Is it possible to migrate existing internal HD to external SSD?

[wood1e2]

Hi

I am looking to keep a laptop running for a little while longer, as it is getting a little slow. And I was thinking would it be possible to migrate existing internal HD - WIN10 and Software to a external SSD

And then boot and run my laptop from the SSD.

I understand the cable connection will have a lot to do with any speed gain or not. For the moment I just interested in the possibility of it?

It is something I have done with my MACs for a some time now.

 

[ServWise]

Totally yes, there are tools out there to essentially mirror/clone your internal HDD onto an external SSD, you then power down, take out the old HDD and replace it with the SSD and then reboot (you might need to configure detection of the SSD via bios first). I have used EaseUS Todo Backup in the past to "clone" the HDD.

Here is a guide I just found. https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-copy-your-windows-installation-to-an-ssd

BTW if you are considering running the OS from the external drive I would advise against it, you will likely introduce a lot of throughput issues and make the drive a bottleneck negating the speed advantages of an SSD and also you will have much more possibility of accidentally disconnecting the drive possibly causing corruption and a dead OS, much better to mount it internally.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

What you try to do won't work on a laptop or pc
You can clone to an external drive but cannot boot via USB enclosure. W10 won't allow to boot from external devices. Apple tweaked that for bootcamp. Your drive must be mounted to sata or nvme internally. There are work arounds for usb boot windows but it ain't straight forward.

 

[wood1e2]

@Nico Albrecht and @ServWise - Shame, but never mind, I'll stick to my MAC then.

 

[WebDesires]

What you try to do won't work on a laptop or pc
You can clone to an external drive but cannot boot via USB enclosure. W10 won't allow to boot from external devices. Apple tweaked that for bootcamp. Your drive must be mounted to sata or nvme internally. There are work arounds for usb boot windows but it ain't straight forward.

I'm sure you can easily do this, Ive never heard of windows 10 not being able to boot from a USB. https://uk.pcmag.com/operating-systems/88253/how-to-run-windows-10-from-a-usb-drive

 

[Nico Albrecht]

You can make a windows bootloader PE called and boot of it same as hiren tools . Cloning an existing w10 to an external drive and booting will not work by default. Same goes for making a windows 10 installer and boot into it and try to install to a usb drive. Installer will block it. There are solutions for that but not straight forward.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

five min job to open most notebooks and change hard drive to ssd you have already clones done it a number of times
Many ssd drives come with clones software

 

[wood1e2]

@WebDesires - I am actually looking at running the laptop with external HD not just booting it from an external drive.

@Chris Ashdown - I might look at this

 

[Naheed Mir]

Yes, there will not be any issue in migrating your data from hard disk to external SSD. There are several drive-cloning tools available when cloning a hard drive to SSD. Before you begin messing with your drives, it's essential to back up your data first.

 

[forevergroup]

Kingston do SSD kits with an included USB3 caddy and an OEM copy of Acronis TrueImage to clone the drive. No reason I can see why you can't then boot the resultant clone via USB. Just make sure you disconnect the current drive before reboot so that the new one gets the correct drive letter.