Installing a new larger C drive SSD. (Clone / Move / Resize)

Hardware and technical stuff
1

So I upgraded my MX100 (500gb ssd) to a MX500 (1tb ssd) and wanted to do it the easiest way possible. Figured I’d make a quick guide if anyone else is looking to do a quick and easy clone of their OS to a new SSD. And mention a few of the issues I came across and the ways to resolve them. Pre-install image, where I make sure it works before closing up the case:

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These were the simple steps:

Download Macrium Reflect Free Edition , clone the C: drive to the new SSD drive ( make sure its unformatted).

Power down, remove the old drive, boot up and select the new main OS drive (F11 for a boot menu).

Once in Windows 10, check to see if it looks good (diskmgmt).

My drive cloned over fine, but plopped the Recovery partition in the middle of my new ssd. Not allowing me to resize my C drive to claim all the new unallocated space that was trapped behind the recovery partition.

Googled for a fix, ended up finding AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition (also free!)

Loaded that up , pointed it to my C drive recovery partition, used the MOVE option to push it all the way right and move the unallocated drive space to the middle.

Then use the resize partition option to claim that unallocated space to the C drive. Should look like this when you are done, nice big C drive with all the space reclaimed, and the Recovery Partition at the end.

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Hope this quick write up saves people an hour or so of googling for answers.

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Macrium Reflect has been my go-to for drive imaging and backing up so this sounds like a great idea. Bookmarked. Thanks kosc!

Edit: a friend wants my help to get his first SSD so this could be handy there as well.

3

Surely a sane person would have left everything where it was and just added a TB of space…!

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Agreed, especially with a gigantic case :) but this actually is very helpful for those upgrading an older laptop’s hdd, which I plan to do for my wife pretty soon.

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giphy

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Thank you for this, @lordkosc. I’ve been thinking about an ssd upgrade. This will help immensely.

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After my last PC build, I’d tell folks to avoid Acronis’ drive cloning software, which came with a cheap 250gb PNY SSD (another reason to avoid that brand). It never created a bootable drive, instead it inserted odd mini-partitions on the target drive before and after the image. Worthless.

Zero problems ever with Samsung’s SSD data transfer software, easier than even Macrium. Another reason for me to stay loyal to that brand.

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I’d recommend this for a free partition tool. Easily copies all partitions on a single drive to a new one. Even has a function to optimize for SSDs:

https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

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Thanks a lot for this. I was running out of space on my C: (Windows) drive and was dreading to upgrade it based on previous adventures in HDD cloning (one step included booting from a Linux live-cd to hack the partition with GParted …)

I’d already decided on getting a new Samsung as I’m happy with my old one, and I have to say using that tool the cloning was 1 completely pain-free step (not counting the fiddling about inside the PC case :-): Select source, select destination -> go.

I assume their cloning tool only works for Samsung drives, though.

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Yep. A shame, but I can’t blame them.