Question: I have a Lenovo desktop PC where I’d like to migrate my Windows 10 installation from the HDD it’s currently installed on to a new SSD.
I plan to do this by cloning the relevant partitions on the HDD over to the SSD so I can later setup the SSD as my default boot drive. I plan to keep the HDD in the machine as storage.
In my cloning software I can choose which partitions on the HDD to clone. Other than the obvious C: drive where Windows is installed I see a list of small partitions that I am not familiar with.
Which of these should I clone over to the SSD and why?
Answer: You need both system partition and boot partition (C:) at minimal
Other partition are Windows recovery and Lenovo specific partition
If space is not a concern then clone them all
About Lenovo partitions
Partition 1 – Recovery (WINRE_DRV) – 1000MBWindows RE bootable (for Recovery Mode)Used when booting into Windows Recovery (Win RE) environment
Partition 2 – System (SYSTEM_DRV) – 260MBSystem UEFI bootable (EFI/Windows boot menu)UEFI boots this partition, it contains Windows NTLDR, HAL, Boot.txt, and some drivers (Windows will not boot without this)
Partition 3 – OEM (LRS_ESP) – 1000MBLenovo Recovery System (EFI bootable)Lenovo One Key Recovery (OKR) button boots into this partition, which allows to do factory restore
Partition 4 – Reserved (MSR) – 128MBReserved Microsoft partition for GPT-based disksMust exist and must be 128MB, used by Windows when moving/changing partitions through Disk Manager
