Installing a solid-state drive is one of the best upgrades you can make to your computer, but migrating your Windows installation to a small drive can be tricky, because your data won’t necessarily all fit on the drive. Here’s how to install an SSD without reinstalling Windows from scratch.
Here’s what we’re going to do: We’re going to back up everything, and then delete your personal files—like your documents, movies and music—from your current hard drive. This will make your Windows installation small enough to fit on the SSD. We’ll then clone your current drive onto the SSD, and completely erase your current drive. From there, we’ll move all your user folders—like My Documents, My Music, and so on—to the original hard drive, and restore all your personal files from the backup. You’ll then be able to reap the benefits of an SSDs speed while keeping all your documents and files readily accessible on a second drive.