Solved: Windows 10 Slow after Clone [7 Effective Ways]

User Case

Nowadays, SSD is becoming more and more popular due to its powerful read and write performance. Therefore, many users will choose to upgrade hard drives with SSDs to improve computer performance. After purchasing an SSD, they will choose to clone the data or system on the original disk to the new SSD to avoid reinstalling Windows. But after cloning, some users also reported that they encountered some problems. Just like the case above, Windows 10 users boot slowly after cloning to the SSD.

How to Fix Windows 10 Slow after Cloning from Hard Drive to SSD

Why does the issue “Windows 10 slow after clone” happen? In fact, the most common cause of this problem is the wrong configuration of the SSD, which causes the SSD to not be in the best condition. How to solve this problem? This article provides you with 7 ways to optimize SSD, you can try them one by one.

• Method 1. Disable ULP
• Method 2. Enable AHCI and Update Driver
• Method 3. Disable Unnecessary Services on Startup
• Method 4. Turn on Fast Startup
• Method 5. Uninstall Graphics Card Drivers
• Method 6. Adjust Virtual Memory Settings
• Method 7. Clone and Align SSD with AOMEI Backupper

Method 1. Disable ULPS

Judging from the amount of positive feedback, disabling ULPS may be the most common and effective way to solve this problem. ULPS stands for Ultra Low Power State, which is a kind of energy saver for graphics cards. Disabling ULPS will improve both wake-up and startup performances.                                  

1. Go to Search, type regedit, and open Registry Editor.

2. To avoid digging through numerous registry paths, just go to Edit -> Find, enter EnableUlps and press Enter.

3. Then double-click on EnableUlps and change its value to 0.

After performing this workaround, try to restart the computer, it will start at least a little faster. If Windows 10 slow boot via SSD still appears, please try the following solutions.

Method 2. Enable AHCI and Update Driver

To get better performance of SSD, you can set SATA controller to AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) mode in BIOS, which works better with SSD. Some users have also reported that updating the AHCI driver can also solve the the issue with SSD slow boot on Windows 10.

You can follow the steps below to enable AHCI and update AHCI driver.

1. Go to Search, type regedit, and open Registry Editor.
2. In the left panel of Registry Editor, browse to the key location below.

▶ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV

3. In the right panel of the iaStorV key, double click on the Start DWORD to modify it. Type 0 for AHCI, and click on OK.
4. Then type Device Manager in the search box and click the top result.

5. Locate your AHCI driver, right-click it and choose Update driver from the menu.

6. Now click on Search automatically for updated driver software.

7. Windows will now try to automatically update your driver.

Method 3. Disable Unnecessary Services on Startup

If your computer and laptop are running a lot of services, your SSD may take a long time to start. You can try to turn off unnecessary services to fix Windows slow after clone to SSD.

1. Type task manager in the Windows search bar and select Task Manager.
2. Open the Startup tab, and see which processes need to be disabled.

Method 4. Turn on Fast Startup

The Fast Startup in Windows 10 (called Fast Boot in Windows 8) works like the hybrid sleep mode of the previous Windows versions. It makes your computer boot up even faster, saving valuable seconds every time you turn your machine on. Fast Startup is enabled by default, but sometimes certain updates can disable it.

1. Type Control Panel in the Windows search box and click the top result.

2. When Control Panel opens, select Power Options from the list.

3. Select Choose what the power button does from the menu on the left.

4. Click on Change settings that are currently unavailable.

5. Look for Turn on fast startup (recommended) and make sure that it’s checked. Now click on Save changes.

If this feature has been enabled, you can disable it to see if this works.

Method 5. Uninstall Graphics Card Drivers

If you are experiencing SSD slow boot on Windows 10, the problem may be related to your graphics card. To solve this problem, users suggest to uninstall the Graphics Card Drivers from your PC. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Open the Device Manager as mentioned in Method 2.
2. Locate your graphics card driver, right-click it, and choose Uninstall device from the menu.

3. When the confirmation dialog appears, check Delete the driver software for this device and click on Uninstall.

After the driver is deleted, Windows will use the default driver instead. The default driver may not provide the same performance, so it is recommended to update it.

Method 6. Adjust Virtual Memory Settings

According to users, you can fix SSD slow after clone problem by adjusting the amount of virtual memory. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Type advanced in the Windows search box and select View advanced system settings from the result.
2. Then the System Properties window will open. Navigate to the Advanced tab, in the Performance section, click on the Settings button.

3. Go to the Advanced tab and click on Change.

4. When the Virtual Memory window opens, uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives and select your System drive.

5. Select the Custom size option and set Initial size and Maximum size in MB. You can use any value for Initial size, but as for Maximum size use 1.5x or 2x the size of your RAM in MB. Click on Set and OK to save changes.

After doing this, the problem should be resolved. Keep in mind that this is not a universal solution, so it may not be suitable for you. You can also try the following method to solve Windows 10 slow after clone.

Method 7. Clone and Align SSD with AOMEI Backupper

If your problem is still not solved after trying the above methods, please don't be discouraged. There is another reason that will cause SSD slow boot on Windows 10. It may be because the SSD is not 4k aligned, so reading and writing will take more time. You can use another reliable disk cloning software to clone system and data to SSD and use it to align SSD.

It is common for SSD partitions to become unaligned after migrating a system from an HDD to an SSD. AOMEI Backupper provides you with the "SSD Alignment" function to help you speed up the output and input speed, thereby improving the performance of the solid-state drive (SSD). After cloning, you can start the computer directly from the cloned SSD, and you can optimize the performance of the computer.

Learn how to use this powerful software to clone and align SSD to avoid Windows 10 slow after clone issue. First, download AOMEI Backupper on your computer.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Backupper, then you will see a dark blue interface. Click Clone in the left panel and select Disk Clone.

Tips✍:
✩ If you only want to clone your system, you can choose to use the System Clone feature.
✩ To clone a disk without an operating system, such as cloning an external drive or a USB drive, you can try free disk cloning software - AOMEI Backupper Standard.

Step 2. Select the original hard disk containing Windows as the source disk and click Next.

Step 3. Select the SSD as the destination path to clone the source disk and click on Next.

Step 4. In the Operation Summary page, check SSD Alignment option to improve the writing & reading speed of SSD disk. Confirm all other settings and click Start Clone.

Tips✍:
✵ Sector By Sector Clone: By default, AOMEI Backupper just clones the existing data (used sectors) on the disk. If you want to clone all sectors on the source disk, regardless of whether it is used or not, please try this option.
✵ Edit Partitions: It can help you adjust the partition size of destination disk and avoid unallocated space after cloning. This feature is very useful if you clone disk to larger disk.

Conclusion

After reading this article, hope your Windows 10 slow after cloning to SSD issue can be resolved. This article provides a total of 7 solutions, choose the one that suits you according to different situations. The disk cloning software provided in this article can not only help you with SSD slow boot on Windows 10, but also can help you solve Windows 10 inaccessible boot device after clone error.

AOMEI Backupper also embeds other powerful functions such as backup, restore and synchronization. You can even use it to create bootable media to help you successfully boot your computer when the system crashes. Try it now to protect your computer and data!