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CalebStone's avatar
CalebStone
Silver Contributor
Jan 26, 2026

Copy a partition to another disk in Windows 10 without data loss?

My old Windows 10 PC will be traded in and I already bought a Windows 11 PC recently. There are a lot of the important files and apps on the c drive of Windows 10 PC. Does Windows 10 has a built-in c...
Mikaeliop's avatar
Mikaeliop
Iron Contributor
Jan 26, 2026

When performing the operation of copying a partition to another disk, the transfer speed is influenced by the hardware interface and storage medium.

  • SATA SSD → SATA SSD: 300-500 MB/s

  • NVMe → NVMe: 1500-3000 MB/s

  • HDD → HDD: 80-160 MB/s

  • External USB 3.0 connection (any media): 100-300 MB/s

Critical Warning for Windows 11 Computers

Under no circumstances should the Windows 10 system partition be directly cloned onto the disk of a Windows 11 computer.

  1. Differing hardware configurations may readily cause blue screen failures.

  2. Windows 10's built-in drivers conflict with the hardware of Windows 11 computers.

  3. System licences are tied to the motherboard, resulting in failed activation after cloning.

  4. Driver incompatibility will lead to significant degradation in computer performance.

Correct Procedure

  1. First, clone the target partition of Windows 10 to an external disk.

  2. Extract only the required file data from the cloned external disk.

  3. After completing a fresh system installation on the Windows 11 computer, migrate the extracted files to the new system.

This step-by-step procedure fulfils the requirement of copying a partition to another disk while avoiding system compatibility issues, thereby ensuring the stable operation of the new computer.

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