Upgrading to W10 on new harddrive without losing old harddrive with W8 possible?

[Michael Trenton]

I'm currently running W8 and in the process of ugrading to W10 for free. If I understand it correctly when upgrading to W10 there is a one month period where you can revert back to W7/8/8.1 if you want to. But that's if you're doing a standard upgrade right? (which I do not wanna do, I want a clean install onto a new harddrive).

Basically I want to remove my current harddrive that has Windows 8 on it from my computer and then do a clean install of W10 onto a brand new harddrive (using my W8 product key to get a free W10 license).
Will doing this enable me to put my old W8 harddrive back into my computer at some later point so that I can still run W8 on it or does the process of getting a W10 license key for free somehow revoke my W8 license rendering it invalid?

 

[snurp85]

From what I've read (at least for windows 7) is that you cannot install fresh. The only way to do it is to upgrade from 7. So if you do a fresh install, you need to install 7 first and then upgrade to 10. The registration code you get by upgrading is linked to your previous windows copy. If you only install windows 10, it wont register properly. The Microsoft website has a few articles on this topic if you google it.

 

[zeke15]

Your Windows license can only be validated for one operating system. This means that upgrading to windows 10 on a new hard drive will invalidate the Windows 8 on the old hard drive. This is a somewhat complicated issue, that could, and probably should be done an easier way. What I would do is upgrade to windows 10 on your old hard drive, and if you like it, move it to your new hard drive. If you don't like it, then revert to windows 8 on the old hard drive and don't move it.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm currently running W8 and in the process of ugrading to W10 for free. If I understand it correctly when upgrading to W10 there is a one month period where you can revert back to W7/8/8.1 if you want to. But that's if you're doing a standard upgrade right? (which I do not wanna do, I want a clean install onto a new harddrive).

Basically I want to remove my current harddrive that has Windows 8 on it from my computer and then do a clean install of W10 onto a brand new harddrive (using my W8 product key to get a free W10 license).
Will doing this enable me to put my old W8 harddrive back into my computer at some later point so that I can still run W8 on it or does the process of getting a W10 license key for free somehow revoke my W8 license rendering it invalid?

You cannot use the Win 10 Upgrade on a new PC, and continue to use the original Win 8 on the original PC. It doesn't work like that.

 

[boosted1g]

You can use Windows 8 or Windows 10 as you wish, as long as it is on the the SAME computer. Your license key is tied to your motherboard and thus you can only use that copy of Windows 8 or Windows 10 on that PC, which version you use is completely up to you.

Here is what I would do, clone your Win8 onto your bare drive.
Remove original win8 drive and boot with new drive
Upgrade it to Win10 (and download Win10 to a USB stick)
Then after you have upgraded to 10 you can wipe the drive and do a clean install of Win 10 on it, and you will have your old Win 8 drive you can boot from as well.


Now I want you to note that booting both in a Virtual Machine would also be a violation of MS license. But booting one drive or the other would be the "same thing" as upgrading and downgrading it over and over again which is totally fine.

 

[Michael Trenton]

You cannot use the Win 10 Upgrade on a new PC, and continue to use the original Win 8 on the original PC. It doesn't work like that.

Not a new PC. Same PC, but with a new harddrive.

From what I've read (at least for windows 7) is that you cannot install fresh. The only way to do it is to upgrade from 7. So if you do a fresh install, you need to install 7 first and then upgrade to 10. The registration code you get by upgrading is linked to your previous windows copy. If you only install windows 10, it wont register properly. The Microsoft website has a few articles on this topic if you google it.

I thought Microsoft changed this some months ago in order to make it easier for people to do clean installs? Apparently they changed so that you can do a fresh install of Windows 10 and then enter your W7/8/8.1 product key while installing. Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

Your Windows license can only be validated for one operating system. This means that upgrading to windows 10 on a new hard drive will invalidate the Windows 8 on the old hard drive. This is a somewhat complicated issue, that could, and probably should be done an easier way. What I would do is upgrade to windows 10 on your old hard drive, and if you like it, move it to your new hard drive. If you don't like it, then revert to windows 8 on the old hard drive and don't move it.

Okay, so basically doing a fresh install of W10 on a new harddrive (using my W8 product key) will indeed revoke my Windows 8 license then?

 

[utroz]

Ok so here goes, to get the free licence you must do an upgrade from W8 to W10. Once you have done that your system will be in the microsoft servers and linked to your microsoft live account so you can then do a fresh windows 10 install and it should work. My understanding is if you upgrade to windows 10 you have a month to decided to go back to W8 so you are not supposed to upgrade and run w10 and w8. However if you had a disk image backup of W8 before you do the W10 upgrade you could possibly be ok.

 

[USAFRet]

If this is 1 PC, you have 2 options.
An inplace Upgrade. Easy, usually works.
You can do a full clean install on a new drive after.

A clean install, using your original OS license. This requires that you know your original OS license.
This can be done on a whole new drive, but only in that original system.

Either way, your old Win 8 license is consumed by the Win 10 Upgrade.

 

[Michael Trenton]

You can use Windows 8 or Windows 10 as you wish, as long as it is on the the SAME computer. Your license key is tied to your motherboard and thus you can only use that copy of Windows 8 or Windows 10 on that PC, which version you use is completely up to you.

Here is what I would do, clone your Win8 onto your bare drive.
Remove original win8 drive and boot with new drive
Upgrade it to Win10 (and download Win10 to a USB stick)
Then after you have upgraded to 10 you can wipe the drive and do a clean install of Win 10 on it, and you will have your old Win 8 drive you can boot from as well.

If this is 1 PC, you have 2 options.
An inplace Upgrade. Easy, usually works.
You can do a full clean install on a new drive after.

A clean install, using your original OS license. This requires that you know your original OS license.
This can be done on a whole new drive, but only in that original system.

Either way, your old Win 8 license is consumed by the Win 10 Upgrade.

So basically one of this is true. I will either lose the validity of my W8 lisence in the process of upgrading to W10 or my W8 harddrive will still run just like before when I insert it back into my computer?

 

[USAFRet]

The old Win 8 may work for a while, but you do not get to use both OS's forever, from a single license.
Before long, one or the other will become unactivated.

 

[zeke15]

Kind of. Whenever you upgrade, it "upgrades" your license to the newer version, sot htat you can no longer use the older version. However, if you downgrade, htis essentially "downgrades" the license as well. In simple terms, it basically means that you can't use both at the same time. You have to use one or the other, one at a time.

 

[Michael Trenton]

The old Win 8 may work for a while, but you do not get to use both OS's forever, from a single license.
Before long, one or the other will become unactivated.

Thanks. I guess I'll just have to make a leap of faith and leave W8 behind for good then.

 

[Michael Trenton]

Just a small follow up question:

I've just downloaded the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft in order to create a bootable media for my clean install. What confuses me is that the tool only allows me the option between Windows 10 and Windows 10 (N) with no option for Windows 10 Pro (which is the one I wanna install). Do I need to download some separate tool for the Pro version?

 

[snurp85]

The free upgrade to windows 10 is only for the regular version, not pro

 

[utroz]

Just a small follow up question:

I've just downloaded the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft in order to create a bootable media for my clean install. What confuses me is that the tool only allows me the option between Windows 10 and Windows 10 (N) with no option for Windows 10 Pro (which is the one I wanna install). Do I need to download some separate tool for the Pro version?

It depends on what version of windows you are upgrading from. A quick google search shows this article http://www.cnet.com/news/which-edition-of-windows-10-will-you-get-for-free/

 

[Michael Trenton]

Just a small follow up question:

I've just downloaded the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft in order to create a bootable media for my clean install. What confuses me is that the tool only allows me the option between Windows 10 and Windows 10 (N) with no option for Windows 10 Pro (which is the one I wanna install). Do I need to download some separate tool for the Pro version?

It depends on what version of windows you are upgrading from. A quick google search shows this article http://www.cnet.com/news/which-edition-of-windows-10-will-you-get-for-free/

Thanks!