Seeking Advice: Replacing Boot Drive in Multi-Drive Configuration

[hugaluga]

My PC currently only has a 240GB SSD as a boot drive and I purchased a 4TB SSD to replace it, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it. I have several other hard drives and SSDs on this computer with important files that I would rather not migrate or reformat as part of the process if possible.

 

Should I:

1 - Clone my boot drive onto the new SSD

• What program would I need to do this?
• Are there any special considerations?
• Will my other storage drives still be recognized by Windows while booting on the new drive?

OR
 

2 - Do a fresh windows install using the new boot drive

• Should I do windows 10 or windows 11?
• Are there any special considerations?
• Will my other storage drives still be recognized by Windows while booting on the new drive?

 

Bonus Question:
This was the first PC I ever built and when I first set up the PC I ran some software for hardening security. I only used it because it came free with some other software I bought. I regret this now since I clearly don't know what I'm doing. Should I be worried that it would have encrypted the drives or turned on some overly sensitive security settings that will flip out when I replace the boot drive?

[PDifolco]

22 minutes ago, hugaluga said:

My PC currently only has a 240GB SSD as a boot drive and I purchased a 4TB SSD to replace it, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it. I have several other hard drives and SSDs on this computer with important files that I would rather not migrate or reformat as part of the process if possible.

 

Should I:

1 - Clone my boot drive onto the new SSD

• What program would I need to do this?
• Are there any special considerations?
• Will my other storage drives still be recognized by Windows while booting on the new drive?

OR
 

2 - Do a fresh windows install using the new boot drive

• Should I do windows 10 or windows 11?
• Are there any special considerations?
• Will my other storage drives still be recognized by Windows while booting on the new drive?

 

Bonus Question:
This was the first PC I ever built and when I first set up the PC I ran some software for hardening security. I only used it because it came free with some other software I bought. I regret this now since I clearly don't know what I'm doing. Should I be worried that it would have encrypted the drives or turned on some overly sensitive security settings that will flip out when I replace the boot drive?

Cloning is simpler (and works well, did it 1 month ago, dual boot Win/linux)
I've used AOMEI Partition Assistant but have paid version, not sure the free one can do that (or only for a time)

After a full disk cloning (not partition clones) just increase or create new partition for the extra storage space

Wasn't able to upgrade to Win11 without boot errors btw, dual boot seems a no go

 

 

[hugaluga]

Thanks for the perspective. Cloning does seem more straightforward in some ways (though I'd have to procure software to make it happen).

Getting a fresh OS does have it's own appeal though so I've been procrastinating the decision.