If you’re looking to give your device a new lease on life, moving Windows 11 to a Solid State Drive (SSD) is a great place to start. An SSD often solves many common problems, such as a slowing down of device speed or lengthy boot times.
Being equipped with the knowledge to successfully move Windows 11 to an SSD is certainly useful, and it’s knowledge that can be gained relatively easily by following a few simple steps.
SSDs offer far greater levels of performance than typical hard disk drives and they will enable Windows 11 to boot up at a much faster speed when the device is first powered up. That being said, SSDs can be initially quite pricy.
Switching from a hard drive to an SSD is a pretty simple process, though you will have to make some initial changes. To start with, you’ll need to move the data from the existing hard drive to the SSD following the process we’ve outlined below.
How to migrate Windows 11 to an SSD
In order to successfully migrate Windows 11 to an SSD, there are a number of steps to follow, involving multiple Windows tools. We will be going over the following:
- Backing up your existing drive
- Adding a new SSD
- Cloning data from an old drive to the new drive
Step 1: Back up your data before moving to a new SSD
Before moving any data, we advise you perform a backup. Migrating Windows 11 to an SSD involves cloning and moving data to a brand new drive, and things don't always go to plan – so it's best to be prepared.
Fortunately, Windows 11 has a variety of built-in backup options, including backing up files to Microsoft’s cloud storage service OneDrive or using the File History tool with an external hard disk/SSD.
Step 2: Plug in your new SSD
After you’ve successfully created your backup, you can go about connecting up the SSD. This can be done by either inserting it into a desktop PC or using the USB caddy. If you’re opting for the former, turn off the device and connect the SSD to a spare bay. When doing this, you may discover that the case only has bays for hard drives. If this is the case, you’ll have to acquire an SSD adapter or caddy. After this, the SSD can be connected to the motherboard and power supply via SATA cables.
If using an M.2 SSD, simply place the drive into the spare slot on the motherboard and screw in the other end using an M.2 screw.
Step 3: Activate your new SSD
File Explorer will usually not show new hard drives or SSDs in Windows unless the hardware has been partitioned or initialised. To accomplish this, follow these steps:
- Select the Windows search bar and look for ‘partition’
- Choose ‘Create and format hard disk partitions’
- Once selected, it should display the option to initialize the disk by utilizing MBR or GPT
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Windows 11 only boots from drives formatted with GPT, so it’s useful to choose this option. After you’ve done this and the process is finished, you should find in the Disk Management window that the drive will be displayed as unallocated space.
Step 4: Clone the hard disk
Now you can undergo the transferral of data to the SSD. The purchased drive may come with software that will allow you to duplicate the contents of the hard disk. If not, you can search for software that will perform such a function.
As part of this tutorial, we’ll be deploying the free version of Macrium Reflect, a useful data cloning platform that can be accessed simply by providing an email address.
Once Macrium is installed, select the desired hard disk that is being operated on and then choose the ‘Clone This Disk’ button that appears underneath. Once pressed, a new screen should pop up with an installation wizard that will direct you through the transferral process.
Step 5: Replace the hard disk (laptops / all-in-ones only)
If you’re changing your old hard disk for the new SSD in an all-in-one or a laptop, then this will be the moment where you have to swap the drives. It is extremely important to ensure you’re careful when carrying out this process. This means writing down where the screws that you take out came from as well as deploying an anti-static band or ground yourself somehow before handling any sensitive components.
After you’ve managed to remove the old drive, grab your SSD and gently slide it into the slot and, after making sure which holes they go into, replace the screws.
Step 6: Reboot from the new drive
Now you can hit the power button and you might be lucky and find that the system is automatically using the new drive to boot from once you’ve inserted the new SSD and replaced your old hard disk. If this doesn't happen, you will need to configure your system to boot from the new drive where the Windows installation now sits. To do this:
- Boot / restart your system and open BIOS using the appropriate keyboard shortcut (this could be F8, F12 or delete, depending on the motherboard manufacturer)
- Find the Boot settings menu – this is usually found in the main Settings menu
- Set Boot Option 1 to your new drive
- Exit and your system will reboot
If successful, your system should boot to your desktop. You will find that booting will generally be far quicker now you are using an SSD, going from startup to desktop in a matter of seconds. You can also test out applications, which should also load up far faster than you're used to.
