Paragon Migrate OS to SSD

Ready to upgrade to a new Solid State Drive (SSD)? Paragon’s Migrate OS to SSD is just what you need. Our handy intuitive wizard performs fast and safe Windows migrations to new storage devices (HDD or SSD) and even downsizes to smaller capacity drives, thanks to advanced new data exclusion capabilities. You can transfer a live system with no impact to your work, and have your partitions automatically aligned in the process if needed.

Challenges of Windows OS Migration

Challenge 1. Windows migration from HDD to a smaller SSD
Migrating software to outside storage devices can be a slow and painful process to the unprepared. Hard disk drives (HDD) double in capacity every two years - giving software developers lots of room for developing technology which is often more complicated and space-consuming. To keep up with burgeoning software, users may think they are simply doomed to regular hardware upgrades involving the purchase of a new drive, and the headaches that go along with re-installing OSs and applications. Fortunately, there's a way to save time and effort by using special migration tools. Many of these tools performed well when migrating to larger drives, that is - until solid state drives (SSD) appeared on the scene. The latest SSDs do not boast high capacity, but rather smaller size and faster processing speeds over regular hard drives. Plus, they are completely indifferent to mechanical impact, a feature crucial for mobile computers. These benefits are leading more and more users to consider migrating their OS to SSDs to get the most out of their systems. The main obstacle users are faced with is the modest capacity of SSDs for the price. So, how do you migrate an OS and hundreds of gigabytes of data on one huge volume to a SSD drive of 80-128GB? Up until now, the only solution was to re-partition the HDD first, and then perform the migration using a special utility to separate the system and data, a process which risked data loss and was quite time consuming.

Challenge 2. 64-bit Windows migration configured to the uEFI boot mode
Introduced back in 2005 by Intel to lift restrictions of the old MBR (Master Boot Record) and PC BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), uEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is now a recommended platform for new 64-bit Windows 8 computers. And the reason is easy to catch – besides other unique features impossible for the traditional tandem of BIOS+MBR, only a uEFI-based platform enables to accommodate Windows OS on a partition larger than 2.2TB. Despite all uEFI advantages however, it has one quite naughty issue: A pretty standard operation with a bootable device for instance involving its connection to another SATA port results in unbootable Windows. You’ll get the same result if trying to boot from a cloned system hard disk. All these problems originate from the way uEFI+GPT bundle is organized. Microsoft provides how-to guides to tackle this type of problems, but they demand a great deal of experience from the user, involving the use of the cmd, diskpart and bcdedit tools.

A New Solution from Paragon

Paragon Software has a better way. By developing a unique technology that transfers Windows (any version since XP) to a smaller capacity disk in a single operation, you can now simply and efficiently migrate Windows OS from a high capacity HDD to a speedy new SSD. Moreover, with the support of the uEFI/GPT configurations, you don’t have to bother about any boot issues.

What makes our technology work is a handy intuitive wizard called Migrate OS to SSD. Here’s how it works:



At launch, the wizard detects all existing Windows operating systems. Users then specify which OS they want to migrate. The wizard then automatically picks one or two partitions (Windows 7 may have Microsoft System Reserved, a special hidden partition that contains critical boot files) and prompts the user to select a destination disk. If the selected disk is big enough to hold the operating system, it starts the migration. If not, it asks the user to exclude data by unchecking boxes next to unnecessary files or folders. When the proper size is reached, the migration begins.

The intuitive wizard transfers a Windows system to another disk with minimal effort. The only action needed by the user after the migration is to configure the destination disk as the first boot device in BIOS which automatically starts the new system.

Note! Migrate OS to SSD only transfers partitions that contain the chosen Windows OS and system boot critical files. If you need to migrate your entire system, including all system and data partitions, please use Paragon Drive Copy.

Why try Migrate OS to SSD?

• Migrates Windows to larger or smaller storage devices in a single operation
• Supports any Windows since XP (including Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012)
• Migrates a 64-bit Windows configured to the uEFI-based boot mode
• Automatically aligns partitions on the destination disk if necessary
• Automatically detects and copies MSR for successful migrations of Windows 7
• Allows the user to exclude data during the process in order to fit the destination disk
• Processes locked (in-use) disks with MS VSS to migrate without rebooting Windows
• Includes Paragon's time-proven move/resize functionality
• Guarantees safety for the system and data

What's new in Paragon Migrate OS to SSD 3.0:

• Support of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
• The option to prepare a 64-bit WinPE bootable media to do migration of a 64-bit Windows 7 or later configured to the uEFI boot mode
• Support of the restart-free installation