Can I Clone a Windows 10 Drive to Upgrade to SSD?

My current drive is too slow in performance. I want to replace it with an SSD. Should I clean install Windows 10, or can I clone the installation to a SSD? Can I maintain the activation of Windows 10 on my computer? Thanks!

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Jerry· Answered on Oct 29, 2024

Yes, you can clone a Windows 10 drive to upgrade to SSD. One of the best ways to enhance computer performance is to upgrade your hard drive to an SSD. You don't have to worry about whether cloning the hard disk affects your computer's activation of Windows 10. Unless you have changed the motherboard or CPU, you won't need another license for Windows 10.

Note: Before cloning the hard drive to SSD, you are highly suggested to back up the significant files and convert MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR to ensure that the partition style of HDD and SSD are the same.

You can download hard drive cloning software like EaseUS Disk Copy to manage cloning disks. It is a dependable and professional disk and partition cloning tool that can migrate Windows 10 from HDD to SSD without reinstalling the operating system. With its fast cloning speed, it is a lot easier to clone a Windows 10 drive to SSD.

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There is another option. You can create an image of the hard drive and restore it on the SSD. Imaging a disk is more flexible than cloning. The distinction between a disk clone and a disk image is that the latter does not include empty sectors. If your SSD is smaller than the HDD, this turns out to be especially important.

You can clone a Windows 10 drive to upgrade to SSD. However, it is better to seek a professional tool for help.

Related article: Tutorial | How to Transfer Windows 10 from HDD to SSD Without Losing Data

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Use EaseUS Disk Copy to upgrade small HDD, replace old/failed hard drive, migrate OS, clone HDD to SSD without reinstalling data.

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