How to copy a hidden partition? Editing the Recovery Partition How to transfer system recovery to another drive.

Once I came to visit my friends and they asked me to transfer Windows 8.1, along with hidden partitions, from a laptop hard drive to an SSD solid state drive. But friends had me multiple conditions:

1. After migrating to SSD from indoor partitions with factory settings should remain functional.

2. With Windows 8.1, activation should not fly off.

My friends didn't have Internet, Acronis True Image and Paragon Home Expert weren't expected either. Yes, and I had nothing with me, except for a clean 32 GB flash drive, but in an hour everything was ready.

Hello friends. I have written several articles on transferring Windows 7, 8, 8.1 from a laptop hard drive to an SSD.

Today's article describes the easiest way, you don't even have to download and install any programs on your laptop. In truth, they say that everything ingenious is simple. In the following articles, things will be a little more complicated.

Note: read the following articles on this topic - .
If you can’t transfer Windows 7, 8, 8.1, along with hidden partitions, from a laptop hard drive to an SSD solid-state drive, then simply.
What to do if, after transferring Windows 8.1 from a regular hard drive to an SSD, the factory reset program stopped working on a laptop or
If you are interested in the article, visit the special section where from one storage medium to another.

In a nutshell about what such a transfer includes, suitable even for a novice user. We will use the built-in laptop manufacturer factory reset program. We will create a recovery flash drive (you will need a blank 16 GB flash drive), or you can create recovery discs (you will need 3 blank DVDs), using a flash drive or disk we will transferWindows 7, 8, 8.1 along with hidden partitions from a laptop hard drive to an SSD solid state drive.

In simple wordsin today's article, we will roll back the laptop to the factory settings, but we will roll back not to the laptop's hard drive, but to the SSD solid state drive. In the end, nand our laptop everything will work as before, but only much faster.
1. Hidden partitions with factory settings will remain functional.

2. With Windows 8.1, activation will not even fail.You can return the hard drive from the laptop back at any time, that is, you do not lose anything.

In the following articles, we will use Acronis True Image and Paragon Home Expert for migration.

The whole difficulty of transferring Windows to an SSD solid-state drive (120 GB or 240 GB) is that the SSD is probably less than the laptop hard drive (500 GB or 1 TB), and in addition to running Windows, we need to transfer hidden partitions with factory defaults to the SSD. settings, so that the ability to roll back to the factory settings is not violated. Is it possible to make such a transfer? Yes, it is possible!

What prompted me to write these articles? Of course, your numerous requests to describe the transfer of the entire contents of the laptop hard drive to SSD. At first, I had the idea to go the easy way - to find a detailed article on the web on this topic and post a link to it on my website, but after wandering through various forums, I found only "raw" thoughts on this topic that can lead an inexperienced user into a dead end.

You may ask - And what to do with a simple laptop hard drive?

After transferring to a solid state drive, the Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 operating system will work fine, the laptop factory reset program will also work, in short, everything on your laptop will be the same as before, only instead of a hard drive there will be an SSD solid state drive. Even if your SSD is 120 GB, then this is more than enough for the operating system, but for data storage you can use a laptop hard drive in an external box or a simple portable USB hard drive.

Many attentive users may ask - "What are hidden partitions on a laptop?"

And the question is asked correctly, if you decide on such an operation, then you should know everything about the existing partitions on your laptop's hard drive.

Before starting the transfer, let's find out all the information about the hard drive of my laptop, then go to the "Disk Management" of the operating system and I will explain everything to you.

For example, my laptop has Windows 8.1 installed. The manufacturer of my laptop is Toshiba, in the disk properties you can see the name of the hard drive manufacturer, also Toshiba.

Volumes tab. The hard drive has a standard GPT partition table layout format, you can see this on the Volumes tab. Just below you can see the hard drive capacity of 700 GB.

Disk Management window

If you have a different laptop manufacturer, then there may be a slight difference that does not affect the overall process of moving Windows to an SSD.

1. First hidden section without a letter, 1.00 GB. Healthy (partition of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM)), this is a service partition of the laptop manufacturer with a program to roll back to the factory settings. The laptop manufacturer specifically creates such a partition, in a difficult case, if your operating system does not load due to your careless actions or because of a virus, then you can roll back the laptop to the state it was at the time you bought the laptop.

2. Second hidden section, size 260 MB Healthy (Encrypted (EFI) system partition), it contains Windows 8.1 boot files, as well as Windows 8.1 recovery environment files.

3. The third section has the letter C, volume 344 GB, installed operating system Windows 8. Drive C:, despite its volume of 344 GB, is filled with 80 GB files.

4. The fourth section under the letter (E:), volume 341 GB, with data files: music, movies and so on.

5. Fifth Hidden Section, letterless, 10.75 GB, Healthy (OEM Partition), this partition contains a factory image of the Windows 8 operating system.

Attention: If you have removedfirst hidden sectionwithout a letter, 1.00 GB andfifth hidden section, which does not have a letter, with a volume of 10.75 GB, then transfer it using the simplest method described below Windowson an SSD solid state drive will not work and here's why.

For porting, I want to use the built-inlaptop manufacturer a factory reset program called Recovery Media Creator, which works with hidden sections, returning the laptop to its factory state. And if you have deleted hidden partitions, then the programRecovery Media Creator will not work.

Create a flash drive or recovery discs

All laptop manufacturers bundle their devices with their own factory reset program. Each manufacturer has a different name for it, but they all work almost identically. For example, in Toshiba laptops, such a program is called Recovery Disc Creator or Recovery Media Creator, the manufacturer of Acer laptops has such a utility, for laptops, the program is called Samsung Recovery Solution 5, for laptops, for HP laptops - HP Recovery Manager. All these programs are similar to each other and work on the same principle. So, no matter what laptop you have, you can safely use this instruction for yourself.

We connect the power adapter to the laptop so that when creating a hard disk image, the laptop does not turn off and the process is not interrupted in the middle.

Move the mouse to the lower left corner and click the left button,

right-click on an empty space and click on the "All applications" button

and find our Recovery Media Creator recovery program, run it.

The program invites us to createResuscitator media for system recovery, that is, we can create DVD recovery discs with you, you will need several (3-5) blank DVD discs, the program will ask you to insert three DVD discs one by one into the drive and the entire Windows image will be written to them, by the way , the whole process is described in detail in our article .

We can also create a bootable recovery flash drive, but the flash drive must be large, 16-32 GB in size.

I will choose the Kingston DataTraveler Mini flash drive , I have it in the amount of 32 GB (but 16 GB would be enough).

Be careful, all data on the flash drive will be deleted.

OK. A recovery USB flash drive is being created.

The process of creating a bootable flash drive is completed.

Replacing a laptop hard drive with an SSD

Friends, now you need to replace the hard drive in the laptop with a solid state drive. Replacement should be no problem for you, since the form factor of a laptop hard drive and an SSD solid state drive are the same - 2.5 inches. We also have several articles on this topic.

We will also consider this issue in this article and there are no difficulties here. Usually on the back cover of a laptop there is a special hard drive bay and to remove this hatch, you just need to unscrew two screws.

The hard drive is attached to the laptop with two more screws, we also turn them off, then carefully pull the silicone tab and the hard drive is disconnected.

But on our Toshiba L50 - A - K3K laptop, there is no such compartment, which means you have to completely remove the laptop cover.

Flip the laptop over. First of all, you need to remove the battery from the laptop, but in our case this will not work, since it is also under the cover.

Important! : The article is given to you for review, if you have never disassembled a laptop, then do it better in a service center. Before disassembling the laptop, remove the battery, if it is not removable, then disconnect it from the laptop motherboard, you need to do this in any case. When you remove the hard drive, do not touch the components located on the laptop motherboard with your hands and a screwdriver, otherwise the motherboard may fail, and it makes up 85-90% of the cost of the laptop.

We unscrew all the screws securing the back cover of the laptop (bottom), in my case 14 screws.

We take out the drive

and carefully remove the laptop cover, despite the fact that all the screws are unscrewed, the laptop cover is removed with a very light effort, since the cover is attached to the laptop case with plastic clips

Included in the latches on the case, neither the latches nor the clips can be broken in any way, because the cover will have to be put back.

And here is our hard drive

it is attached to the laptop case with two screws, unscrew the screws and remember exactly where the laptop hard drive was screwed to the motherboard.

Carefully disconnect the hard drive from the SATA connector.

The laptop hard drive is in a kind of sled, disconnect them.

Well, then we fix the sled on the SSD solid state drive. The form factor of the 2.5 laptop hard drive is the same as the form factor of the SSD and our SSD will fit perfectly in the place of the laptop hard drive.

Our 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD

and connect it to the SATA connector on the laptop motherboard and fasten it with two screws.

We put back the laptop lid and the drive, do it carefully, the clips on the lid should fit into the plastic latches on the case.

We turn on the laptop, press F2 or Del when loading and enter the BIOS, as we see our SSD is perfectly defined in the BIOS, which means you can work with it.

Deploying Windows 8.1 from a recovery flash drive to an SSD

We connect our Kingston DataTraveler Mini 3.0 32GB recovery flash drive and reboot, when loading the laptop, press F2 and enter the BIOS. If you have a UEFI BIOS, then set the Secure Boot option to Disabled.

We do not touch Boot Mode and leave it in the UEFI Boot position,

Then we change the boot priority to a USB flash drive or just press F12, enter the boot menu of the laptop, select our USB flash drive and press Enter, the laptop boots from the recovery flash drive.

The Toshiba Recovery Wizard laptop factory settings window appears, select the first item and click Next.

Select the first item "Restore factory default software" and click Next.

Recovery process starts

We accept the terms of the license

Use default settings

If you have a Microsoft account, then enter its details. If you don't have a Microsoft account, then create a simple local account.

That's all

Windows 8.1 boots and runs normally

We enter Disk Management and see ourSSD Kingston HyperX 3K, 120 GB.

Please note that the volume label C: has remained the same, but it does not interfere with us, and if anything, it can be changed.

In the properties of the disk, you can see the name of the hard drive manufacturer

Volumes tab. The hard disk has the GPT partition table format standard.

Hard disk capacity 120 GB.

Conclusion

On our laptop, everything works as before, but noticeably faster.

1. Hidden partitions with factory settings are quite functional.

2. With Windows 8.1, activation did not even fly off.

3. You can return the hard drive from the laptop back at any time, that is, you do not lose anything.

The only negative is that you will have to install all the programs on the laptop, because in fact, in today's article we rolled back the laptop to the factory settings, but rolled back not to the laptop's hard drive, but to the SSD solid state drive.

Attention! Before you start implementing anything from the following, I strongly recommend that you backup using AiRecovery, as well as copy all personal information from your hard drive!

The process itself consists of several stages:

Deployment of the extracted OS and its configuration (uninstall / install software).

To implement your plan, you will need:

laptop with a working Recovery partition;
Windows PE boot disk or USB flash drive with ImageX.

After making sure that all the important information has been copied and you have a backup copy of the AiRecovery DVD, boot the laptop with Windows PE.

In the command prompt window that appears, enter the following commands:

Diskpart list disk

The given commands will launch the utility diskpart and will list the available disks. We are interested in the disk that is installed in the laptop and, judging by the size, this is Disk 0

Select disk 0 list partition

With these commands, we selected the laptop disk (Disk 0) and get information about the partitions on it (Fig. 3).

Based on the sizes of the existing partitions of the selected disk, we find the partition Recovery. In this example, this is Section 1.

In order to verify this, let's look at its properties.

Select partition 1 detail partition

Hidden section properties Recovery shown in fig. 4.

Let's make a section Recovery visible by changing its type and looking at its properties again:

setid id=07 detail partition

Changed section properties in fig. 5

Section properties Recovery dynamic GPT disks will be different from those above. To change the partition type, instead of the setid id=07 command, enter gpt attributes=0X0000000000000000 In this case, the changed partition properties will take effect only after a reboot. Those. you will need to restart the laptop and boot again with Windows PE. IMPORTANT! Before changing the properties of the Recovery partition, remember the original value of the partition type (command: detail partition)

Close the utility diskpart and launch notepad (Fig. 6):

Exit notepad

Using notepad, view the contents of the section Recovery and copy files with extension *.swm. To do this, select in Notepad File=>Open… and in the newly appeared window, change the file type from "Text Documents (*.txt)" on the "All files"(Fig. 7). Without closing the windows "Open" go to My computer=> section Recovery(Typical contents of this section are shown in Fig. 8) and using the context menu (RMB on the file) copy files with the extension *.swm per section Data

Deployment of the extracted OS and its configuration (removal / installation).

At the stage of copying images, you probably noticed which letters were assigned to sections. In this example, the section OS assigned a letter "WITH", and section Data - "D".

Now let's format the partition OS and deploy the OS from the copied images. Going back to the command line, enter:

Diskpart select disk 0 select partition 2

Note.

Why Partition 2? As you remember, earlier after entering the list partition command, we saw a list of partitions available on the laptop disk (Fig. 2). When copying with notepad, we also had the opportunity to observe all sections in "My computer". A simple ratio of the size and the name of the section easily determines the desired one.

You can also select the available partitions one by one with the command select partition and view their properties with the command detail partition. The section we need will have the following properties:

Format the selected partition:

Format fs=NTFS label="Os" quick

We deploy the OS from images (Fig. 9):

Imagex /apply D:\asus.swm 1 C: /ref D:\asus2.swm

After the successful completion of the process, you need to boot the laptop from the actual disk. In this case, the OS loading will be accompanied by characteristic inscriptions about updating the registry, starting services and installing devices, identical to that if the OS was restored using regular means using F9.

The booted OS, which we deployed from images, will be launched in the mode audit. In this mode, we can remove unnecessary software through the control panel at our own discretion, add our own. At the same time, during the process of uninstalling (installing) programs, a reboot may be required. The main thing is not to change the parameters of the window shown in Fig. 10 and don't close it!

By configuring the OS as you wish in the window "System Preparation Program" activate the parameter "Preparation for Use", meaning "Shutdown Options" change to "Shutdown" press OK(Fig. 11).

Create custom OS images.

Having finished the OS setup stage, we boot the laptop with Windows PE again. But before creating an image with a customized OS, we will delete the previously copied “factory” version of the OS, i.e. files asus.swm and asus2.swm. To do this, through the command line, launch notepad (notepad) again and by changing the “File Type” delete the above files from the “Data” section.

Partition image "os" in which the configured OS is located is created by the command (Fig. 12):

Imagex /capture c:d:\asus.wim "Windows 7 Asus" /compress maximum

The resulting image must be divided into parts of 4Gb:

Imagex /split d:\asus.wim d:\asus.swm 4000

So on the section data we will get 3 files, 2 of which have the same name and extension as those that we previously copied from "Recovery" - asus.swm and asus2.swm(Fig. 13).

Replacing OS image files in the Recovery partition.

Now the resulting OS image remains (files asus.swm and asus2.swm) copy to section Recovery. Copying is carried out by analogy with a notepad. Because on the section Recovery In my case, there was enough free space, so before copying the “factory” files of the same name, I decided to leave them and simply renamed them. (If you plan to make a backup using AiRecovery in the future, then the old files asus.swm and asus2.swm better to delete).

Returning section properties Recovery to original state:

Diskpart select disk 0 select partition 1 setid id=1C exit

Instead of a team setid id=1C you need to enter the command: gpt attributes=0X8000000000000001, where 0X8000000000000001 is the initial value of the partition type Recovery.

Close everything and try to start OS recovery ( F9).

As a result, by such actions you can get an individually configured OS with installed drivers, which can be restored at any time by regular means.

Sources of inspiration:

www.outsidethebox.ms
technet.microsoft.com
support.microsoft.com

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Once I came to visit my friends and they asked me to transfer Windows 8.1, along with hidden partitions, from a laptop hard drive to an SSD solid state drive. But friends had me multiple conditions:

1. After migrating to SSD from indoor partitions with factory settings should remain functional.

2. With Windows 8.1, activation should not fly off.

Hello friends. I have written several articles on transferring Windows 7, 8, 8.1 from a laptop hard drive to an SSD.

Note: read the following articles on this topic - .
If you can’t transfer Windows 7, 8, 8.1, along with hidden partitions, from a laptop hard drive to an SSD solid-state drive, then simply.
What to do if, after transferring Windows 8.1 from a regular hard drive to an SSD, the factory reset program stopped working on a laptop or
If you are interested in the article, visit the special section where from one storage medium to another.

In simple wordsin today's article, we will roll back the laptop to the factory settings, but we will roll back not to the laptop's hard drive, but to the SSD solid state drive. In the end, nand our laptop everything will work as before, but only much faster.
1. Hidden partitions with factory settings will remain functional.

2. With Windows 8.1, activation will not even fail.You can return the hard drive from the laptop back at any time, that is, you do not lose anything.

In the following articles, we will use Acronis True Image and Paragon Home Expert for migration.

You may ask - And what to do with a simple laptop hard drive?

Many attentive users may ask - "What are hidden partitions on a laptop?"

And the question is asked correctly, if you decide on such an operation, then you should know everything about the existing partitions on your laptop's hard drive.

Before starting the transfer, let's find out all the information about the hard drive of my laptop, then go to the "Disk Management" of the operating system and I will explain everything to you.

For example, my laptop has Windows 8.1 installed. The manufacturer of my laptop is Toshiba, in the disk properties you can see the name of the hard drive manufacturer, also Toshiba.

Volumes tab. The hard drive has a standard GPT partition table layout format, you can see this on the Volumes tab. Just below you can see the hard drive capacity of 700 GB.

Disk Management window

If you have a different laptop manufacturer, then there may be a slight difference that does not affect the overall process of moving Windows to an SSD.

2. Second hidden section, size 260 MB Healthy (Encrypted (EFI) system partition), it contains Windows 8.1 boot files, as well as Windows 8.1 recovery environment files.

3. The third section has the letter C, volume 344 GB, installed operating system Windows 8. Drive C:, despite its volume of 344 GB, is filled with 80 GB files.

4. The fourth section under the letter (E:), volume 341 GB, with data files: music, movies and so on.

5. Fifth Hidden Section, letterless, 10.75 GB, Healthy (OEM Partition), this partition contains a factory image of the Windows 8 operating system.

Create a flash drive or recovery discs

We connect the power adapter to the laptop so that when creating a hard disk image, the laptop does not turn off and the process is not interrupted in the middle.

Move the mouse to the lower left corner and click the left button,

right-click on an empty space and click on the "All applications" button

and find our Recovery Media Creator recovery program, run it.

We can also create a bootable recovery flash drive, but the flash drive must be large, 16-32 GB in size.

I will choose the Kingston DataTraveler Mini flash drive , I have it in the amount of 32 GB (but 16 GB would be enough).

Be careful, all data on the flash drive will be deleted.

OK. A recovery USB flash drive is being created.

The process of creating a bootable flash drive is completed.

Replacing a laptop hard drive with an SSD

The hard drive is attached to the laptop with two more screws, we also turn them off, then carefully pull the silicone tab and the hard drive is disconnected.

But on our Toshiba L50 - A - K3K laptop, there is no such compartment, which means you have to completely remove the laptop cover.

Flip the laptop over. First of all, you need to remove the battery from the laptop, but in our case this will not work, since it is also under the cover.

Important! : The article is given to you for review, if you have never disassembled a laptop, then do it better in a service center. Before disassembling the laptop, remove the battery, if it is not removable, then disconnect it from the laptop motherboard, you need to do this in any case. When you remove the hard drive, do not touch the components located on the laptop motherboard with your hands and a screwdriver, otherwise the motherboard may fail, and it makes up 85-90% of the cost of the laptop.

We unscrew all the screws securing the back cover of the laptop (bottom), in my case 14 screws.

We take out the drive

Included in the latches on the case, neither the latches nor the clips can be broken in any way, because the cover will have to be put back.

And here is our hard drive

it is attached to the laptop case with two screws, unscrew the screws and remember exactly where the laptop hard drive was screwed to the motherboard.

Carefully disconnect the hard drive from the SATA connector.

The laptop hard drive is in a kind of sled, disconnect them.

Our 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD

and connect it to the SATA connector on the laptop motherboard and fasten it with two screws.

We put back the laptop lid and the drive, do it carefully, the clips on the lid should fit into the plastic latches on the case.

We turn on the laptop, press F2 or Del when loading and enter the BIOS, as we see our SSD is perfectly defined in the BIOS, which means you can work with it.

Deploying Windows 8.1 from a recovery flash drive to an SSD

We do not touch Boot Mode and leave it in the UEFI Boot position,

Then we change the boot priority to a USB flash drive or just press F12, enter the boot menu of the laptop, select our USB flash drive and press Enter, the laptop boots from the recovery flash drive.

The Toshiba Recovery Wizard laptop factory settings window appears, select the first item and click Next.

Select the first item "Restore factory default software" and click Next.

Recovery process starts

We accept the terms of the license

Use default settings

If you have a Microsoft account, then enter its details. If you don't have a Microsoft account, then create a simple local account.

That's all

Windows 8.1 boots and runs normally

We enter Disk Management and see ourSSD Kingston HyperX 3K, 120 GB.

Please note that the volume label C: has remained the same, but it does not interfere with us, and if anything, it can be changed.

In the properties of the disk, you can see the name of the hard drive manufacturer

Volumes tab. The hard disk has the GPT partition table format standard.

Hard disk capacity 120 GB.

Conclusion

On our laptop, everything works as before, but noticeably faster.

1. Hidden partitions with factory settings are quite functional.

2. With Windows 8.1, activation did not even fly off.

3. You can return the hard drive from the laptop back at any time, that is, you do not lose anything.

The Windows 7 operating system during installation creates a hidden partition where it writes system files and recovery information. The hidden section is not available for viewing by standard Windows tools, and, therefore, for copying. In order to copy the hidden partition, you need to use a special program. For example, you can use Acronis Disk Director.

You will need

- computer;
- the Internet;
- Acronis Disk Director.

Instruction

Download the program to your computer and install. The distribution package of the program is available at http://www.acronis.ru. The program is paid, so you will have a limited amount of time to get acquainted, which is enough to complete the task. If you need this program in the future, you can purchase a license on the official website of the manufacturer. It is also worth considering that there are other software from this company.

In the main window of the program, select the partition of the hard drive that you need to copy. Acronis Disk Director will display the complete structure of the hard disk, including hidden partitions. Click the Copy Volume button. Specify the type of partition to be created (the program selected the same as the original one) and its size. Click the "Finish" button to complete the preparatory phase. To start the copy process, confirm the operation.

If you plan to copy a hidden partition so that you can boot from it (as implemented in the original), then you need to perform the cloning procedure. If you want the hidden partition to be displayed in the system, right-click on the partition and select "Show", then confirm the procedure.

Acronis Disk Director offers the user the ability to perform any operations on the hard drive. Read the instructions for using the program, which is available on the same site. It is also worth noting that there are many different video instructions on the Internet that allow users of a personal computer to use various software without any problems.

If you bought a new hard drive or solid state drive for your computer, it is very likely that you do not have much desire to reinstall Windows, drivers and all programs. In this case, you can clone or, otherwise, transfer Windows to another drive, not only the operating system itself, but also all installed components, programs, and more. A separate instruction for 10 installed on a GPT disk in a UEFI system: .

In fact, Seagate DiscWizard is a complete copy of the previous program, only it needs at least one Seagate hard drive on the computer to work.

All actions that allow you to transfer Windows to another drive and completely clone it are similar to Acronis True Image WD Edition (in fact, this is the same program), the interface is the same.

You can download Seagate DiscWizard from the official website https://www.seagate.com/ru/ru/support/downloads/discwizard/

Samsung Data Migration

Samsung Data Migration is specifically designed to migrate Windows and data to a Samsung branded SSD from any other drive. So, if you are the owner of such a solid state drive, this is what you need.

The migration process is done in the form of a wizard with several steps. At the same time, in the latest versions of the program, not only full disk cloning with operating systems and files is possible, but also selective data transfer, which may be relevant, given that SSD sizes are still smaller than modern hard drives.

The Samsung Data Migration program in Russian is available on the official website https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

Important: the same utilities for transferring Windows to another disk are available from other manufacturers of SSDs and HDDs. Usually, you can find them by entering a query consisting of the brand and the phrase "Data Migration", so you will find, for example, the Intel Data Migration Tool and similar programs for other brands of drives.

How to transfer Windows from HDD to SSD (or other HDD) in Aomei Partition Assistant Standard Edition

Another free program, also in Russian, which allows you to conveniently transfer the operating system from a hard drive to a solid state drive or to a new HDD - Aomei Partition Assistant Standard Edition.

Note: this method only works for Windows 10, 8 and 7 installed on an MBR disk on computers with BIOS (or UEFI and Legacy boot), when trying to transfer the OS from a GPT disk, the program reports that it cannot do this (possibly , a simple copying of disks in Aomei will work here, but it was not possible to experiment - failures during reboot to complete the operation, despite disabled Secure Boot and checking the digital signature of drivers).

The steps for copying the system to another drive are simple and I think even a novice user will understand:

If everything goes well, then at the end you will receive a copy of the system that you can boot from your new SSD or hard drive.

You can download Aomei Partition Assistant Standard Edition for free from the official website https://www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html

Transferring Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7 to another drive in Minitool Partition Wizard Bootable

Minitool Partition Wizard Free, along with Aomei Partition Assistant Standard, I would classify as one of the best free programs for working with disks and partitions. One of the advantages of the product from Minitool is the availability of a fully functional bootable ISO image of Partition Wizard on the official website (the free Aomei allows you to create a demo image with important features disabled).

By writing this image to a disk or flash drive (the developers recommend using Rufus for this) and booting your computer from it, you can transfer Windows or another system to another hard drive or SSD, and in this case, we will not be hindered by possible OS restrictions, since it is not running.

Note: I checked the cloning of the system to another disk in Minitool Partition Wizard Free only without EFI boot and only on MBR disks (Windows 10 was transferred), I can’t vouch for performance in EFI / GPT systems (I could not get the program to work in this mode, despite disabled Secure Boot, but it seems to be a bug of my particular hardware).

The process of transferring the system to another disk consists of the following steps:

When finished, you can close the Minitool Partition Wizard, restart your computer, and set to boot from the new disk that the system was transferred to: in my test (as I mentioned, BIOS + MBR, Windows 10) everything went well and the system booted no matter how than happened with the disconnected source disk.

You can download the Minitool Partition Wizard Free boot image for free from the official website https://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

Macrium Reflect

The free Macrium Reflect program allows you to clone entire drives (both hard drives and SSDs) or individual partitions, regardless of what brand your drive is. In addition, you can create an image of a separate disk partition (including Windows) and later use it to restore the system. It also supports the creation of bootable recovery discs based on Windows PE.

After starting the program in the main window, you will see a list of connected hard drives and SSDs. Select the disk where the operating system is located and click "Clone this disk" (Clone this disk).

At the next stage, in the “Source” item, the source hard drive will already be selected, and in the “Destination” item, you will need to specify the one to which you want to transfer the data. You can also select only individual partitions on the disk to copy. Everything else happens automatically and is not difficult even for a novice user.

Official download site: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Additional Information

Once you've migrated Windows and files, don't forget to either set the BIOS to boot from the new drive or disconnect the old drive from the computer.