[SOLVED] Adding Old Windows 10 SSD to new laptop?

[bsa7ranges]

Hello! My Lenovo y700 is kind of falling apart, so I have a new laptop coming today. It is the Lenovo Legion 5 that has a 512GB NVMe SSD loaded with Windows 10. I also want to "transplant" my old 1TB Samsung SSD from my other laptop. I'm trying to decide what is the best approach to running the new system. I want to maintain all of my old applications and I want to leave the 512GB NVMe (mostly) free for statistical processing in Pixinsight. It's my understanding that these NVMe drives are faster than my current SSD and it's not uncommon for Pixinsight to be handling upwards of 300GB of image files in a single workflow. I will be installing 64GB of RAM to give the application every possible advantage.

1) is it possible to use my old drive as the boot drive on the new system? And would I be able to freely move files between the SSD's?

2) Al I thinking about this wrong? Is there a better approach?


Thanks,
Damien

 

[punkncat]

It is inadvisable to attempt to install a drive with OS from another machine .

Your best bet would be to get an external drive caddy, mount the 'old' drive into it, extract the data you need and then wipe it before installing to the new machine (assuming it has the space for said). If the old machine still works at all consider transferring off the data to a storage device or cloud that way, then use a USB installer to wipe the drive and quit before install.

You should consider re-installing all the programs and such that you want to the new machine.

 

[bsa7ranges]

It is inadvisable to attempt to install a drive with OS from another machine .

Your best bet would be to get an external drive caddy, mount the 'old' drive into it, extract the data you need and then wipe it before installing to the new machine (assuming it has the space for said). If the old machine still works at all consider transferring off the data to a storage device or cloud that way, then use a USB installer to wipe the drive and quit before install.

You should consider re-installing all the programs and such that you want to the new machine.

Thank you. I suppose I could just use the Windows installation that comes on the NVMe on the new laptop.

• Would I be able to install the old SSD into the new laptop before copying files, boot up Windows on the NVMe, and copy the files to an external hard drive that way? Or do I have to copy the contents and wipe before installing into the laptop?
• If I keep the 512GB NVMe as the boot drive, can I reinstall all the applications onto the wiped clean old SSD? As a D: drive? Or do applications have to go on my boot drive?

Thanks,
Damien

 

[USAFRet]

Hello! My Lenovo y700 is kind of falling apart, so I have a new laptop coming today. It is the Lenovo Legion 5 that has a 512GB NVMe SSD loaded with Windows 10. I also want to "transplant" my old 1TB Samsung SSD from my other laptop. I'm trying to decide what is the best approach to running the new system. I want to maintain all of my old applications and I want to leave the 512GB NVMe (mostly) free for statistical processing in Pixinsight. It's my understanding that these NVMe drives are faster than my current SSD and it's not uncommon for Pixinsight to be handling upwards of 300GB of image files in a single workflow. I will be installing 64GB of RAM to give the application every possible advantage.

1) is it possible to use my old drive as the boot drive on the new system? And would I be able to freely move files between the SSD's?

2) Al I thinking about this wrong? Is there a better approach?


Thanks,
Damien

That is highly unlikely to work.

Trying to do this, there are 3 outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months

#1 is the least likely. With a laptop, even less likely.

 

[punkncat]

It would be advisable to get your files out separate of the new machine.
When you add the second drive the boot manager is going to see two install of OS. It might boot from the NVME, it might boot from the other drive, even if you specify which one to boot from. Some folks do this on purpose with different OS and in that case you often have a pop up asking which one you want to boot from.

Windows license are now registered to hardware ID. So the moment you move the old drive to a new system it will go unregistered. It is highly likely not to boot based on the different drivers and such, but sometimes it works.

Drive caddy for said can typically be purchased for ~$15