New HDD?

[Bright_Darkness]

I made a computer last year. when i made it, i used the old hard drive from a dell optiplex GX620 and reinstalled windows so i dont have to purchace a new copy of windows. then i started noticing that it is slow so i want a new HDD so i want to move all the files including the OS on the new HDD since i dont want to buy a new copy of windows. How can i do that? also does the process change if i want to Move it on a SSD?

[HPWebcamAble]

Follow this guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/199068/how-to-upgrade-your-existing-hard-drive-in-under-an-hour/

 

I'd recommend using an SSD if you can afford one.

[Captain_WD]

4 hours ago, Bright_Darkness said:

~snip~

Hello

 

Swapping hardware such as motherboard, GPU, CPU, etc requires you to reinstall the OS, regardless if you are using the same HDD and OS Key or not, otherwise you are risking a lot of errors and issues. 

 

You can easily get the installation file from the website, create a bootable Thumb Drive with the OS image file and reuse your OS key to make a fresh install. This will require you to also reinstall all your games and programs due to the new registry. If you don't know your OS key you can check it like this: 
Assuming you can boot your computer without any problems, you can easily create a simple VBscript that will read the value out of the registry and then translate it into the format that you need for reinstalling. Copy and paste the following into a Notepad window:

 

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur = Cur * 256
Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
Cur = Cur Mod 24
x = x -1
Loop While x >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
i = i -1
KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i >= 0
ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function

 

You’ll need to use File -> Save As, change the “Save as type” to “All Files” and then name it productkey.vbs or something similar ending with the vbs extension. Once you’ve saved it, you can just double-click and the popup window will show you your product key. If you use CTRL + C when the popup window is active, it will copy the contents of the window to the clipboard, and then you can paste it into Notepad or somewhere else.

 

Another option is to simply clone your drive onto the new one and manage the remaining unallocated space (assuming the new drive would be with a larger capacity compared to the old one). Each manufacturer has a recommended cloning tool. For WD drives that would be Acronis True Image WD Edition.

 

Cheers!

 

Captain_WD.