upgrading laptop to win 10 from 7, want to install the new OS on SSD.

[monkmith]

have a laptop with win 7 that i plan to upgrade to 10, this came from bestbuy so it doesn't have a win 7 install disk (i have one, but its for another computer; figured it wouldn't work/matter). it does have that windows sticker on the underside though, i think its the registration key?

i want to swap the HDD for an SSD and do a clean install of win 10 on it, but i'm not sure how to do this without borking the whole thing. i think i have to upgrade the current win 7 install that's on the laptop, pull the HDD and swap in the SSD, and install the win 10 OS from a flash drive or DVD onto it. is this correct? and do i need to worry about the product key in any of those steps?

 

[glamdringfh]

Hi monksmith,

This will only work if you have the correct install disk (there are two types, retail and OEM), but as long as your install disk is the same Windows type as the Key on the bottom of your laptop it should work fine.

I think the easiest course of action would be:

-Pyisically install the new SSD
-Use your available Windows 7 install disk to install Win7 to the SSD, then use your current Win7 on the underside of the laptop to activate
-After a fresh Winows 7 install upgrade to Windows 10 on your SSD

There are other ways of doing this, but unless you have an external hard drive enclosure for easy cloning I think the process above would be the easiest to manage.

 

[monkmith]

well the disk i have is an OEM disk, form the desktop i built a while back. can't tell what's on the laptop, its an HP pavilion that as i understand was picked up from best buy, looking at the windows sticker its not listed like it is on the one on my pc.

what you're saying is i'd have to clone the HDD onto the new SSD and upgrade that one to win 10? i thought i'd read that you could upgrade an OS to 10, pull the hard drive and swap in a new one, and clean install win10 on that OS with the upgraded key from the original OS.

 

[monkmith]

looking a bit into it, it sounds like microsoft does nothing with the original product key when you upgrade. microsoft registers your computer (maybe the cpu or mobo?) as being validated for windows 10, so when you upgrade the product key for your previous OS is pointless.

does this mean that i could upgrade on the current HDD, so it registers with microsoft. then i'd pull the HDD and install the SSD. and i'd download the iso from here

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

burn it onto a disk and install it onto the newly installed SSD?

 

[glamdringfh]

As long as you find your new Windows 10 Key after updating your HDD that will certainly work too. Your Win7 key can't be used to activate Windows 10, so be sure to write down the new key after upgrading to 10.

*Make sure you don't confuse the 25 character Windows 10 Key with the 20 character Product ID, they are not the same!

The process for doing this will be:

1) Update Windows 10 on HDD and write down your new Win10 Key
2) Have a Windows 10 Install CD or USB created
3) Physically remove HDD and install SSD
4) Use Windows 10 install disk to install fresh Win 10 on your SSD
5) Use Windows 10 key to activate