Need to get my windows 10 onto a new hard drive.

[eridian00]

I want to transfer my windows 10 to a new hard drive, but i don't know how. When i bought the pc it was windows 7 and the one i bought it from didn't give me the windows 7 disk. I have upgraded to windows 10 when they let you do so for free, and i wanted to know if there was a way to transfer the license over to a new hard drive.I saw something about cloning it with some programs, so i tried one called macrium but i don't know how it works as it just backs up the entire file system. Could someone help me out with this? I really don't want to drop 100 on a windows 10 disk.

 

[k1114]

Microsoft keeps your pc info in the cloud with your windows 10 key. If you want to do a clean install of windows, after installing and you connect to the internet, it auto activates. You can get the windows install from ms. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you want to keep your files, cloning would be the option. That makes an exact copy of your hdd to the new one. I'm not sure if you just selected backup or did a clone but after you clone you can just change the boot order to boot to the new hdd and then do whatever you want with the old hdd. Or just take out the old hdd and do whatever you want with it.

 

[USAFRet]

I want to transfer my windows 10 to a new hard drive, but i don't know how. When i bought the pc it was windows 7 and the one i bought it from didn't give me the windows 7 disk. I have upgraded to windows 10 when they let you do so for free, and i wanted to know if there was a way to transfer the license over to a new hard drive.I saw something about cloning it with some programs, so i tried one called macrium but i don't know how it works as it just backs up the entire file system. Could someone help me out with this? I really don't want to drop 100 on a windows 10 disk.

A) How large is the new drive?
B) How much consumed space on the old drive?
If A is larger than B, a clone operation might work.


2 options, either way does not need your license key.

1. Clean install on the new drive
This requires installing the OS and everything else.

2. Cloning from the old drive to the new drive.
Macrium does, as you've found, a backup. It also does a full cloning/migration from old drive to new drive.
These steps, if the space requirements fit:
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe as necessary.
Delete the 450MB Recovery Partition, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
-----------------------------

 

[photonboy]

1) As said your license right now applies to YOUR COMPUTER, so you can clone or even do a reinstall of W10 to a new drive (SSD, HDD) if you want to.

If you reinstall Windows 10 you simply SKIP the part to enter the key as that will be automatically sorted out through the network. (you should have your Windows login e-mail + password handy for install).

2) SSD - faster, but more expensive and I recommend at least 30% higher capacity than the currently USED SPACE
- however, if you have GAMES it may be possible to keep them on the HDD, Install W10 clean to an SSD then reconnect to the games folder (too in depth to discuss here).

quick example:
a) shutdown and unhook HDD's (both cables)
b) attach SSD
c) boot to W10 Install Media (may need to make it with 8GB+ USB stick, MS media creation tool...)

d) install W10 (skip key, but put in e-mail/password)
e) drivers/applications
f) for Steam games reinstall Steam, login, then... on HDD make a new folder "E:\Steam" and cut/paste the entire "Steamapps" folder already on the HDD to it.

It sounds complicated but take it step-by-step.

3) Cloning to an HDD?
If you have a larger HDD you may want to create two partitions and clone Windows to the first one. For example, let's say you used 220GB now... maybe make a 400GB partition to a say 2TB new HDD leaving 1460GB for partition 2.

Move anything needed to Partition 2 on the new drive then do a FULL FORMAT NTFS (takes hours) to the old drive. Use it for backup of the Windows partition and critical files.

 

[eridian00]

Microsoft keeps your pc info in the cloud with your windows 10 key. If you want to do a clean install of windows, after installing and you connect to the internet, it auto activates. You can get the windows install from ms. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you want to keep your files, cloning would be the option. That makes an exact copy of your hdd to the new one. I'm not sure if you just selected backup or did a clone but after you clone you can just change the boot order to boot to the new hdd and then do whatever you want with the old hdd. Or just take out the old hdd and do whatever you want with it.

I got a question, if i use the windows 10 instal from the microsoft site and put it into the new pc hard drive, will that deactivate this pc's version of windows 10? I would prefer being able to run this computer as well to use it for other things.

 

[USAFRet]

Microsoft keeps your pc info in the cloud with your windows 10 key. If you want to do a clean install of windows, after installing and you connect to the internet, it auto activates. You can get the windows install from ms. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you want to keep your files, cloning would be the option. That makes an exact copy of your hdd to the new one. I'm not sure if you just selected backup or did a clone but after you clone you can just change the boot order to boot to the new hdd and then do whatever you want with the old hdd. Or just take out the old hdd and do whatever you want with it.

I got a question, if i use the windows 10 instal from the microsoft site and put it into the new pc hard drive, will that deactivate this pc's version of windows 10? I would prefer being able to run this computer as well to use it for other things.

You're talking about a whole new system? Not just a new drive in the same system?
You can't use the same license on 2 systems.

You can install the Win 10 and leave it Unactivated.

 

[k1114]

Windows 10 is windows 10. Your pc is not some special version specific only to you. The install media is for all versions (home, pro, 64bit, 32 bit, etc). What you buy is the key which is tied to your pc (although can be transferred but only works on 1 pc at a time). You can reinstall windows and change hdds an infinite amount of times and your key is still there with ms.

The old copy of windows is still on the old hdd. You could still run that old copy on the pc and it still works. They don't know it's a different hdd. They just see the key and the same mobo.