event viewer or reliability history pointing at drive? ( Reliability History in Cortana )

Has chkdsk scan or repair been run?