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There are several topic with a similar title but I can't seem to find an answer to my question. I have Windows 10 installed on a 500Gb Sata SSD and I want to move installation to a 1Tb NVMe drive. As I understand, I'll need additionally another drive (for the recovery image) and a USB stick (with Windows Installation Media); and the process goes like (following this guide)

  1. I connect my NVMe and format it as NTFS and it becomes, say, a drive D;
  2. I create a System Image to an external drive (say, E);
  3. I create a Windows 10 Installation USB stick, set it as a boot device in BIOS;
  4. I boot from it..
  5. ..and use the System Image (from the external E) I created to Recover Windows and install it to D;

The part that I don't understand is at what moment my NVMe D drive will get the C letter: should I format my old C and change the letters before the step 5, while booted from the USB somehow? Or that's done automatically after Windows is recovered? Am I missing anything else?

Sergey Kritskiy
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    When the Windows bootloader loads, whatever partition is the `%SystemDrive%` is what partition is assigned `C:` - you don't need to change drive letters, as Windows doesn't boot based on drive letters, but absolute paths saved within the BCD Store _(e.g. something like `//harddisk0/partition1/`)_. Before exiting WinPE/WinRE, you'll need to execute `BootRec /FixMBR && BootRec /RebuildBCD` _(see Step #5 at the very bottom of [this](https://superuser.com/a/1581804/529800) answer)_. – JW0914 Aug 27 '23 at 14:17
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    The fastest way to do this isn't with a USB drive - boot to WinRE, manually configure the NVMe drive with the correct partition layout _(Steps #1 - 3 at the bottom of [this](https://superuser.com/a/1581804/529800) answer)_, create an enlarged WinRE partition large enough to hold the compressed WIM _(Step #4)_, and save the captured WIM to that enlarged WinRE partition _(Section: Imaging, Step #1)_. Once it's fully captured, apply the WIM to the OS partition on the NVMe drive _(Section: Imaging, #2)_, then go back to the bottom of the answer and complete Step #5 - 6. – JW0914 Aug 27 '23 at 14:23

2 Answers2

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It would be much simpler to :

  • Clone disk C to E
  • Replace physically C with E while disconnecting the old C
  • Reboot. The boot disk is always named C.

A product you could use for cloning is AOMEI Backupper Freeware.

harrymc
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  • Hi, thanks for the answer. Sorry for adding a bunch of letters in the mix and making it confusing, but I believe you've meant "clone C to D" (from sata SSD to NVMe)? (the E here is an external drive I thought I need for the system image). But also I wonder, what do you mean by "physically replace C with D" ? Since I want to reformat the old-C and use it for storage. Should I physically disconnect it before rebooting? And then reconnect but Windows will use NVMe by default and assign a different letter to that disk? – Sergey Kritskiy Aug 27 '23 at 15:36
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    Sorry for my confusion. Yes, you should clone C directly to the new disk. I counseled disconnecting the old C when booting as a safety measure, since both old+new disks will be bootable and I don't know which one will be picked by your BIOS. You may alternatively check the boot order while both are connected by entering the BIOS. When you find that the new disk works fine, you may format the old C, but I suggest waiting some time, so keeping the old disk as failback backup. – harrymc Aug 27 '23 at 15:46
  • Thank you for the detailed explanation — I'll go with this – Sergey Kritskiy Aug 28 '23 at 05:58
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    Be sure to remove the first "C" disk BEFORE trying to boot from the copy the first time. Windows really hates seeing two disk with the same partition signatures and could not only fail to boot properly with both disks attached, but it can also fail to boot from either of them afterwards. – fraxinus Aug 28 '23 at 12:34
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    not even necessary to use external freeware for cloning (although the DISM method does require some inbetween storage to store the image before rolling it over the new disk) https://superuser.com/a/1800083/658200 I was able to migrate my OS to a different disk and it booted so seamlessly I still had my browser tabs afterwards. – htmlcoderexe Aug 28 '23 at 13:13
  • I don't want to advertise anything :-) but, apart from the obvious, established good reputation of Samsung SSD drives, one extra reason for me always was that they have a free migration software that works absolutely flawlessly (I have done more than a dozen migrations so far) and is really as simple as: 1. attach the new drive as you like (some USB external housing or adapter), 2. use the software to copy the entire system (you can choose and size partitions, of course) 3. put the new drive in and off you go. As if nothing has happened. – Gábor Aug 28 '23 at 16:24
  • So if, by any chance, your new NVME is also from Samsung, I don't think you can get any simpler than using their software. – Gábor Aug 28 '23 at 16:28
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    @harrymc just wanted to say thanks again: I successfully moved Windows to the new drive and it was fast and simple. – Sergey Kritskiy Sep 02 '23 at 21:23
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This can be easily achieved (as long as the new drive is larger than the old one) from outside Windows. One advantage of this method is that it works for instance with drives encrypted by Truecrypt/Veracrypt.

Concretely:

  • Get a bootable USB Linux; the point is to get to run a terminal shell. An easy way is to get gparted.

  • Boot from the USB. Open the shell (may require closing/minimizing the Gparted window).

  • Your hard disks will most likely be /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. You can confirm this for instance with sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda and sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdb to see what disk each is.

  • When you are certain about which is which disk, make the cloning happen with the command sudo ddrescue -d -f /dev/sda /dev/sdb clone.logfile (first device is the source, second is the destination). The file at the end is not strictly necessary, but it allows ddrescue to resume the process if you interrupt it (you just issue the same command again).

  • When the cloning is finished, you remove the old drive and if necessary configure the bios to boot from the new one.

  • Now you get to boot Windows from the new drive. You need to decide if you will enlarge the Windows partition (if your partition configuration is standard and there is nothing after Windows) or you will create a new partition. Both things you can do from Computer Management.

  • If needed, partitions can be rearranged/resized by using GParted. Not if the disk is encrypted.

Martin Argerami
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