Upgrading Primary Hard drive to SSD

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Krustation

Commendable
Oct 2, 2016
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When I built my new computer I used an old hard drive with windows 7 and just bought a new 3 TB hard drive as a secondary hard drive which I have all of my programs and apps on. I want to upgrade my small main hard drive to an SSD and upgrade to windows 10. How would I go about doing that while keeping all the the data on my 3 TB hard drive intact?
 
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Rocky Bennett

Rocky Bennett

Dignified
May 25, 2016
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This is what I would do. I would;

1. Buy a license for Windows 10
2. Download a copy of Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/9230-windows-10-iso-download.html
3. Put The ISO of Windows 10 onto a USB stick
4. Install the new SSD
5. Disconnect the current hard drive
6. Boot up from the USB stick and install Windows 10
7. Plug in the old hard drive

That should do it for you.
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

Glorious
Jul 30, 2014
6,758
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Hey there & welcome to Tom's Hardware, @Krustation!

No matter what kind of tampering you do you with you current storage configuration, always make sure you have a backup of the files from that 3 TB HDD somewhere off-site! This is the surest way to avoid any potential data loss. Just like @Rocky mentioned, you will definitely need to unplug the hard drive from the system while installing Windows onto the SSD. This is how you will prevent the unfortunate event of OS confusion, which basically scatters your system file across all the SATA devices connected and eventually lead to some booting issues.
I believe this guide might help you with the detailed step-by-step on Windows Install & Optimization for SSDs & HDDs.

Good luck! Hope it helps you! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
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