You have just completed Windows 10 cleanly and according to your wishes. Of course you would prefer to keep it that way, but technology is advancing. Newer and faster drives are constantly being released, such as NVME SSDs. If you switch to that, you want to get the most out of it by installing Windows on it, and then of course you want to take your applications and settings with you. Put Windows 10 on your SSD in 14 steps.
1 Disk space
Before we get started on creating a Windows copy, let's take a look at the disk spaces. If your current drive is larger than your new drive, it is necessary. So check first via the Windows Explorer / This PC how much space is currently being used. If this is more than your new drive, we need to clean up. Then try it first Disk Cleanup by opening it from the Start menu. Choose the drive and click OK. Then click Clean up system files / OK. Check everything and click OK to take it away. Go back to Windows Explorer and check if there is now enough free space.
2 WinDirStat
If there is still not enough space available, we have to take a more drastic approach. Move all your music, photos and documents from your old drive to another, possibly external, hard drive. If that's not enough either, download and install WinDirStat. Open it and choose the drive you want to scan and click OK. Scanning may take a while. You will now see the files and programs that take up the most space. Delete folders in Program Files via Settings / Apps / Apps & Features. Right-click on a folder and choose Open to open it in Windows Explorer.
3 Backup
Before we continue, make sure you have backed up all important files. At the very least, copy your most important files to another drive. You can also use File history through Settings / Update & Security / Backup. Turn on the backup and choose your external drive. Then click More options, make sure all your important folders are listed and click Back up now. We will also make an entire disk image of your old disk just to be sure, but it is better to back up too much than too little.
4 EaseUS Todo Backup
We are going to copy the drive with EaseUS Todo Backup Free. Download the program and run the downloaded file. The installation is self-explanatory: choose a different disk for the location for your backups. Run the program afterwards. Click on the license notification Later on, which you can ignore because the program is free. Before we continue, you can have one more Systembackup if you have space for it on another disk. Click on that, choose your operating system and choose your destination. click on Process and wait for a while for its backup to complete.
Partitions
Some PCs or laptops are partitioned, with the drive divided into a Windows partition and a data or recovery partition. If your new drive is the same size or larger, no problem. Then make sure that you have the option when cloning Sector by sector clone selects. If your drive is smaller, make sure you don't select that data or recovery partition when creating the image later, it's best not to take it with you. If you don't have another drive, you can use that partition to temporarily store your data there to spare the base partition.
5 Initialize Disk
Before we can clone the disk, we need to initialize it. To do this, right-click on the Windows button and choose the option Disk Management in the middle. Once you open it, you'll be prompted to initialize your new drive. Then choose from the list for GPT (GUID Partition Label). That option is good if your PC came with Windows 8 or newer. For old PCs you choose MBR. Then click OK.
6 Close programs
Creating the EaseUS disk image is done while you're running Windows. Therefore, it is important that you close as many programs as possible before creating the disk image. Click in the lower right corner of the system tray and close everything. Also temporarily close your internet connection and stop your antivirus software. Also make sure that your browser is closed and that no files are open. Also check via Task Manager whether there is still a program that is actually better closed. This is necessary to prevent data corruption.
7 Create Disc Image
We are now going to create a disk image of the old disk. In EaseUS click Disk/Partition Backup. In the list, click on which partitions you want to transfer to your new drive. If space is not an issue, check everything. Do the same if you are unsure whether a partition should be included. Also choose the location where you want to save your image. You can just choose the C drive here, if you have enough space for it, because the image won't be restored in a moment, so it doesn't count towards the space. Then click Start to start the backup operation immediately.
