How to Transfer Windows to Another Drive and Keep Files?

I just bought a new M.2 SSD with 500GB of storage. However, my Windows OS is still on my old HDD. Can I transfer it to my new SSD and keep the same files on my new drive?

Yes, you can transfer your Windows to a new hard drive and keep your files on the new disk. You have 2 ways to achieve that:

First, you can do a fresh installation of Windows on the new SSD and then manually copy and paste files from the HDD to the SSD. Remember to initialize the SSD in Windows to avoid any issues when rebuilding the PC.

Second, you can clone your HDD to SSD via professional disk cloning software like EaseUS Disk Copy. Cloning can let you transfer everything from one hard drive to another without losing any data or reinstalling Windows OS.

It is worth noting that if you clean install Windows on the SSD, you need to create a Windows bootable USB and then use the USB to boot your PC and install Windows on the SSD. Worse still, you will need to reinstall all programs and manually transfer your files.

Therefore, it is recommended to clone your Windows from HDD to SSD, saving time and effort in reinstalling Windows and transferring files. Since Windows has no native cloning features, you need to find reliable third-party cloning software to let you clone your hard drive. EaseUS Disk Copy is exactly the cloning software that can help you clone a hard drive on your computer.

EaseUS cloning software lets you move Windows to another drive without losing data and make a new SSD your primary drive to improve your computer overall performance. In addition, it can let you clone a hard drive sector-by-sector to help you avoid the bad sectors on the source disk.

• Connect the new SSD for Windows migration via a USB-to-SATA cable.
• Launch EaseUS Disk Copy for disk clone.
• Determine the source disk and the target disk.
• Check the disk layout and start disk cloning.
• Install the new SSD on your computer.
• Set the SSD as your boot drive in BIOS to boot Windows from the cloned new drive.

Cloning will be your best choice to transfer Windows to another drive while keeping files intact. All you need to do is find a disk cloning program like EaseUS Disk Copy.