Reinstalling Windows 10 on new SSD and reusing old HDD

[Paul Rudd]

I just got a brand new 240 GB SSD and I'm looking to install it into a 10 year old PC with Windows 10 installed onto its current HDD. I do NOT care about what is currently on the HDD as I just did a fresh Windows 10 install onto it.

 

I have written down both Windows keys I found within the PC via the registry, powershell and command prompts. The powershell and command prompt keys are the same and I'm thinking to use the registry key as it's most likely the key for Windows 10 Home while the other 2 keys are for the original Windows 8.1 that was originally installed on this PC.

 

I have the SATA cable ready for the SSD and hopefully the other cable that connects to the SSD via the PSU is waiting inside the PC(I have yet to open it yet but it should be there).

 

I have also prepared the Windows 10 installation via a USB flash drive with the Windows Creation Tool.

 

So I'm wanting to know the best steps to take for this entire process as I'd also like to reuse the current HDD for extra storage. I'd like to wipe it clean.

 

Also, I'm fairly familiar with the creating New Volumes process via Disk Management.

 

Also, I will be doing this tomorrow, not today. So I'm looking to get the best step by step possible.

[Eigenvektor]

4 minutes ago, Paul Rudd said:

I have written down both Windows keys I found within the PC via the registry, powershell and command prompts. The powershell and command prompt keys are the same and I'm thinking to use the registry key as it's most likely the key for Windows 10 Home while the other 2 keys are for the original Windows 8.1 that was originally installed on this PC.

Microsoft switched to a digital license long ago, meaning you shouldn't need either. That license is bound to the computer itself, so it should automatically be licensed after installation. If you ever want to transfer the license to a new PC, sign in with a Microsoft account. That way the license gets associated with that account, where you can unassign it from your current PC and assign it to a new PC.

 

6 minutes ago, Paul Rudd said:

So I'm wanting to know the best steps to take for this entire process as I'd also like to reuse the current HDD for extra storage. I'd like to wipe it clean.

1. Power off PC, unplug
2. Disconnect HDD, connect SSD
3. Make sure CSM is disabled in BIOS so you get a GPT install
4. Install Windows
5. Power off PC, unplug
6. Reconnect HDD
7. Wipe HDD (or delete and recreate all partitions in Disk Management if you prefer)

[Kid.Lazer]

Do you want to reinstall Windows 10 fresh, or are you just assuming you have to? The easiest approach would be to clone your current HDD to your SSD, then wipe your HDD for data use (after you verify your SSD boots and functions correctly.)

[Paul Rudd]

1 hour ago, Eigenvektor said:

• Power off PC, unplug
• Disconnect HDD, connect SSD
• Make sure CSM is disabled in BIOS so you get a GPT install
• Install Windows
• Power off PC, unplug
• Reconnect HDD
• Wipe HDD (or delete and recreate all partitions in Disk Management if you prefer)

So it's completely fine to disconnect the HDD that Windows is on and plug in the SSD? Then I'm guessing the PC powers up directly into the BIOS instead of Windows? Which is where I'd find the USB flash to install Windows?

1 hour ago, Kid.Lazer said:

Do you want to reinstall Windows 10 fresh, or are you just assuming you have to? The easiest approach would be to clone your current HDD to your SSD, then wipe your HDD for data use (after you verify your SSD boots and functions correctly.)

I'm not assuming I have to, I want to. Cloning is not required since what is on the HDD I have no care for. I want a completely fresh install.

 

Also, do I need to allocate the SSD before installing Windows? I would think this happens when installing Windows via the flash drive.

[Eigenvektor]

35 minutes ago, Paul Rudd said:

So it's completely fine to disconnect the HDD that Windows is on and plug in the SSD? Then I'm guessing the PC powers up directly into the BIOS instead of Windows? Which is where I'd find the USB flash to install Windows?

It's fine to disconnect the HDD. I'm recommending it because the Windows installer likes to pull crap like putting some system partitions onto a secondary disk if it finds one, which you don't want.

 

By default your system will likely try to boot from the SSD, which will obviously fail. You'll have to manually go into the BIOS and set it to boot from the USB stick. Depending on the BIOS there may also be a button to pop up the boot menu directly (e.g. F11 on mine)

 

35 minutes ago, Paul Rudd said:

Also, do I need to allocate the SSD before installing Windows? I would think this happens when installing Windows via the flash drive.

Not needed. You can just select the disk and the Windows installer will create the necessary partitions for you. You could manually create partitions if you want it to not use all of it or some other specific use case.

[Paul Rudd]

Excellent, thank you @Kid.Lazer and @Eigenvektor for the responses. Will apply all of this tomorrow with the SSD/HDD.

[Paul Rudd]

@Kid.Lazer @Eigenvektor

 

Well I'm proud to post that the Windows installation was a breeze and took less than a half hour to complete. Thanks again for the perfect guidance for this process. Optimizing Windows once it was up and running took a good couple of hours though, since I like to optimize the entirety of pretty much all you can think of that could be optimized within the OS itself. I just left the HDD inside the PC and plan to not even mess with it until the PC one day needs extra storage. I also unplugged the DVD drive because of the noise it made when you turn on the PC.

 

Everything went so smoothly, I am now thinking about cloning my personal computers 1 TB HDD boot drive to a 1 TB SSD. I've been putting it off for just over 7 years now simply because I want absolutely no issues to arise because of how well my personal PC has been running flawlessly for me.

 

Will a PCI-E 3.0 M.2 SSD be compatible with my MSI B150M BAZOOKA PLUS motherboard? Such as the Sabrent Rocket 1 TB for $70?

 

The motherboards website shows...

 

Storage

• Intel® B150 Chipset
• 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
• 1 x M.2 slot (Key M)
- Supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6Gb/s
- Supports 2242/ 2260/ 2280 storage devices
- Supports PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe Mini-SAS SSD with Turbo U.2 Host Card**

* SATA1 port will be unavailable when installing the M.2 SATA module in M.2 slot.

 

So I'm guessing it does, but the... "* SATA1 port will be unavailable when installing the M.2 SATA module in M.2 slot." I do NOT like seeing. I think that's where my current 1 TB HDD is installed.

[Eigenvektor]

2 hours ago, Paul Rudd said:

So I'm guessing it does, but the... "* SATA1 port will be unavailable when installing the M.2 SATA module in M.2 slot." I do NOT like seeing. I think that's where my current 1 TB HDD is installed.

Specs: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B150M-BAZOOKA-PLUS/Specification

 

The board has 6 x 6 Gbps SATA ports, so you'll be fine. Simply plug the HDD into one of the other SATA ports. It would only be an issue if you needed all 6.

 

If I'm reading it correctly, it'll also only be disabled if you install a SATA SSD into the M.2 slot. So it should continue working as normal, if you buy a M.2 NVMe SSD instead (such as the Sabrent Rocket 1 TB). There's no real reason to go for M.2 SATA these days, with such low prices for NVMe (which have much better performance).

[Paul Rudd]

11 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

If I'm reading it correctly, it'll also only be disabled if you install a SATA SSD into the M.2 slot.

Gee willikers you're right! What an amazing observation. Gonna have to do it now, just a matter of when really. I got Amazon Prime for another couple weeks so I have that amount of time to decide since shipping will be free. It's $70 right now but it's not straight from Sabrent. It's from a 3rd party Amazon seller. The good news is they have 100% positive feedback.

 

If I go for the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 instead for the same price, I'd imagine it just operates at Gen 3 right? I guess I ask this just in case I somehow decide to build me a new PC within the next 5-10 years or so and I can reuse this drive. I wouldn't think I'd get the 5000/4400 speeds on this motherboard either but I'm totally fine with that. I do wonder what speeds it would default to on this board, maybe the 3400/3000 of the 3.0 Sabrent Rocket? Seems to me the hardware would be slightly better since it's a newer SSD but I think it's only like a half a year newer.

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, Paul Rudd said:

If I go for the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 instead for the same price, I'd imagine it just operates at Gen 3 right?

Correct.

 

PCIe is designed to be backwards and forwards compatible, so you can use a Gen4 drive in a Gen3 slot and vice versa. It's maximum speed will simply be limited by the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0 (theoretically up to 3.94 GB/s, realistically maybe around 3.5?)

 

It's not going to make a huge difference in any case. I've got both Gen3 and Gen4 in my system. There's basically no noticeable difference between them in most cases, outside of copying large files. I've moved games from Gen3 to Gen4 and load times haven't changed a bit. At the speed of 7 GB/s the CPU and other components become the limiting factor, e.g. when data needs to be decompressed.