The general information and considerations about moving Windows from one SSD to another are given in our article "How to Move an Installed Windows to a Larger Disk.".

R-Drive Image implements two methods to move a BitLocker-encrypted system disk to another storage device:

* It copies data from the encrypted system partition unlocked by the system. The resulting partition will be plain (no BitLocker encryption), but then it can be encrypted by the system. The main advantage of this method is that the data residing on the disk remains unchanged, and if something goes wrong, the original data remains intact. In addition, if anything has been changed on the source disk during the copy, these changes will be included in the result.

* It copies the encrypted partition to the new disk without decryption. It can be done using thestartup version.

This article will give you step-by-step instructions on how to move a BitLocker-encrypted system partition using these methods.

Copying the system drive from within the system
This will produce an unencrypted system partition on the new target drive.

We'll move Windows 10 from the old 256GB SSD device to the new 512GB target drive.

Don't forget to backup all your important files first!

Generally, the disk layout on your computer is the same as for a non-encrypted system partition, except that the system partition is encrypted with BitLocker.

A typical Windows disk layout consists of three partitions:

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To create a new working Windows installation, we need to copy the startup partition to the same place on the new SSD device, move the recovery partition to the very end of the device, extend the Windows partition to occupy the rest of the device, and then encrypt the partition if necessary.

1. Connect the new SSD device to your computer. Depending on the interface of the new SSD device, you may do that through a SATA/M.2 port or a USB adapter.

You may want to go to Disk Management to verify that the new SSD device is visible to your system. From now on, we'll refer to the SSD devices as "disks", because Windows and R-Drive Image don't make the distinction between SSDs and HDDs at this level.

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A pop-up window may appear asking you to initialize the new disk. You don't need to do that. Instead, just click the Cancel button.

2. Close Computer Management, start R-Drive Image, and click Copy Disk.

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3. Inspect the layout of the old disk. It should contain the startup partition, the Windows partition (the system disk), and the recovery partition. We'll copy the entire source disk to the destination disk, and move the recovery partition to the end of the disk. The Windows partition will be extended later.

4. Drag the old disk (Source) to the new disk (Destination).

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5. The "Copy options" window will appear.

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Select "Copy all partitions onto original places (copy as is)" on the "Copy method" tab.

6. Verify that the "Same signature for both disk options" is selected on the "Disk signature collision" tab and click the OK button.

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7. You'll see the following layout.

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8. Drag the Windows Recovery partition to the end of the disk.

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It's impossible to extend the BitLocker-encrypted system partition at this time.

9. Verify that the final layout is correct and click the Next button.

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10. A warning message will appear.

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9. Turn off your computer and replace the old disk with the new one. Then turn your computer on and wait for Windows to start.

11. Verify that all information on the Total operation list panel is correct and click the Start button.

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* R-Drive Image will start copying the data from the old disk to the new one while showing the progress along the way.

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* When this process is over, R-Drive Image will show the "Disk copied successfully" message.

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12. Turn off your computer and replace the old disk with the new one. Then turn your computer on and wait for Windows to start.

13. Start R-Drive Image, and click Partition Manager..

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14. Extend the system partition to occupy all unallocated space.

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15. Verify that the final layout is correct and click the Next button..

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16. Verify that all information on the "Total operation list" panel is correct and click the Start button.

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* R-Drive Image will start copying the data from the old disk to the new one while displaying the progress.

* When this process is over, R-Drive Image will show the "Disk copied successfully" message.

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17. Inspect the new disk layout to verify that the Windows partition occupies all available disk space..

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Note that the system partition is unencrypted.

We recommend that you restart your computer after this operation, although it's not specifically required.

Now you may encrypt the new Windows partition if you like.

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Copying the system drive using the R-Drive Image startup version

We'll move Windows 11 from the old 100GB SSD device to the new 200GB target drive.

This will produce an encrypted system partition on the new target drive.

Don't forget to back up all your important files first!

Then you need to create the startup version. This process is described in our article R-Drive Image startup / bootable version. We recommend you create a WinPE version as it will support Secure Boot and can even open a locked BitLocker partition if needed.

R-Drive Image creates startup sticks already activated for the system where it is installed, so it won't be necessary to activate it again if the startup version is used on the same computer.

As in the first part of the article, we need to copy the startup partition to the same place on the new SSD device, move the recovery partition to the very end of the device, and extend the Windows partition to occupy the rest of the device.

1. Connect the new SSD device to your computer. Depending on the interface of the new SSD device, you may do that through a SATA/M.2 port or a USB adapter.

2. Start your computer using the startup version. You may have to make some adjustments in your system's BIOS to do so. Refer to your system documentation if necessary.

3. Click Copy Disk.

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4. Inspect the layout of the old disk. It should contain the startup partition, the Windows partition (the system disk), and the recovery partition. We'll copy the entire source disk to the destination disk, and move the recovery partition to the end of the disk. The Windows partition will be extended later.

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5. Drag the old disk (Source) to the new disk (Destination).

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6. The "Copy options" window will appear.

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Select "Copy all partitions onto original places (copy as is)" on the "Copy method" tab.

7. Verify that the "Same signature for both disk options" is selected on the "Disk signature collision" tab and click the OK button.

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8. You'll see the following layout.

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9. Drag the Windows Recovery partition to the end of the disk.

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10. Verify that the final layout is correct and click the Next button.

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10. Verify that the final layout is correct and click the Next button.

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It's impossible to extend the BitLocker-encrypted system partition at this time.

11. A warning message will appear. Click the OK button to proceed.

12. Verify that all information on the Total operation list panel is correct and click the Start button.

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* R-Drive Image will start copying the data from the old disk to the new one while showing the progress along the way.

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* When this process is over, R-Drive Image will show the "Disk copied successfully" message.

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13. Click the OK button and wait for another message from R-Drive Image.

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14. Turn off your computer manually and replace the old disk with the new one. Then turn your computer on and wait for Windows to start.

15. Go to Disk Management and inspect the resulting partition scheme.

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Now it's time to extend the Windows partition.

16. Right-click the Windows partition and select Extend Volume in the shortcut menu.

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* The Welcome to the Extend Volume Wizard window will appear.

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17. Click the Next button and specify the amount of space to extend the Windows partition.

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By default, the Wizard suggests the entire unallocated space on the disk, so nothing usually has to be altered.

18. Click the Finish button to complete extending the Windows partition

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and wait for Windows to finish this operation.

19. Inspect the new disk layout to verify that the Windows partition occupies all available disk space.

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We recommend that you restart your computer after this operation, although it's not specifically required.