Upgrading my laptop ssd

[MazeJoaco]

Hey guys, I have what I believe is a dumb question but I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

I have an MSI laptop with a 128 GB SSD that I want to upgrade to a 512 GB one. Thing is the OS is installed in this drive and I want to know if I just have to replace the ssd and the bios will automatically have the windows 10 key for the installation and I just need the ISO (or not even that) or if it is more complicated than that. I have 1TB HDD too.

[79wjd]

You should just need to reinstall windows with an W10 iso on the new drive, although I would grab the license just in case.

[Hauklien]

I would consider just cloning the old system to the new SSD, doing something like this:

https://www.howtogeek.com/97242/how-to-migrate-windows-7-to-a-solid-state-drive/

[Gikero]

Both cloning or fresh install are good options, each as ups and downs.

I prefer fresh installs myself, I just like having a clean, minimal system. If you want to manually extract your key, I use an application called R/W Everything.
Any modern PC, Windows 8 or newer, will have your key within the BIOS. You do need to boot via UEFI for it to grab it automatically. If you are running 10 and your PC previously had 7 or 8 on it, then you can just do a fresh install and select "I don't have a key" once you connect to the internet, your hardware will re-activate with your digital license. 
 

If you want to clone, there are multiple applications for this. Samsung's and Crucial's SSDs come with software usually. Sometimes with cloning you will need to re-size your partitions afterward in order to access the additional space your new SSD is giving you. Not difficult at all. 

[jj9987]

I personally would recommend clean install. It's good to occasionally clean up Windows a bit, get fresh and update drivers and applications. I have had issues with cloning drives and failing to boot from the new drive or having wrong sized partitions.

[MazeJoaco]

On 12/5/2018 at 11:28 PM, Gikero said:

Both cloning or fresh install are good options, each as ups and downs.

I prefer fresh installs myself, I just like having a clean, minimal system. If you want to manually extract your key, I use an application called R/W Everything.
Any modern PC, Windows 8 or newer, will have your key within the BIOS. You do need to boot via UEFI for it to grab it automatically. If you are running 10 and your PC previously had 7 or 8 on it, then you can just do a fresh install and select "I don't have a key" once you connect to the internet, your hardware will re-activate with your digital license. 
 

If you want to clone, there are multiple applications for this. Samsung's and Crucial's SSDs come with software usually. Sometimes with cloning you will need to re-size your partitions afterward in order to access the additional space your new SSD is giving you. Not difficult at all. 

Alright, I'll definitely go with a clean installation. Thank you so much, your answer was really helpful.