Replacing HDD with SSD question

[OmJo93]

This is my first time replacing an HDD with an SSD. I'm hoping I can just take out the HDD and put the SSD in, and just install Windows 10 again on it. Will that work? Or do I need to "clone" the HDD first?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[TheGlenlivet]

1 minute ago, OmJo93 said:

This is my first time replacing an HDD with an SSD. I'm hoping I can just take out the HDD and put the SSD in, and just install Windows 10 again on it. Will that work? Or do I need to "clone" the HDD first?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

You can do that if you don't want any of the data on the HDD.

If you want to pick up right where you left off, then clone.

[Morgan MLGman]

All you need is bootable Windows media and your Windows product key.

 

I personally also download essentiall apps and drivers on a USB drive first so it's easier and faster to start the PC up after a clean install (especially the networking ones).

[ProjectBox153]

2 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

You can do that if you don't want any of the data on the HDD.

If you want to pick up right where you left off, then clone.

Cloning isn't recommended because it can cause issues with drivers and stuff, such as drive geometry. 

[OmJo93]

Thanks for the quick answers!

 

I formatted the hard drive a couple of days with a fresh install of Windows 10 in anticipation for the SSD, so there's nothing on it I really need to keep at the moment.

[ProjectBox153]

3 minutes ago, OmJo93 said:

Thanks for the quick answers!

 

I formatted the hard drive a couple of days with a fresh install of Windows 10 in anticipation for the SSD, so there's nothing on it I really need to keep at the moment.

That's good. Just install Windows on the SSD and format the hard drive. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

22 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

Cloning isn't recommended because it can cause issues with drivers and stuff, such as drive geometry. 

Can you explain what you mean by "drive geometry"?

[AshleyAshes]

34 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

Cloning isn't recommended because it can cause issues with drivers and stuff, such as drive geometry. 

Ha ha, what mumbo-jumbo fear mongery stuff is this?  Cloning can in no way influence the geometry of a drive.

[ProjectBox153]

52 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Can you explain what you mean by "drive geometry"?

What the size of the drive is and the operating system’s interpretation of where partitions should be. I’m just saying what I’ve always heard and found to be true. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

5 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

What the size of the drive is and the operating system’s interpretation of where partitions should be. I’m just saying what I’ve always heard and found to be true. 

What if I told you I've cloned at least a half dozen times without issue? What if I told you the only thing I cloned during my early days of cloning was the OS partition and all I had to do to get the OS to be happy was fix the bootloader (which isn't that hard)?

 

The operating system doesn't care where it is or the size of the disk its on. Nothing is hard coded in the operating system. The only thing that cares is the bootloader, which since Windows Vista is separate from the OS partition, which does need to know where the OS is. And the bootloader is easy to fix if cloning the entire drive didn't work out too well.

 

Now the only thing that is a problem is if the HDD isn't 4K aligned.

[ProjectBox153]

36 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

What if I told you I've cloned at least a half dozen times without issue? What if I told you the only thing I cloned during my early days of cloning was the OS partition and all I had to do to get the OS to be happy was fix the bootloader (which isn't that hard)?

 

The operating system doesn't care where it is or the size of the disk its on. Nothing is hard coded in the operating system. The only thing that cares is the bootloader, which since Windows Vista is separate from the OS partition, which does need to know where the OS is. And the bootloader is easy to fix if cloning the entire drive didn't work out too well.

 

Now the only thing that is a problem is if the HDD isn't 4K aligned.

Ok, ok, you must be lucky. Everything I've heard from people and experienced for myself points to cloning being an issue for people. 

[AshleyAshes]

56 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

What the size of the drive is and the operating system’s interpretation of where partitions should be. I’m just saying what I’ve always heard and found to be true. 

That's not even what drive geometry even is.

[ARikozuM]

18 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

Ok, ok, you must be lucky. Everything I've heard from people and experienced for myself points to cloning being an issue for people. 

Just like reviews, you'll only hear the people with headaches respond. Practically everyone else will give "five stars" and move on. I've cloned more than my fair share of drives (operating system and independent storage) and only had issues where Windows itself was FUBAR. You shouldn't believe everything when it comes to cloning.

[AshleyAshes]

7 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Just like reviews, you'll only hear the people with headaches respond. Practically everyone else will give "five stars" and move on. I've cloned more than my fair share of drives (operating system and independent storage) and only had issues where Windows itself was FUBAR. You shouldn't believe everything when it comes to cloning.

It's also pretty common in office environments.  They build images for one set of hardware and then just write that same image to every machine since individual installs take a LOT of resources from your IT department.

Honestly, I think that people just clone, then start experiencing problems for unrelated reasons (Cause computers can form problems for a BAJILLION reasons), they format and reinstall, it solves the problem and they assume it was cloning rather than formatting and reinstalling was the CAUSE of the problem.  Despite the fact that cloning is an accepted practice and I've never seen anyone come up with a compelling explanation as to how cloning could cause any problems.  They just assume that data being moved from one drive to another causes 'weird voodoo things' to happen.  Of course formatting and reinstalling fixes the problem; Formatting and reinstalling will fix 95% of any computer problems no matter how simple.  It's the 'Bulldozer Solution' go with rather than determining what the actual cause of the problem was.

 

It's like tearing down a house and building a new one because the faucet was leaky.

[ARikozuM]

12 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

It's like tearing down a house and building a new one because the faucet was leaky.

I don't want to name any members, but apparently HDD to SSD cloning flips a switch causing issues...

[AshleyAshes]

3 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I don't want to name any members, but apparently HDD to SSD cloning flips a switch causing issues...

I know that once upon a time, Windows if cloned from an HDD to an SSD wouldn't know to enable TRIM support cause it only looked during installation.  But you could have always just enabled that manually if you needed and having done an HDD to SDD clone in Win10 and checking if TRIM was enabled, it seems to detect that automatically now.

[ARikozuM]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

I know that once upon a time, Windows if cloned from an HDD to an SSD wouldn't know to enable TRIM support cause it only looked during installation.  But you could have always just enabled that manually if you needed and having done an HDD to SDD clone in Win10 and checking if TRIM was enabled, it seems to detect that automatically now.

It has been detected in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 (with an update). Not like you're losing out on much without TRIM enabled. 

[Ingrid_W]

No, no need to clone HDD if you plan to install Windows 10 on SSD. A clean install is always my first choice. However, you can give AOMEI Backupper a shot if you don't want to reinstall Windows and software. 

[Patrick3D]

Unless you are dealing with a computer joined to an Active Directory domain, then cloning with modern cloning software that handles 4K alignment won't be an issue. If you do clone a domain joined computer, you will simply need to remove it from the domain and re-join it to generate a new "domain SID" for it..