How to Move Boot Partition to Another Drive in Windows 11/10/8/7

A Windows boot partition is the disk partition containing the essential files needed to start the operating system. It's often referred to as the boot volume and typically includes the boot loader, boot manager, and other startup files. When your boot partition is on the HDD or your old drive runs out of storage space, transferring it to another drive can help.

Moving boot partition to another drive

I have Windows 10 dual-booting with OSX, and for some reason, Windows put its bootloader on my HDD, which I use solely for backup purposes. Windows itself is installed on its own SSD. Is there a relatively easy way to move it entirely to that SSD so it boots from it as well?  ---from Reddit

If you want to move boot partition to another drive, a new hard drive, or an SSD without reinstalling the Windows system, find a solution to fix this issue in this article now.

Why to Move Boot Partition to Another Disk

"Does anyone know how to move the boot partition of Windows to a new drive when the system disk doesn't work properly? If the system's hard drive has some problems or contains any errors, the Windows system may not be able to boot up or run normally. As a result, your computer may not be able to work for you anymore.

So, how to fix this issue? The best solution is to move the Windows boot partition to a new hard drive. Many people move the boot partition to a new drive for the following reasons:

📢Case 1. Gain a larger space. You could move the boot system partition to a larger drive or a smaller one to generate more free space or get a faster speed.

📢Case 2. System recovery. If your current hard drive fails or fails to boot, moving the boot partition to a new disk is a quick way to recover your system without reinstalling the operating system.

📢Case 3. Improve PC performance. New SSDs run faster than older hard drives, which can improve boot times and PC performance.

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Download Tool for Moving Boot Partition to Another Drive

There are many ways to help you move or transfer the Windows system boot partition to a new hard drive or SSD, but the best way to move a boot partition to another drive is to clone boot drive. Since Windows has no cloning features, I would like to recommend you try EaseUS disk cloning software - EaseUS Disk Copy.

It can help you clone your disk, system, partition, etc., and transfer your OS from the hard drive to an SSD. It can help you clone Windows to an SSD without reinstalling Windows, upgrade to a larger disk, and clone a hard drive for backup and recovery. In addition, it can help you transfer data from HDD to SSD without losing data and resize your partition when cloning. It has different cloning modes to meet your diverse needs:

• Disk Mode: Clone the entire hard drive to another drive.
• System Mode: Clone the system and system-related partitions to another drive.
• Partition Mode: Clone a specific partition or migrate system partition to another drive.

Free download this tool to move your boot partition to a new drive without reinstalling or booting the Windows system. Then, activate EaseUS Disk Copy for a smooth cloning process.

Here's how to move Windows boot partition to another drive. Continue reading for a detailed guide.

How to Move Boot Partition to Another Disk

Before you start to move the Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 boot partition to a new drive, you should notice and remember that you'll copy and clone both the Windows boot and system partition (the system reserved partition included) to the new drive.

To ensure that the cloned system can be started, you should clone the whole disk instead of just only copying the C drive because the boot partition and system partition might be separated.

Follow the steps below to move your boot partition to a new drive:

Prior Notice:

• The "Sector by sector copy" asks the size of your destination disk to be at least equal to or larger than that of the source disk. Leave this feature unchecked if you wish to clone a larger hard disk to a smaller hard disk.
• All data on the destination disk will be completely erased, so take care.

Step 1. To start copying/cloning an entire disk to another, choose this disk as the source disk under "Disk Mode" and click "Next".

Step 2. Choose the other disk as the destination disk.

Step 3. Check the disk layout of the two disks. You can manage the disk layout of the destination disk by selecting "Autofit the disk", "Copy as the source" or "Edit disk layout". 

• "Autofit the disk" makes some changes by default on the destination disk layout so that it can work at its best status.
• "Copy as the source"does not change anything on destination disk and the layout is the same as source disk.
• "Edit disk layout" allows you to manually resize/move partition layout on this destination disk.

Tick the "Check the option if the target is SSD" option to put your SSD in its best performance.

A message now appears, warning you that data will be lost. Please confirm this message by clicking "OK" and then click "Next".

Step 4. Click "Proceed" to officially execute the task.

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Conclusion

That is all about how to move Windows boot partition to a new drive. When you encounter any one of the cases, relax. EaseUS Disk Copy can help you move boot partition to another drive with ease. The software also allows you to clone a hard drive to a new computer, upgrade a laptop HDD/SSD, and so on.

FAQs on How to Move Boot Partition to New Drive

In addition to the boot partition clone, many users also asked the following questions after the cloning process. If you have the same problems, find your answers here.

1. How do I boot from a new SSD?

To boot from a new SSD:

• Step 1. During the process of computer restarting, long-press F2 to enter the BIOS environment.
• Step 2. Change the boot order and set the cloned SSD as the boot drive in BIOS.
• Step 3. Press Enter. Now you should boot the computer from the SSD successfully.

2. How do I transfer my OS from HDD to SSD?

To migrate the Windows operating system to SSD or HDD:

You can either use EaseUS Disk Copy or EaseUS Todo Backup. Both of them are helpful tools that can help you migrate OS to HDD or SSD.

3. Will moving the boot partition void Windows activation?

Moving the boot partition on a Windows computer will generally not void your Windows activation. Changing the disk does not affect the activation status. Your Windows license is tied to the specific hardware on your computer, not the drive or partition where the operating system is installed. However, if you move the boot partition to another drive and have booting issues, you may need to reactivate Windows.

4. How to move the boot partition to a new disk?

To move the boot partition to new disk:

• Step 1. Download, install and run EaseUS Disk Copy on your PC.
• Step 2. Select the destination disk.
• Step 3. Click OK to confirm if the program asks to erase data on the destination disk.
• Step 4. Check and edit the disk layout.
• Step 5. Click Proceed to start the hard drive cloning process.