Why Install Windows on New SSD Without USB
When your operating system like Windows 11/10/8.7 runs slowly on an HDD, an effective way is to install the Windows system on an SSD. This is because compared to an HDD, an SSD could run at a fast write & read speed. As time goes on, the storage capacity of an SSD is expanded by manufacturers.
To get a fast boot and running speed, you can choose to use an SSD as a boot drive. Well then, how to install Windows on a new hard drive like SSD? What if you don’t have a USB drive or DVD/CD? From the following part, you can find 2 ways to install Windows on new SSD without USB – using MiniTool ShadowMaker to clone HDD to SSD or using an ISO file to install Windows 10/11 on SSD.
Related post: How to Install Windows 10 on a New Hard Drive (with Pictures)
How to Install Windows Without USB on a Hard Drive/SSD
Install Windows 10 on New Hard Drive Without USB via Cloning
The simplest way to install Windows on new SSD without USB is to transfer the Windows system from the HDD to your SSD. In this way, your system files, settings, registry, personal data, etc. are moved to the SSD. After migration, the SSD is bootable and you can boot the system from this SSD. You won’t need to reinstall Windows 11/10/8/7.
To perform the migration task, MiniTool ShadowMaker could be a good assistant.
It easily backs up your operating system to a USB drive or external hard drive and restores the system to your new SSD. Besides, file, partition, and disk backup & restoration are supported. In addition, you can run this hard drive cloning software to clone the entire system disk to an SSD without reinstalling Windows.
To install Windows on new SSD without USB, just click the following button to install MiniTool ShadowMaker on your PC. Then, follow the steps below to start the OS migration.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 1: Boot MiniTool ShadowMaker on your PC and tap on Keep Trial to go on.
Step 2: Click Tools from the right pane and tap on Clone Disk to continue.
Step 3: In the new window, choose your HDD as the source drive and select the new SSD as the target drive.
Note that this cloning process could overwrite your disk data, so make sure you have backed up important data stored on the SSD.
Step 4: After the selection, start the cloning process. Depending on data size, the cloning time varies.
You may have mentioned that MiniTool ShadowMaker currently only allows you to clone the entire hard drive to a new hard disk. System clone and partition clone are not supported. To make sure everything is moved from an HDD to an SSD, the disk clone can satisfy you. After the clone, shut down your computer, remove the HDD, and put the SSD into its original place. Then, your computer can run from the fast SSD.
Of course, if you only want to migrate the OS to SSD and keep both source and target drives on your PC, you can choose to use MiniTool Partition Wizard for system migration. To know details, refer to our previous post - Easily Migrate Windows 10 to SSD Without Reinstalling OS Now.
Clean Install Windows 10/11 via ISO
In addition to disk cloning, you may choose to install Windows on a new SSD by a clean install. If you don’t have a USB flash drive, you can also do this – run an in-place upgrade via an ISO file of the Windows system.
To install Windows 11, you need to make sure your PC meets the system requirements of this new operating system. If you don’t know whether your PC can run Windows 11, follow the post - Compatibility Test: How to Check if Your PC Can Run Windows 11 to check.
See how to do this thing:
Step 1: Download Windows 11/10 ISO file – to get Windows 11 ISO, you can visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11. To get Windows 10 ISO, download Media Creation Tool and run it to download it.
Step 2: Double-click on the ISO file to open it. Then, run the setup file.
Step 3: Decide whether to change how Setup downloads updates and choose Not right now to continue.
Step 4: Choose what to keep – keeping personal files and apps is recommended. Then, click Install.
Windows 11/10 will be installed from scratch on your new SSD. After that, you need to finish the Windows configuration by going through the out-of-box experience (OOBE).
Bottom Line
That is all the content on how to install Windows on new SSD without USB. You can choose one based on your actual situation. Considering the time, flexibility, and ease, we strongly recommend that you should install Windows without USB on a new hard drive like SSD via disk cloning with the help of MiniTool ShadowMaker. It is an all-in-one backup & recovery and cloning software to meet your many needs. Just have a try now!
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
We also appreciate your other idea on how to install Windows on a new hard drive without disk or USB. You can tell us by writing a comment below. Thanks.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Vera is an editor of the MiniTool Team since 2016 who has more than 7 years’ writing experiences in the field of technical articles. Her articles mainly focus on disk & partition management, PC data recovery, video conversion, as well as PC backup & restore, helping users to solve some errors and issues when using their computers. In her spare times, she likes shopping, playing games and reading some articles.