This article will show you how to transfer Windows 11 to another SSD drive. As you know, NVMe drives provide faster speeds (compared to SATA). This migration can improve performance. All created partitions will be deleted, plus a chance to corrupt the bootloader.
For example, Windows 11 transfer/copy/clone took five minutes. Using the command line and a bootable flash drive – an hour. Applications do this automatically.
Remember, earlier I bought myself a Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB? I allocated 125 GB for the system, and the remaining 350 GB for applications. Before that, there was a Kingston 120 GB SSD, which is hardly used. I decided to copy the system to it as a backup or for tests.
Transfer Windows 11 to another SSD drive
Samsung Data Migration
Specify Source and Destination disks , you can start transferring – Start . The system partition is selected automatically, and the target will need to be changed. You can select files to be excluded from the process. With its help, I previously transferred the system to an NVMe disk.
Macrium Reflect Free
In the section Backup > Local drives, select the drive with Windows 11. And click Clone this drive … , then Select the drive to clone . Specify only the necessary partitions: Primary (NTFS) , Bootloader area (FAT32) and Recovery drive (NTFS) .
AOMEI Partition Assistant
Click Transfer OS to SSD or HHD , the wizard will guide you through the transfer. Select Unallocated space and confirm deleting all partitions. Well, if necessary, you can Resize the partition . And the migration process will take place in a special boot mode.
AOMEI Backupper
Under Clone > System Clone, select Destination Partition – the disk of the new location for the system. After the operation is completed, the partition will be overwritten or deleted. Check Operation Summary and click Start , plus the SSD Alignment option is available .
MiniTool Partition Wizard 12
Find Wizard > Migrate OS to SSD/HD Wizard and select B (move only partitions containing OS files). Specify the drive to transfer the OS (where to copy Windows 11). All data on this disk will be destroyed and the system files will be copied…
Windows Terminal | Command line
Actually, three dozen commands allow you to copy system files to another disk without third-party programs. We need a flash drive and the original Windows 11 image . Watch carefully what the command does and only then execute it. Table 1 – in the system itself .
| Get Disk | Where-Object PartitionStyle –Eq ‘RAW’ | Initialize Disk | This command initializes a new drive (only if needed). |
| diskpart | Launches a console utility for managing disks, volumes, and partitions. |
| list disk | Displays a list of connected drives; remember the disk number, under the transfer. |
| select disk 1 | Selects the disk where we will transfer, indicate the number from the previous paragraph. |
| clean | Fast Disk Cleanup, volumes are deleted, and all data is marked as deleted. |
| convert gpt | Converts the disk to GPT-style (this is for disks larger than 2 TB), which is what Windows 11 needs. |
| create partition efi size=100 | Create an EFI service partition with a size of 100 MB. Under the BCD bootloader configuration. |
| format fs=”FAT32″ quick label=”EFI” | Format only the created partition, file system type FAT32 with the name. EFI |
| create partition msr size=509 | Create an MSR service partition with a size of 509 MB. This is the recovery partition. |
| create partition primary | Creates a disk partition with unallocated memory (you can specify size=S, in MB). |
| format fs=”NTFS” quick label=”NEW_DISK” | Quickly format only the created space; NTFS file system type. |
| exit | Terminates the console utility and exits the command line. |
Table 2 – when booting from a USB flash drive . You need to create a bootable USB flash drive and when the installation window appears, press Shift + F10 . It remains to determine the partition letters and start copying. This process takes longer. And recreating the Windows 11 bootloader BCD configuration.
| diskpart | -//- |
| list vol | Displays a list of basic and dynamic volumes on all your disks. |
| exit | -//- |
| select disk 1 | Selects a drive whose volume letter is not assigned. This can be skipped. |
| list part | Displays the partitions listed in the partition table of the current disk. |
| select part 1 | Selects the disk partition to assign a letter to. Specify the volume number. |
| assign letter=K | Changes the letter of the previously selected volume to K. This is also optional. |
| list volume | -//- |
| robocopy E:\ D:\ /E /COPYALL /SL /XJ /R:3 /W:3 /UNILOG:”D:\rcopy.log” /TEE | Copies links, files and folders with attributes and NTFS rights; from drive E:\ to D:\. |
| diskpart | -//- |
| list vol | Shows a list of partitions of the previously selected drive. We are interested in a blank SSD disk. |
| select volume 1 | Take note of the EFI partition number. Select this section to assign a free letter. |
| assign letter M: | Assign the letter M to a 100 MB FAT32 partition. To restore the bootloader. |
| exit | -//- |
| cd /d M:\efi\microsoft\boot\ | Recreating the BCD bootloader configuration. |
| ren BCD BCD.bak | |
| bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-us /s M: /f ALL |
Questions may arise with working on the command line. You can copy data to a smaller drive if the current Windows space is smaller than its capacity. Make sure that it is so (remove the excess). Since important system files may not be copied …
Conclusion
It will not be difficult to transfer Windows 11 to another SSD drive, especially with the help of third-party programs. All this happens almost automatically, all you need is your consent. For example, Samsung Data Migration and Macrium Reflect allow you to exclude partitions or data.
The list of transfer programs is wider, I used to advise Acronis True Image 2021 or Paragon Migrate OS to SSD. They became paid (or this feature is paid). But if you have a Western Digital (WD) SSD, you get Acronis True Image WD Edition for free. Analogue of Kingston, Crucial and A-Data.