How to Upgrade to SSD in Windows 11/10/8/7 [without Reinstalling]

User case: Need to upgrade to SSD

"So I just bought a new SSD and I was wondering how would I upgrade to SSD from my old hard drive without losing any information/files on it? Should I just try and move everything to my D drive and then move everything back or is that even possible or is there an easier way of doing this. Please let me know. Thank you."

If you are the one who works with computer, you may have higher demands for hard drive, then you will ask yourself: SSD vs HDD - Which One Should I Choose? When considering disk speed, weight, size, energy consumption, running on an SSD is more preferred.

But before showing you how to upgrade to SSD, it's necessary to know something about the benefits after upgrading. Then you will better know why so many users seeking the method to upgrade to an SSD.

SSD upgrade benefits

People may upgrade to SSD for various reasons, but once upgrading to an SSD, they will enjoy the remarkable advantages that an SSD brings:

♦ Faster read and write speed. Out of using memory as a storage medium, the read-write speed of SSD is faster than the traditional hard disk. It takes 35 to 100 microseconds to access data, nearly 100 times faster than HDD.

♦ Better resistance. Because there is no moving parts on SSD, it can keep your data safe when your SSD is in collisions or shocks.

♦ Lighter and quieter. SSD is light in weight, which can save lots of space in computers. And thanks to the lack of moving parts, SSD won't make much noise when working.

If you want to know more about the pros about SSD, you can read this post: Benefits of SSD over HDD

2 useful ways to upgrade to SSD without reinstalling Windows

After a full understanding of the benefits after upgrading to SSD, you may be in a hurry to upgrade to SSD Windows 10. However, SSD upgrade is not simple as the files movement. No matter you need to upgrade to an SSD from the HDD or just want to replace the existing SSD with a larger one, every operation on upgrading is supposed to be very careful.

To help you upgrade to solid-state drives successfully, I recommend you a powerful and reliable disk manager named AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. With it, upgrading to SSD is no longer a tough task.

This versatile tool provides you with two workable ways to upgrade from HDD to SSD without reinstalling Windows OS: one is to transfer only OS to SSD, which can save a lot of time on SSD upgrade; the other is to copy the entire hard drive with OS on it to the new SSD, which can perfectly replace the old hard disk.

Features of AOMEI software:
✪ It can work well with all versions of Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7, XP, and Vista.
✪ It supports many kinds of SSD, covering Samsung, SanDisk, Seagate, Western Digital, Kingston, etc.
✪ It allows you to migrate OS between MBR and GPT disks or clone MBR to GPT SSD / GPT to MBR SSD. (But you must make sure your motherboard supports UEFI boot mode if you upgrade from MBR to GPT disk)
✪ Its "hot clone" feature allows you to upgrade to an SSD without rebooting.

Now you can choose a method based on your needs, and then download the demo version to have a try how to upgrade to SSD.

Way 1. Migrate only OS to SSD

Step 1. Connect the new SSD with your PC and make sure it has been detected by your computer. Then install and open AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click "Clone" > "Migrate OS". 

Step 2. Select an unallocated space on SSD and then click "Next". If there is no unallocated space on the SSD, you cannot move to next step, just check "I want to delete all partitions on disk 2 to migrate system to the disk (all data on SSD will be erased)" and then click "Next".

Step 3. In this pop-out window, you can change the partition size according to your actual needs.

Step 4. Then, you will receive a note, read it carefully and keep it in mind. Then click "Finish".

Step 5. Finally, you will back to the main interface, confirm the virtual result. If everything's fine, click "Apply" to execute it.

Way 2. Clone entire hard drive to SSD

If you want to copy the OS and other partitions to SSD together, you can follow the steps listed below:

Step 1. Connect the destination disk to your PC, and run this disk cloning software. Click "Clone" > "Clone Disk".

Step 2. In the pop-up window, choose "Clone Disk Quickly" and click "Next". When you intend to clone hard drive with all sectors, choose "Sector-by-Sector Clone".

Step 3. Select your previous HDD or the smaller SSD as the source disk. Click on "Next" button.

Step 4. Select the new SSD as the destination disk. Select "Optimize the performance of SSD" to make SSD partition alignment. Then, click "Next".

Step 5. Here you are allowed to adjust the partition size on the target disk. Then, click "Next".

PS.: If the target SSD is smaller than the source disk, the option of  "Clone without resizing partitions" will be inactivated.

Step 6. Then you will receive a note about operating system boot. Keep it in mind and click "Finish".

Step 7. Here you can preview the operation result, click "Apply">"Proceed" to implement the operation.

No matter which method you will apply, don't forget to change the boot order and boot from the destination SSD after upgrading, so that you can successfully run on the new SSD.

Conclusion

By now, you have known the benefits of SSD upgrade and learned two workable ways to upgrade to SSD without reinstalling Windows. AOMEI software is a professional and powerful disk cloning tool you can always rely on. Except for the two features we mentioned above, it allows you to move folders from C drive to D drive, convert MBR to GPT without data loss, clean up your PC to run faster, and more. If you want to upgrade to SSD in Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012 (R2)/2008/2003, you can turn to the Server Edition.