[RESOLVED] Installing a new boot drive

[Dickster]

I received a nice 240 GB SSD for Father's Day! My Windows 10 system is working fine but relies on spinning rust, so I want to install the SSD as the boot drive and use the old HD for storage. I have formulated the following plan:

1. Create a USB recovery drive
2. Back up a system image to an external drive
3. Back up personal data
4. Install the SSD and configure it as the primary drive in BIOS
5. Boot up with the recover USB
6. Restore the system image to the new SSD
7. Restore personal data

Did I miss anything?

[Midknyte]

What software are you using to create the backup? I would NOT use the Windows 10 Backup.
What is the make/model of the SSD? Many come with imaging software included.
Otherwise, there are freebie versions of Acronis True Image or other apps like Macrium. Much better than the Windows Backup.
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-c...-norton-ghost/

You shouldn't need to do your data separately.
How much data do you have? You might want to move the large files off of the drive before you do the backup. That would speed up the backup and restore.

[Dickster]

Thanks for the link, Macrium looks interesting. The SSD is an OCZ (Toshiba) and didn't come with any software.

I do plan on pruning the larger files (like games) before making the image.

[Midknyte]

Ah I see. You also need a backup software that is "SSD aware". I'm not sure that Windows Backup would auto-align the sectors for you, when switching from HD to SSD. Macrium and Acronis TI should do it automatically.

I'm an Acronis TI user, but there are people around here that use Macrium.