Upgrade to 64-bit Windows 10 on newly installed SSD

ShubZy

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Hi all, I've just bought a new SanDisk SSD and I want to install it in my PC. I am hoping to do some upgrades to my computer soon and one of the big things holding me back is the fact that I am currently running a 32-bit version of Windows 10 and it can't recognise more than 3gb of RAM. I want to set up my PC so that it boots from the SSD and my other photos, music and media are on my old HDD. After some reading around it looks like it should be possible but I'm still a bit confused by the process, including what changes (if any) I need to make to the bios first, how create a partition for Windows on my SSD and then how to delete my old 32-bit version of Windows.

What I have so far is this:
1) Connect SSD power and data

2) Use windows 10 creation tool to make a USB to install from.

3) Install Windows 10 64-bit to new SSD (disconnect old HDD for this bit).
4) After Windows 10 installed reconnect HDD.

5) Boot Windows from SSD.

How do I then remove the old 32 bit version of Windows? I know my old programs won't work so I will need to reinstall them but does this affect any of the media on my drive (photos, music etc)?

Thanks in advance and sorry for all the questions, it's the first time I've done anything like this!
 
Solution
Hey there, ShubZy.

If everything's OK with the new Windows 10 64-bit installation, you could enter Disk Management (Right-click the bottom-left corner (or Start button) on the desktop and then select "Disk Management") and delete the partition containing your old OS from your HDD. Once you've opened Disk Management, click with the right-mouse button on the partition you wish to delete and select "Delete volume" and this storage space will become "unallocated". Click with the right-mouse button on it again and select "New simple volume", then follow the wizard to create the new partition and you should have a brand new formatted partition to use for storing your personal data.
When doing the describe above, please make sure that you've...
Hey there, ShubZy.

If everything's OK with the new Windows 10 64-bit installation, you could enter Disk Management (Right-click the bottom-left corner (or Start button) on the desktop and then select "Disk Management") and delete the partition containing your old OS from your HDD. Once you've opened Disk Management, click with the right-mouse button on the partition you wish to delete and select "Delete volume" and this storage space will become "unallocated". Click with the right-mouse button on it again and select "New simple volume", then follow the wizard to create the new partition and you should have a brand new formatted partition to use for storing your personal data.
When doing the describe above, please make sure that you've selected the proper partition so that you don't lose any of your personal data by formatting a different one by mistake.

Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Boogieman_WD
 
Solution

ShubZy

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Thanks for your reply, that helps! Any idea how I configure the SSD for maximum performance? I read somewhere about leaving about 10% of the drive space free to act as a 'working memory' actually increases the drive performance?

Thanks again :)
 
Well 10% is the recommended Over Provisioning space required for an SSD. This basically ensures that there's free space so that data could be moved around and delete, simply put - to be able to organize better the data stored in the memory blocks and the space it takes. You should definitely enable the TRIM function which basically does that for you automatically. This is an OS related function, so if you're running Windows 7 or a later version, it will be available.
Take a look at this article on how to optimize your SSD's performance: https://www.maketecheasier.com/12-things-you-must-do-when-running-a-solid-state-drive-in-windows-7/, I'd recommend that you don't disable System Restore when you get to step 3, but adjust the storage space it takes to about 5%. Basically it's up to you if you'd like to follow all the suggestions, so do that at your own discretion.

Please let me know if you have any questions. :)
 

ShubZy

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Thanks again for the reply, that article looks like it will be really helpful. I'm still in the process of backing up all my files to ensure that everything is hunky dory before installing the new drive. I still have a couple of questions though:

1) If I install the 64-bit version of Windows on my new SSD, the 32-bit version will still be present on the old HDD. I thought my OS was in a separate partition on my HDD but I think I was mistaken, as I can't find any evidence of it. How do I delete the old version of Windows?

2) Can I link the accounts information found on my old HDD to the new install on the SSD? If so, how?

3) Can I simply change the folder links on 'photos' and 'My documents' etc to point to the HDD once I've installed the new version 64-bit version of Windows or is there an easier way?

Thanks again, I really appreciate the help
 
1) If you have everything backed up (all your personal data like photos, videos. documents, etc), then you could just format the HDD so that you have a clean drive ready to be used as secondary storage. Once you've done that, you could copy all the backed up data you need, back to the HDD.
Check out this link on how to partition and format a hard drive: How to partition and format a hard drive on Windows and Mac OSX

2) I don't think you can link the User Accounts of the 2 operating systems. You might want to double-check that with Microsoft's customer support if you want to be 100% sure.

3) You can move your User Folder with all of its contents to a different drive, by following this tutorial: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1964-users-folder-move-location-windows-10-a.html. If you have a clean secondary storage drive (by clean I mean with no traces of an old OS), there shouldn't be any issues with that. Otherwise some conflicts may arise if the drive already contains User Folders from your previous Windows installation.

Please keep me posted on your progress.
 

ShubZy

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Hi,

Thanks again for your help, but I've got a little stuck at the moment as I am trying to create a system image before attempting any of these steps but it keeps failing after about an hour and a half of saving and gives me the following message: :(

Drive_Error.png


I am reluctant to do anything with the new drive until I've backed up my old one to my external HDD. Do you have any idea what might be causing this issue? I successfully created a system image before upgrading to Windows 10 without any issues whatsoever and now it doesn't want to work.

I've taken a read through the partition guide and the tutorial on migrating the user files but am getting a bit confused as to when I need to do all these additional bits. It's all getting a bit complicated and I can't get it straight in my head.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
 
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. There seems to be an issue sometimes when someone tries to image/backup a hard drive. I'd recommend that you get in touch with Microsoft's customer support directly and as for assistance on how to solve this problem, or go straight to 3rd party backup software.
 

ShubZy

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Dec 7, 2015
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Hi,

I just went to a 3rd party program (Macrium Reflect) to image the drive before attempting anything. I have since installed a 64-bit version of Windows 10 but I am unable to get it to run in AHCI mode. I realised after I had done the install that switching on AHCI after installing the OS is a little more challenging, however I performed the registry edits I found on other forums but to no avail. If I switch the BIOS setting to 'enhanced' for the SATA controller (I have a fairly old G41m-es2l mobo) Windows is unable to find a boot drive regardless of the changes I made to the registry. I can't find any mention of whether or not this board supports AHCI on the Gigabyte website but some forums suggest the 'enhanced' setting enables AHCI, whilst another forum said the board doesn't support AHCI at all. If I can't change to AHCI will it be a problem for the SSD? I don't think I can enable the 'TRIM' function without it.

Thanks

 
Basically AHCI is not necessary in order for you to be able to activate the "so important" for every SSD, TRIM function (contrary to popular belief). This is OS specific and you should be able to use your SSD and run it with TRIM enabled in IDE mode as well. I'm really not sure if the mobo supports AHCI, but you can contact the manufacturer's customer support and ask for some info on the matter, or consult with the motherboard's "user's manual".