HHD to SSD upgrade in an Optiplex 790

[DrQuickDroqqed]

I am going to upgrade a250gb hhd to an ssd in a Dell Optiplex 790. I am debating on whether to upgrade the ssd for faster boot times only, where I would buy an ssd with a capacity of around 120gb, or for general use, in which I would buy a larger capacity like a 240gb or 500gb. I also am wondering on how I would transfer my os from the HHD to my SSD as when I buy the optiplex it would come with windows 10 installed on the HHD. Any help would be appreiciated. Thanks!

[Enderman]

https://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

[BobVonBob]

There are plenty of drive cloning softwares out there, I know a lot of SSD vendors will include a software to clone the drive out of the box, otherwise last time I cloned a drive I used Macrium Reflect with little trouble. You will have to do some extra work if you want to clone to a smaller drive however.

 

Like Enderman mentioned, there is also the option of doing a clean install, move any files you want to keep to some external storage then reinstall, move the files back and you're up and running.

[DrQuickDroqqed]

6 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

There are plenty of drive cloning softwares out there, I know a lot of SSD vendors will include a software to clone the drive out of the box, otherwise last time I cloned a drive I used Macrium Reflect with little trouble. You will have to do some extra work if you want to clone to a smaller drive however.

 

Like Enderman mentioned, there is also the option of doing a clean install, move any files you want to keep to some external storage then reinstall, move the files back and you're up and running.

Do you think NVME is an option for these older computers?

[BobVonBob]

1 minute ago, DrQuickDroqqed said:

Do you think NVME is an option for these older computers?

Depends how old, if it's Intel's 5000 series or newer then you can boot from an NVMe drive, older hardware doesn't support NVMe boot, and your motherboard may or may not have an NVMe capable m.2 socket. (4000 series does support it too, but only on the high end z97 or x99 chipsets which an optiplex definitely doesn't have)

 

The better question is do you think you need an NVMe drive? There is very little difference in boot times with an NVMe drive, the difference only really becomes apparent when you're moving large files around regularly.

[DrQuickDroqqed]

1 minute ago, BobVonBob said:

Depends how old, if it's Intel's 5000 series or newer then you can boot from an NVMe drive, older hardware doesn't support NVMe boot, and your motherboard may or may not have an NVMe capable m.2 socket. (4000 series does support it too, but only on the high end z97 or x99 chipsets which an optiplex definitely doesn't have)

 

The better question is do you think you need an NVMe drive? There is very little difference in boot times with an NVMe drive, the difference only really becomes apparent when you're moving large files around regularly.

Yeah, I think I will settle with a 120gb kingston ssd. The macrium reflect should work with the ssd and the hhd in the dell optiplex correct?

[AlexTheGreatish]

I'd recommend just doing a clean install on the SSD.  For your files the easiest (and laziest) way is:

• Clean install on SSD
• Attach both the SSD and HDD to your computer at the same time
• Boot into SSD
• Copy any important files over from HDD to SSD
• Format HDD and then use it for storage

[DrQuickDroqqed]

1 minute ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

I'd recommend just doing a clean install on the SSD.  For your files the easiest (and laziest) way is:

• Clean install on SSD
• Attach both the SSD and HDD to your computer at the same time
• Boot into SSD
• Copy any important files over from HDD to SSD
• Format HDD and then use it for storage

The thing is, the only thing I want from the old hhd is the os. Everything else can go since its a used pc and the files will probably be no use to me.

[LogicalDrm]

48 minutes ago, DrQuickDroqqed said:

The thing is, the only thing I want from the old hhd is the os. Everything else can go since its a used pc and the files will probably be no use to me.

Since it's coming to you as used, best practice is just to install OS as fresh. Remove HDD, install SSD and install OS. Depending on age, it either has COA sticker mounted on the case or key is embedded on mobo. On latter it will automatically activate itself.

[DrQuickDroqqed]

Thanks to all who have helped me so far. Sorry if I'm not the techiest dude out there

[DrQuickDroqqed]

19 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Since it's coming to you as used, best practice is just to install OS as fresh. Remove HDD, install SSD and install OS. Depending on age, it either has COA sticker mounted on the case or key is embedded on mobo. On latter it will automatically activate itself.

My computer comes with windows 10. If I were to get a new os how do you suggest I do so?

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, DrQuickDroqqed said:

My computer comes with windows 10. If I were to get a new os how do you suggest I do so?

New by getting another key or just doing fresh install? Fresh install you can do with USB installer. Which you get from Microsoft. You can use browser extension to spoof device ID for ISO file.

 

As for another key, I'm just gonna say that I pay full price myself.

[DrQuickDroqqed]

7 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

New by getting another key or just doing fresh install? Fresh install you can do with USB installer. Which you get from Microsoft. You can use browser extension to spoof device ID for ISO file.

 

As for another key, I'm just gonna say that I pay full price myself.

Ok thank you! I will look into it more.

[DrQuickDroqqed]

Thank you everyone for helping me out I think I got my problem solved.