Help! Bought an SSD. Want to change Boot Drive

[Jimmeuh]

So I have bought an SSD. I want to change my boot drive from my HDD to the new drive.

 

I do not want to Clone my whole drive. I just want to clone the operating system to the SSD then delete the operating system of my HDD.

 

Any help would be lovely.

[RONOTHAN##]

There are a couple cloning utilities inside Windows that do this for you, the one I can think of off hand is Acronis, but they almost all require a license in order to do. 

 

What SSD did you buy? A lot of the time they end up giving you a free trial to one of the cloning utilities to get this done. 

 

All that said, you're better off just reinstalling Windows. I've personally had a lot of issues with these type of cloning utilities, and a fresh install of Windows gets you the best experience and the least likely to run into issues with it. You can then delete the OS files from the HDD and be effectively in the same place you were before. 

[Jimmeuh]

1 minute ago, RONOTHAN## said:

 

 

All that said, you're better off just reinstalling Windows. I've personally had a lot of issues with these type of cloning utilities, and a fresh install of Windows gets you the best experience and the least likely to run into issues with it. You can then delete the OS files from the HDD and be effectively in the same place you were before. 

Would i not need to buy another license to windows?

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, Jimmeuh said:

Would i not need to buy another license to windows?

No, your Windows license is tied to your motherboard, not your Windows install. Just click "I don't have a product key" in the installation and you're good to go.

[Jimmeuh]

3 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

No, your Windows license is tied to your motherboard, not your Windows install. Just click "I don't have a product key" in the installation and you're good to go.

Alright I am gonna sound so uneducated.

 

How can I do a fresh installation on the new SSD?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

16 minutes ago, Jimmeuh said:

Alright I am gonna sound so uneducated.

 

How can I do a fresh installation on the new SSD?

Get a usb drive, download the windows installation media creation tool for the version you want 10 or 11.

make sure you have a ms account with your windows

then run the installer, choose the drive (data will be wiped), let it run

Then turn off the pc, put in the usb, go to the bios and choose boot from usb.

then choose install now, then select the sad, , then let it run, and then reboot and set up, login to the ms account, windows will be activated

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, Helpful Tech Wiard said:

Get a usb drive, download the windows installation media creation tool for the version you want 10 or 11.

make sure you have a ms account with your windows

then run the installer, choose the drive (data will be wiped), let it run

Then turn off the pc, put in the usb, go to the bios and choose boot from usb.

then choose install now, then select the sad, , then let it run, and then reboot and set up, login to the ms account, windows will be activated

You don't even need the MS account if the rest of the PC's spec will remain unchanged. 

[SupaKomputa]

unplug every drive and install a new windows.

it will automatically register it base on your previous account (if not, just type in the previous key).

after finished, replug the drives and continue.

if you still boot to the old drive, just select the new drive in bios to boot.

as simple as that, same with cloning, clone, shutdown, go to bios, and select the new drive.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

6 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

You don't even need the MS account if the rest of the PC's spec will remain unchanged. 

No?

On like 5 different systems I’ve had, I needed a ms account on a os reinstall to get it activated

[RONOTHAN##]

33 minutes ago, Helpful Tech Wiard said:

No?

On like 5 different systems I’ve had, I needed a ms account on a os reinstall to get it activated

I never make MS accounts, and every time I've gone to do a fresh install (given it's the same hardware) it's just activated no issue. You only need to do that if your OS key is tied to your MS account, which I'm guessing yours was.