OS issues when upgrading laptop HDD?

[Lucious!]

Tl:dr = I need to change my laptop's hard drive, will there be any problems transferring the OS (W7, most likely OEM)? Will I need to try and dig out the SLP key before I attempt the swap? Or am I just being paranoid and overthinking everything?

 

Backstory if its important: Laptop (~6yrs old, Cyberpower brand) has been running very slow for the past year and a half (ex: takes ~10min to open a file directory); from the checks I've been able to do it seems like all the other hardware is fine, which leaves the HDD as the most likely cause of my issues. So I'm going to try and replace the current HDD (Hitachi ATA HGST HTS721010A9) with a new one (probably some 2.5" WD drive). Something I didn't think about until now was that this is most likely an OEM version of Windows 7. I have no clue if that's going to cause issues with the transfer to the new HDD or if I have to do anything special like digging out my SLP key or something like that?

[191x7]

Consider an SSD as the main OS drive.

 

Do you have a sticker with the Win7 license on the device? Have you considered upgrading to Windows 10 (it's a free upgrade)?

[Lucious!]

30 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

Consider an SSD as the main OS drive.

 

Do you have a sticker with the Win7 license on the device? Have you considered upgrading to Windows 10 (it's a free upgrade)?

I'm not against getting an SSD per-say (have one for my main PC + love it), but I'm really only going to use this laptop for studying purposes (writing/notes/projects) now, so I don't think its worth the extra $30 or so to get an SSD.

 

Anyways- Yes I have the license (mostly visible) on the bottom of the laptop. One important bit is that I just managed to get it to boot up and load the control panel to check the Product ID, the laptop is using an OEM version of W7. So will I need to do any extra steps retrieving the SLP key in order to swap in the new HDD?

[191x7]

Do you already have the replacement hard drive? If you do, use it as an external drive AND put an SSD in the laptop.

SSD-s are the best upgrades one can do to a laptop, not only speed wise but also battery wise, portability wise (SSD-s are mostly immune to damage caused by falls, bumps, vibrations, etc) and temperature wise.

[Lucious!]

No, I'm going to be ordering it later today when I do some comparisons. But whether its SSD or HDD is irrelevant right now, I need to know if I actually can transfer my OS to the new drive because it is an OEM version. I have no idea how SLP keys work or how to get them, I just know they exist and could screw me over when I try this.

 

So, do I need to worry about anything since its an OEM version? Do I need to do any additional steps when transferring the OS because its an OEM? etc.