Booting from SSD

[ecp0903]

Hey, 

I've noticed lately that my PC has been running alot slower lately as booting up is taking longer. I understand that the solution is a SSD, but I want to use my existing HDD with it. This would mean that I only have to buy a small and cheaper SSD, just to boot from. Would I have to buy and entire new copy of Windows, or can I somehow do it through the BIOS or the settings? 

 

Thanks, Eric

Spoiler

 

 

[Jamtoad]

just install windows like you did the first time but on the SSD, you can use the same key 

[Vsauce4]

Reinstall windows from itself

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10startfresh

Or go to settings in Windows 10 and do a refresh.

 

Then when done install CCleaner and Malwarebytes.

Use chrome or edge.

Thats it.

[Wolther]

You don't need to buy Windows again. 

[Doramius]

shouldn't need to buy windows again.  However, I'd recommend cloning the drive to the SSD and then migrating non-essential data back to the older mechanical drive.  A lot of people forget you can shrink and expand partition volumes quite easily from Vista on in windows OS's.  I do this a lot with work machines.  They originally came with cheap 500GB Hybrids.  If someone complained about a slow system, we'd shrink the partition volume down below 200GB [few people made it over 100GB in our work environment], clone the partitions over to a 250GB SSD and then expand it back to the full 250GB.  The boot times were around 25% what they used to be, and the cost savings for the 250GB SSD is pretty good.  The MX300 275GB SSDs are pretty cheap too.  My company might migrate to those soon, as the Intel ones we're using now are really good, but about $10-$15 more expensive.