Transferring OS

[Apollo Refugio]

Right now, my harddrive has my OS. I'll be picking up an SSD in the near future, and I want to transfer my OS to an SSD. Would i need to reactivate my windows key? I'm using an OEM windows 10 pro key from kinguin, and I want to know if that will cause a struggle. What programs will i use? How long will the process take? My HDD w/ the OS uses only 60 GB. Thanks

[Howitz]

you will want to clone your drive on this one, check for some cloning softwares around i know i used something like that when i did it for mine.

 

what i will do next week is take that same ssd clone of my original laptop OEM windows 10 version and plug it to my new desktop ill be assembling, do you think it will work, afterwards i would do a windows 10 reinitialization to wipe everything on the drive but windows files and start anew from that.

 

sorry i kind of answered your question but then asked you one haha

[Enderman]

1) don't clone or migrate, it is a bad solution and causes issues most of the time which will cause you to need to reinstall anyway. So you waste time, effort, and end up with a messed up OS.

It is a lazy way of doing things, not the proper way.

 

2) do a clean install, it's not hard. http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

 

3) you do not need to do anything with any key. It will activate itself. Just follow the steps to install it.

[Sniperfox47]

4 minutes ago, Howitz said:

you will want to clone your drive on this one, check for some cloning softwares around i know i used something like that when i did it for mine.

 

what i will do next week is take that same ssd clone of my original laptop OEM windows 10 version and plug it to my new desktop ill be assembling, do you think it will work, afterwards i would do a windows 10 reinitialization to wipe everything on the drive but windows files and start anew from that.

 

sorry i kind of answered your question but then asked you one haha

It won't work. That's the downside to OEM keys. They're only valid on one system, non transferable. As soon as they're activated to one machine you can't move them and activate them on another like you can with retail keys.

 

You can try calling the Microsoft activation line and see if they'll be kind, but it won't work by default if the key is an OEM key.

[meenmeen1103]

You can clone the drive with various programs (macrium reflect, acronis etc) but you should also be able to easily fresh install using the same activation since this is just a drive swap. Do a fresh install unless you also have other paid program licenses tied to that installation which will complicate the swap. 

Read up here: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-re-activate-windows-10-after-hardware-change

You'll for the most part just want to make sure your windows is linked to your microsoft account and it should be an automatic reactivation. Use same key if prompted. 

[Falconevo]

Use CloneZilla if you buy anything that is not from Samsung.

If you buy a Samsung SSD, they provide a tool for cloning your original OS installation to the SSD easily.