If you plan to move OS to new drive without reinstallation Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7, you can turn to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. It can help you move Windows OS to a new hard drive and boot from it successfully.
Why move OS to the new drive?
When you need to replace the hard drive, you have to face the transfer os to new drive, unless you are not satisfied with the current OS, you may need to install a new operating system. Otherwise, replacing a hard drive without reinstalling Windows is the best option.
Moving Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7 to a new disk can avoid a lot of unnecessary troubles, such as downloading, installing, setting, etc. Also, reinstalling the system is difficult for users without computer experience.
Whatever your reason, I’ll let you figure out how to migrate OS to a new SSD or HDD in the next content.
How to move Windows to another drive without reinstalling
To move OS to new drive, all you need is a reliable Windows migration tool. There are many Windows migration tools on the market, which one you should choose? I highly recommend you to try a windows partition manager named AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.
Why do I recommend it so much? Because this is an excellent tool which can help you manage disk and partitions easier and safer than other tools on the market. The advantages are as following:
- High compatibility: Support Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP; Support various HDD/SSD brands, such as WD, HP, Sandisk, Samsung, Seagate, Kingston, Toshiba, Maxtor, etc.
- Friendly interface: Unlike other software, it’s easy to operate different tasks.
- More security: You can preview the operation of any task before submitting it, so you don’t need to worry about data loss due to operation errors.
- More professional: Its built-in feature “Migrate OS to SSD” can help you move only Windows OS to a new hard drive without reinstalling.
- More comprehensive: In addition to migrating the system, if you want to migrate the entire disk including personal data to a new hard drive, please go to the “Disk Clone Wizard”. It can also help you solve more problems like Windows extend volume greyed out.
Now, I will show you the whole process of move OS to new drive in 3 parts.
Part 1. Preparation jobs
► Connect a new hard drive
First, you must connect or install a second hard drive on the PC. Desktops tend to support multiple hard drive slots, while laptop usually only have one hard drive slot, so you need to prepare a SATA to USB adapter to connect the drive to the computer.
► Initialize the hard drive
You need to initialize the new disk and create a partition; otherwise it won’t work in Windows. Please note that since the partition style must be the same as the boot mode, in order to avoid changing the boot mode after moving, please make the partition style of the new disk the same as the source disk.
► Check the power supply
Power contact issues can cause migration to fail and cause unnecessary trouble.
Part 2. Migrate OS to a new drive step by step
Step 1. Install and open Partition Assistant Professional. Click Migrate OS to SSD in the left pane. Don’t be fooled by its name, it works on HDD as well.
Step 2. Select the new hard disk as the target disk here. If there are partitions on the target disk, check “I want to delete all partitions on the disk 2 to migrate system to the disk” and select Next.
Step 3. You can drag the two-way arrow to resize the system partition, or just type the desired number in the box below.
Step 4. Read the Note in the window, it is important to you.
Step 5. Click Apply and Proceed to execute the pending operation.
Part 3. Boot Windows from new drive successfully
If the computer can only have one hard drive installed, then you can start Windows directly after replacing the new hard drive. But if you can install multiple hard disks, to boot Windows from the newly migrated hard disk, you need to change the boot drive.
Start the computer and follow the on-screen prompts (usually DEL, ESC, F1, F2, F8, F9, F10, F11, F12) to enter the BIOS setup. In the BIOS menu, press the arrow keys on the keyboard to enter the Boot tab and change the boot order to have the new boot drive as the first boot device. Then, follow the instructions given in the BIOS utility to navigate to the Exit tab and select the Exit Save Changes option to save your changes to the boot order.
Conclusion
Now, you can see what is the best software to move OS to new drive without reinstalling. Whether it’s transferring the Windows to a new hard drive to upgrade an old one or replace a faulty one, AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro can do it for you easily. If you haven’t tried it yet, don’t hesitate.