I recently bought a new desktop Dell XPS. It has 512GB PCIe M.2 SSD on board. The Windows Home10 was pre-installed in it (OS C:)
I have an old SSD from my old desktop. I would like to boot from my old SSD. My old SSD has Windows 10 with all my old softwares
Is there any simple way that I can boot from my old SSD?
OR how to transfer my old OS system to new PCIe M.2 SSD?
Thank you for your help
Yes. It is SATA type.
Where can I find 1st boot device in BIOS? Boot sequence?
It has 3 options - Windows Boot Manager/OnBoard NIC (IPV4) and OnBoard NIC (IPV6)?
refer the manual for the key to enter the bios, usually it is DELETE or F12, then go through the BIOS and find the Boot devices page, then you can change the boot device menu. Otherway is to use boot device menu, usually it is F2 and you have to keep pressing it when powered on. Then select old SSD's model from there. There could be EFI and non EFI menu items for the same disk. Select appropriately or try both to find which works.
connect your ssd to your desktop. Then press F2 and turn on your computer to enter uefi setup, where you can change the boot order.
I did try and it keeps booting from C:OS rather than G:OS (old SSD)
Change the boot priority in your BIOS. Otherwise disconnect C:
It has 3 options - Windows Boot Manager/OnBoard NIC (IPV4) and OnBoard NIC (IPV6)?
It does not have boot priority option.
If I disconnect PCIe M.2 SSD from board, will it automatically detect my old SSD?
@cuteduck: it seems that it boots the EFI from the 1st boot device and as it doesn't has an EFI entry to old SSD, it is not shown. Else, old SSD is not detected. Better to check whether old SSD is detected from BIOS and change 1st boot device from BIOS.
@bazingaa: I did detect on the BIOS
SATA-0 = 1TB HDD
SATA-1 = Liteon SSD (old one)
PCIe M.2 SSD
I tried to disable PCIe M.2 SSD on Bios, however, it did not detect/boot from old SSD
@cuteduck: after disabling PCIe M.2 SSD, what is the the first boot device now in BIOS ? you have to manually select it, otherwise it could be OnBoard NIC
@cuteduck: Return the BIOS to Legacy Boot
- From a power off state, power the system on and press F2 to boot into the BIOS setup menu.
- Select "Boot sequence"
- Change the option from "UEFI" to "Legacy", then select "Apply" in the right lower corner.
For Dell XPS, to change boot menu / priority, you need to hit F12
https://www.google.com/search?q=dell+xps+boot+menu&source=hp…
Can be a little tricky to get the timing right, so try a few times and you should see a boot selection menu.
If not, go into BIOS and set the boot order. (can google that ..)
Good luck.
I didn't know you could do this, I thought the old drive would have drivers etc for the old PC's hardware and wouldn't run properly in a new PC?
Windows 10 is way more tolerant of hardware changes than older versions, you can even switch Intel to AMD and back again if you're really keen.
"usually" basic drivers will get install and later you can install specific drivers such as GPU etc. I have even cloned virtual disks to physical disks and booted them up.
To a point, yes and no. Windows has gotten a lot better at automatically finding and installing drivers. Even generic ones when full driver isn't available (e.g. basic print functionality without scanning or extra settings till you install the HP/Epson/whatever suite).
You'll still need to manually update specific hardware drivers for the new kit so this method isn't really recommended. Best to backup your data and migrate to new Windows OS installation (or just get a USB adapter for old SSD and plug it in).
www.ninite.com helps a lot with auto-installing apps instead of manually one by one.
what is the connector type of your old SSD ? if it is a SATA one, you can connect it to new PC and select it as 1st boot device in BIOS.
as mentioned above, connect the old SSD to new PC, then use a disk clone tool (you can make a bootable USB with a cloning tool like DiskGenius) to clone it to new SSD.
in worst case, you may need to fix boot sector etc.
You may need to use windows product key for new PC after booting to activate in both cases.