Is it possible to move windows from my hdd to my new ssd?

[Jest a gamer 27]

Right now I have a 1 TB hdd, I will get a new ssd soon, but I have a Dell XPS 8700, upgraded with a GTX 1050 ti. My question is: how do I move windows to my new ssd without screwing Windows up? What I mean by this is my pc didn't come with a windows disk or product key, it was shipped with Windows 8.1, then I upgraded it to Windows 10.

 

My rig:

OS: Windows 10 (Windows 8.1 upgraded 2 years ago, ish)

1TB External HDD

840 samsung evo 250gb (empty)

1TB HDD (OS on it)

gtx 1050 ti

16gb ddr3 RAM

I7 4790 (NOT K) 

[Jest a gamer 27]

3 minutes ago, CUDA_Cores said:

 

 

I don't have a WD hard-drive

[Daniel644]

YES, but DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!! cloning the drive means your SSD would NEED to be large enough to hold ALL your files and even if it is you'll still have issues or lack the performance you should have.

 

With Windows 8.1 and 10 the "key" is stored in the UEFI Bios, you don't need the key, you can use an empty USB Drive and the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft to download the Windows 10 installer to install a CLEAN install of 10 on the New SSD.

[Jest a gamer 27]

2 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

YES, but DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!! cloning the drive means your SSD would NEED to be large enough to hold ALL your files and even if it is you'll still have issues or lack the performance you should have.

 

With Windows 8.1 and 10 the "key" is stored in the UEFI Bios, you don't need the key, you can use an empty USB Drive and the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft to download the Windows 10 installer to install a CLEAN install of 10 on the New SSD.

So the product key is "saved" on the motherboard so unless I change the motherboard I don't need the product key, right? Oh, and will I have to delete windows on my original hdd?

[Daniel644]

Just now, Jest a gamer 27 said:

So the product key is "saved" on the motherboard so unless I change the motherboard I don't need the product key, right? Oh, and will I have to delete windows on my original hdd?

Correct key is tied to the motherboard, I currently have 2 SSD's in my laptop which shipped with 8.1, I downgraded it to 7 when I installed my first SSD then returned to 8.1 when 10 was preparing to launch so I could take the upgrade then I reverted to 8.1 due to compatibility issues with my work software, then my HDD died and so I replaced it with a second SSD and then I installed 10 on that second SSD I can now choose which version (8.1 or 10) I want to boot to by choosing which SSD to boot from. If you keep the old drive (for safety I would disconnect it temporarily during the setup of the new SSD) you could have a dual boot system with 1 OS on one drive and another OS on the other like I have with my SSD's, just be sure to put any files you want to share between the 2 drives in a public folder, if they are just in your user account you have to do this whole "Take Ownership" thing which just takes a lot of time if you have a bunch of files.

 

that said once you get 10 on the SSD you could delete the Windows folder from the HDD to free up 10-20GB of space on the HDD, but you wouldn't be able to boot that drive to windows after that.

 

Also remember, a clean install means installing drivers and programs you use after installing 10 to the SSD.

[Jest a gamer 27]

5 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

Correct key is tied to the motherboard, I currently have 2 SSD's in my laptop which shipped with 8.1, I downgraded it to 7 when I installed my first SSD then returned to 8.1 when 10 was preparing to launch so I could take the upgrade then I reverted to 8.1 due to compatibility issues with my work software, then my HDD died and so I replaced it with a second SSD and then I installed 10 on that second SSD I can now choose which version (8.1 or 10) I want to boot to by choosing which SSD to boot from. If you keep the old drive (for safety I would disconnect it temporarily during the setup of the new SSD) you could have a dual boot system with 1 OS on one drive and another OS on the other like I have with my SSD's, just be sure to put any files you want to share between the 2 drives in a public folder, if they are just in your user account you have to do this whole "Take Ownership" thing which just takes a lot of time if you have a bunch of files.

 

that said once you get 10 on the SSD you could delete the Windows folder from the HDD to free up 10-20GB of space on the HDD, but you wouldn't be able to boot that drive to windows after that.

 

Also remember, a clean install means installing drivers and programs you use after installing 10 to the SSD.

Is there a specific way that I am supposed to uninstall windows 10 from my hdd? Thank you for the help btw.

[Daniel644]

Just now, Jest a gamer 27 said:

Is there a specific way that I am supposed to uninstall windows 10 from my hdd? Thank you for the help btw.

if you wanted to fully kill the old 10 install from your harddrive you could transfer all your files (EVERYTHING you don't want to LOSE) to your SSD or an external drive of some sort (depends on the amount of files you have), then just format the HDD, that will wipe it clean, then you can copy back any files you don't want taking space on the SSD, you don't "have" to unistall 10 from the HDD, it would just be about reclaiming the extra space, I did the delete the Windows folder from the HDD method after I installed Windows on my first SSD because at that time I didn't have an external drive with the capacity to hold all my files, frankly it doesn't make a huge difference.