How to migrate Windows drive to SSD with free Samsung Data Migration software - avoiding errors 

Hey Flackbox, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to make this video guide. I just bought a new SSD for the first time and had no idea how to migrate my data, but your guide was extremely easy to follow along step-by-step. You helped me tremendously. Cheers!

Thanks Neil, your clear and easy to follow instructions made this process a lot simpler than I had feared. As a fairly elderly, non techy I needed to upgrade my SSD, but felt nervous, having heard some of the horror stories of failed attempts. With your expertise, successfully managed it at the first attempt. Highly recommend you.

Thank you Neil! It has been several years since I ran chkdsk /f, fixed my issues.

Thank you! I followed step by step turning everything off per instructions and had no issues. Great video.

Hey Neil, I just wanted to thank you because your video is excellent. I followed right along with successful results. The 'extra' details and/or suggestion are what separates your video from a whole bunch of other ones, and saving frustration is very appreciated. Great job!!

I know this a year old video but it is the best description of the procedure I found on RU-vid. Thanks very much. You made what seemed like a daunting task for a non-tech professional, like myself, very digestible. I swapped out my desktop HDD for an Evo 870 with little to no difficulty. I was considering a new PC but doing this procedure has made my current one run amazingly well!

Worked like a charm! Thanks for the walk through and thorough explanation. The data migration from my old HDD to my new Samsung 1TB SSD worked on the first try with no problems!

Best video on the Samsung Data Migration Software. He greatly explains the failures some can come across with getting the OS to migrate to the SSD. Such as 1) Going into CMD prompt and running the chkdsk command 2)Disabling all unnecessary programs running in the background through the use of Task Manager. Flackbox, much praise and appreciation for making this video. Let this be a lesson to all. If you have a Samsung SSD, follow this method before you spend countless dollars on unnecessary “free” softwares that force you to pay to run a software.

As a complete PC noob, I did a bunch of research on cloning my HDD to a new SSD. Read a ton of articles, watched a whole pile of videos. All of them resulted in hiccups, unclear aspects, or some other issue - but yours worked FLAWLESSLY. The chkdsk and /f recommendations are ones no other tutorials had, as well as putting the machine into airplane mode (didn't even know my desktop had that!). I followed the steps as recommended and it worked perfectly. I now have a lightning-fast SSD running my OS and have a perfect clone of my old C: drive. The difference from my HDD drive is astounging. The cheapest new computer I ever bought! Thank you so much for the great tutorial. Cheers!

THANK YOU Neil Anderson! I followed your instructions and the mirror from an ADATA ssd to a Samsung EVO ssd went flawlessly!! Thank you !

AWESOME tutorial! I upgraded my HDD to a Samsung 860 EVO SSD and used this video to clone my whole hard drive and it worked like a charm! A million thanks sir!

I followed your instructions, and it worked perfectly! Thank you so much, Neil! I have a 10-year-old HP Pavilion G7 notebook, and for years now it has been so slow that myself and my wife both HATED having to use it every day for our various computer-necessary tasks. It would take about 7 minutes to boot it up and get all of the icons on the taskbar and everything loaded so that the doughnut wasn't spinning. It was HORRIBLE. It took so LONG time to either open or close MS Edge. Opening a document in Word took minutes. I was about to drop a thousand dollars on a new computer just for the speed when I came upon your video. I followed your instructions to the letter. I watched another video first to learn how to open my particular laptop and remove the old drive (oddly mine matches the Pavilion G6, not the G7, even though this is supposedly a G7). The results have been amazing. The system boots up in seconds, not minutes. The performance increase is astonishing. I don't think the computer was this fast when it was brand new. I have never replaced a piece of internal hardware, or even ever taken off the back of the laptop. I was always too intimidated by the number of things I assumed could go wrong. I'm so happy with this conversion from mechanical hard drive to Samsung SSD, that I'm next going to upgrade from 6 to 8 GB of RAM. Thanks for a great, simple, easy-to-follow and complete guide to installing an SSD drive. You are the man!

After four days of tireless tinkering with my new SSD I saw this video and it helped tremendously. You're a damn legend, thank you 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Excellent advice! Sure enough my computer has many errors and took your advice. After the errores we're fixed, my SSD swap went without a hitch. Thanks for the great video!

The Flackbox video was the only RU-vid post that completely covered how to clone (copy) the C: OS Primary Drive using Samsungs Data Migration Software to a new replacement SSD. It covers the importance of turning off all running background programs [anti-virus/ Malware/ Cloud backups/ Skype and alike, but also had the how to check the drive for errors/ fix. I followed everything in this How Tutorial and successfully made a Clone copy of my C: drive. THANK YOU! Oh, and I successfully did it on the first try.

Thank you! I followed your instructions to the letter and my transfer was a success, no errors whatsoever!

Hi Neil, Thanks for posting such a great video. I have been looking for something similar for days and when I saw the video I knew it could be done in no time. In fact it took me less than an hour. Thank you very much

This is the best video i have come across about this subject.You covered all the angles. Very precise and to the point and left nothing to chance. Absolutely superb.Speaking as a pensioner I cannot THANK YOU ENOUGH.

This is the best migration video I've seen. I especially appreciate the part about using chkdsk prior to starting the data migration. My hard disk had several bad sectors and I was afraid I would not be able to run the computer let alone clone to a new SSD. After using chkdsk, transfer was smooth. The only problem was the time it took because it was struggling even after running chkdsk. Without running that program first, I would likely not have been able to use Samsung's data migration software. Thanks for the video Neil.

Thank you. This was very helpful. Just for anyone reading this. My computer was booting up to windows but it ran slow. Task manager stated disk was running at 100%. Eventually, computer would not boot to windows. I followed the directions on this video. After my computer was working, I did a chkdsk /f on my original hard drive. There were errors. To resolve the issues with the original drive, I had to remove the allocations and start the drive from fresh. Evidently, there was "handle" that was not releasing part of the drive. After I created a new partition, the drive worked perfectly. Dont throw your old drive away. I went with a Samsung 250GB SSD from amazon for replacement drive. Only $50.

I had watched some other videos on how to do this migration. Both took me to software that took you a little bit along the road , but then asked you to cough up some money to get all the way. I ended up starting the process a couple of times till I found this video. THANK-YOU! I'm not great with computers, but this video offered me step by step instructions that made it seem easy. @Flackbox much appreciated!

I’ve watched several videos on data migration. This video was by far the best I’ve seen. Thanks

Airplane mode is nice touch. I am working with computers 30+ years and this never come to my mind. Thanks. Great instructions. Keep up the good job.

Great instructions Neil. It took less than 30 minutes to clone my 500GB HDD on my Dell Laptop. After that, less than 10 minutes to disconnect the HDD and install my 500GB Samsung SSD. Thank You very much for taking the trouble and the time to make this helpful video.

Excellent step by step information to migrate OS from old SSD to a new one. Your explanation is precise & clear. Thanks for posting this video.

Awesome video. Followed instructions and worked 1st time. My Windows was migrated with all other data on the old hdd to new Samsung ssd. Did this on Lenovo yoga 2 11 laptop. Thank you for such an excellent tutorial Flackbox.

Thanks Neil - I'll be getting my SSD this Sat. & will follow your instructions to the T! Great video & taught by "THE MASTER!"

This worked for me after failing on my own. Thanks so much!

Great video buddy watched it first time within an hour upgraded my old laptops HDD to an 870 evo Ssd no problems. Runs like a dream!

UPDATE (4-5-21) I just completed this today with an 870 EVO. I was having shutdown issues until I followed Neil's advice and put my HP laptop into "Airplane" mode. I believe this is the key element here for laptop owners. FYI the Samsung software shut down my PC automatically, and I had zero issues re-booting after the drive switch. And the performance difference is just freaking amazing! Now I'm pissed at myself for not doing this sooner! 😎

Great video!!!! I'm no tech wizard but I thought I'd convert my HDD to and SSD. Did my research and it seemed easy enough, so I bought the cable, the SSD and a spacer. It was a Samsung SSD so I thought I'd download and use the Samsung software. After 3 crashed attempts I found your video, followed the suggestions/instructions and voila!!!!!! Thank you very much. My laptop is working seamlessly and MUCH faster than before.

Tried so many tutorial and your video only works. Thank you for sharing!

Great tut! Samsung migration software is excellent. I have used it on 37 occasions and never once has it failed.

Excellent excellent excellent! I followed all the steps and had total success. Thank you for all of your effort in making this video.

Thanks very much, it was failing for me until I found and followed your steps, then it worked the first attempt, you're the best!!

Well done flackbox your video was presented in a way anyone could understand and follow . The way you explained you don’t have to be computer literate just follow your easy instructions .keep up the good work and help the unknown to learn more . Well done …

Thank you Neil, I just installed a 870 EVO and everything runs smooth. Very clear and super easy to follow. Cheers

Thank you! Very straight forward video. I followed all the steps and it worked flawlessly first try :)

Excellent video! I followed all the steps and had a flawless migration. Very good suggestions and clearly explained. Thanks!

Thanks for mentioning the tips of shutting down "active" applications, including cloud backup. Also, putting the system in "airplane" mode to take it off the network is something I would not have thought of. Thanks for mentioning those tips!

This is the best video I have found to migrate Windows to an SSD. Thanks

Thank you. Just upgraded to larger Samsung 870 evo. You are clear with your instructions making easy to understand . Has to be best presentation on you tube.

Perfect instructions. Swapping to a SSD tomorrow when cable gets delivered. Thank you for making this instructional video.

I just completed the HDD (500GB) - SSD (1TB) cloning. I used the latest version of Samsung Data Migration. After the cloning is done, the system shutdowns in 20 secs. The preparation before cloning was so helpful. I would add a couple of steps here. 1. Defrag the HDD before cloning. This may take long time, depending on how frequently HDD is defrag. 2. After backup all necessary data, remove from HDD all things you don't need it (Download, Temp, old unused apps, etc), or remove things you can copy back to SSD after cloning. This will make the cloning process faster. Thanks for the great video.

It's like You knew I was uploading a image backup while watching this tutorial... Well done and Thank You for making this.

Update: I specifically bought Samsung SSD after watching Neil's video, and followed all steps, worked like a charm, booted smoothly and the Samsung Rapid Mode is amazing! Wow thanks for the vid

Followed your instructions and it worked first time, no errors thank to you Flackbox for an excellent instructional video.

Followed your tutorial and have successfully cloned and installed a new SSD in my Lenovo Z51 with no problems - Many Thanks

This was the 5th video I watched and by far the BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent the most straight forward video I’ve seen in this topic. I am subscribing.

Great job on this explanation, this was genuine, safe and clear instructions on utilizing the software. I never thought to set my device in Airplane mode. That was such a nice touch.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I am planning to change my HDD to an SSD and it will be a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB. Let's see how it goes. With your tips, I am almost certain I won't have any problems. Take care.

Thanks Neil for these wonderful instructions. Very few people make such detailed video on this.

Many Thanks ! It works very well ! The most important for me was the fact that you explain where find the good application ( Samsung data migration !) ...Just a precision : I clean and empty my computer BEFORE the migration, and it took 10 MINUTES (YES 10 MINUTES !!!) for the complete migration of my windows (around 50 Go of data on a 1TO SSD) !! everything works fine ! I am truly happy to find your video !! THANKS AGAIN !!!

Great video. If you upgrade to a larger hard drive, are there any steps needed to make sure the new hard drive has the maximum partition? For example, my current hare drive is 1TB and I want to replace it with a 2TB SSD. After following your instructions will my new SSD drive partition be for the full size (2TB)?

cloning failed with a message saying “Cannot create a snapshot” how to fix this?

Thanks. Following your instructions, I successfully migrated a 870 EVO in a laptop.

Neil, thanks a lot for the video! What to do if you have multiple partitions?

Thanks for this... I was wondering how to do this with a Samsung SSD... Great instructions on the CHKDSK / F

What a thorough and very comprehensive! Thank you so much Flacbox!!

thank you Neil. it worked perfect for me finally. I have tried the other softwares but this Samsung one is the only one can work perfectly

Thank you very much for making a video guide like this, I able to clone windows 10 to my new ssd for just a single attempt. I follow all the instructions and successfully cloned. highly recommended.

The only thing I would add is I had Bit locker on my hard drive so the Samsung Data Migration software would just freeze . I removed the Bit locker encryption and followed the instructions on this video . And my cloned SSD worked great . Great video helped a lot . Thanks

Followed this video. Everything worked perfectly with no issues. Thanks for making it easy.

Great video, short, concise, and very easy to follow. I have a suggestion which is to enter EXIT on the command window to close it. Can you do the same thing if you restart windows in safe mode? Only other problem I had on this particular HP laptop is that it had some proprietary connectors on the right side, I connected the ssd drive and the select drive, the target drive were both greyed out on the Samsung Cloning software. So I started fishing: Checked Manage on the computer and the new connection was not found, also noticed that the clink notice when you insert something on the USB port did not sound. Checked task manager.. nothing.. checked control panel.. nothing. Then i looked at the computer closely and I noticed that if I tried to insert a flash drive in to the other port it fit loosely where I installed the ssd. So I looked at the left side and I found ONE usb connector. Connected it and everything was worked. Thanks for sharing. Not to brag, but just info about my self. I was a in my last year in High School here in Los Angeles, (1969). I got the opportunity to learn Computer programing on Saturdays by IBM. Fortran and Cobol on an IBM 360 with punch cards and almost to memory, maybe 120 kbs. I just retired as a Software Engineer, Computer engineer and an Electromechanical engineer.. I'm 70 years old and I still do some work for people, build control cars for very old outomated machines,, test them and send them out to be printed into an IC chip. I tell youngsters out there to never pass up an opportunity and if you don't like it or can't understand it. Don't look at it as failure but look at it as a learning opportunity. that will make you a much rounded individual.

The best. I migrated Windows 10 and other junk to a new SSD and then performed a clean reinstall. It worked.

Very helpful video with all the tips. My SSD transfer activity was a piece of cake after watching this video.

Thanks so much, helped me to do a successful migration, first time, no hassles. Thank you!!

I just did it! Thank you for the tutorial!

Thank you, this is the best vid for data migration tbh. Afterwards you have to change boot order in BIOS as well

Just Completed My upgrade on my HP 15 Laptop, instead of the Samsung used a 500gb Crucial ssd instead. Used Acronis Disc cloning software for Crucial. Works great, thanks for the Help..

Gotta tell you that I followed your lead here and it worked without issues. Cloned a 128 GB Crucial SSD drive onto a Samsung Evo I TB SSD drive without a problem...Swapped out the SSD drives and Wallah ...System booted right into windows without a hiccup. Can't thank you enough mate.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, I did all you said and migration worked first time. My knowledge of these things is minimal. My lap top now works like sh.t off a shovel, if you know that saying, it use to take twenty minutes to half an hour to startup. Absolutely chuffed and cannot thank you enough. I now need to clean and thermogrease! my fan as it's very noisy, wish me luck. Many thanks again for the great tutorial.

Thank you! Had it fail before, but it worked right away thanks to your tips.

Hi Neil, thanks for such a informative video. I want to ask you something about partion. Can I do partion of new ssd and then clone old disk to newly created partion on new ssd. Thanks a lot

Update, followed all the instructions in video and worked first time, cheers

Great video..I did what you said and cloned a Samsung SSD from an Intel SSD using Samsung Data Migration Software...worked outstandingly!..thank you very much!

What if you want to use the old disk after for extra storage how do you go about leaving it in and formatting it

Thank you very much for the clarity. It was extremely helpful.

I don’t usually leave comments , I just want to thank you for putting together the easiest video that shows data migration , if I did it , anyone can do it.

Genius! You made it easy and it worked like a dream. Thanks.

Thank you! Did exactly as you said and was done in 30 minutes!

What about dirvers? Do they get cloned as well?

Thank you. Worked like a charm!

i want to clone the operating system from a samsung SSD to another samsung SSD, they're identical. then i want to wipe the first SSD and use it as a regular data drive. how would i go about changing the boot drive to the newly cloned SSD from the old one, once i finish the data migration?

I use your instructions and change my hard drive to Samsung EVO 860 SSD to change my old Laptop dell inspiron 14R . Work well. Thanks

thanks Flackbox , really helpful video , I have a question if I may ...after migrating the data on my 240gb SSD to the new 500gb one , I can no longer see that drive on my computer , its physically plugged ( I just switched the SATA cable from the 240 "former C" to the 500 " new C" ) I'm sure the old ssd is functioning it was just full ....any thoughts ? thanks !

please help. if OS can be clone to an external SSD and use on another computer than the windows would be count as counterfeit? Wilk the windows work normally?

Hi sir! I have a question. Does the samsung magician can copy also the Recovery Partition?? pls reply asap coz I have ssd and still I cannot install it.

Thanks it worked. I came back to the computer turned off and had know idea if it was successful or not. I started it back up and couldn’t the amount of used storage on the new drive vs the Hdd and long story short I plugged it in and a 9 year old computer booted in like 45 seconds into windows.

Hi, I have a question. I am planning to migrate my 1tb HDD with 2 partitions (total of around 150 gb occupied space) into a Samsung 970 Evo 512gb NVME. Would I encounter problems considering that the NVME size is smaller? Please let me know since I don't want to lose my files as I'm working from home. Thank you so much!

Thanks for tips, made my life easier and risk free. I have one question that I have not researched yet as I just finished the migration and restarted and might help others, Is the samsung migration software only copy the boot drive if the original hdd was partitioned? Or I missed out a selection option somewhere? Thank you

@Flackbox Thank You very much for the video! It was a seamless operation after watching! My laptop is now the fastest pc I own out of many!

Thank you! Very helpful!!! 👍🏽👍🏽

Thanks Neil i really enjoy and appreciate your work. 🤜🤛

I assume i will also need to buy a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter cable to transfer the data to the SSD? I'm installing in a desktop, replacing the HDD.

Thank you so much for the video. I was just about to purchase cloning software. You save me $30

Thanks for the video. I tried this and the migration tool sees my m.2 but after things completed and the computer reset- I only see my hdd. I charged the boot priority to the m.2, restart and still don’t see the m.2 under devices and drives. Any thoughts?

Still very useful, especially in comparison with other tutorials. Thanks!

Great explanation🤙🏼 very straightforward