Question Can i clone my HDD to a new SSD and boot from it straight away?

[Romeski]

I'm building my first PC after owning a pre-built for about 2 years. I was wanting to clarify that if i clone my HDD to an SSD and put it in the new PC that it will boot fine. I then hope to move all data to and M.2 from the SSD (my current motherboard doesn't have an M.2 slot so cloning it straight isn't an option).

 

[USAFRet]

Cloning is not magic.
Cloning to a different drive in the same PC is generally no problem.

A whole new system? That usually (always?) requires a full clean OS install.
Especially coming from a prebuilt something.

Adding in the complexity of an M.2 drive....clean install!

 

[Romeski]

Cloning is not magic.
Cloning to a different drive in the same PC is generally no problem.

A whole new system? That usually (always?) requires a full clean OS install.
Especially coming from a prebuilt something.

Adding in the complexity of an M.2 drive....clean install!

Okay sounds good. I was looking at Kinguin for a key (reputable seller), would you say anything against this? Thanks for clearing it up

 

[USAFRet]

Okay sounds good. I was looking at Kinguin for a key (reputable seller), would you say anything against this? Thanks for clearing it up

"Kinguin "
hahaha...sorry, no.

A valid Win 10 license costs around $95.

But the license has nothing to do with the actual install. Two different things.

You can do the install for free, and then purchase a valid license when you get the funds.
Create your own Win 10 USB install here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Then, with all the parts in your new system:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Romeski]

"Kinguin "
hahaha...sorry, no.

A valid Win 10 license costs around $95.

But the license has nothing to do with the actual install. Two different things.

You can do the install for free, and then purchase a valid license when you get the funds.
Create your own Win 10 USB install here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Then, with all the parts in your new system:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

I already have a USB install as my something got corrupted recently and I had to reinstall. No license just reduces how many features you have access to and sticks a watermark on the screen right? Where would you suggest buying a license that isn't OEM? Microsoft?

 

[USAFRet]

Leaving it 'unlicensed' confers only this:
No customization of the taskbar
No customization of the desktop
A randomley appearing watermark at bottom right.

Other than that, it runs exactly like the license version. No feature restrictions.
I have a long running test of Win 10 Pro in a VM, to test exactly this.
Installed Dec 8 2016, still running just fine.

 

[USAFRet]

For purchasing a license?
Microcenter, Newegg, Microsoft.

Anything much below $95 ain't 'valid'.

 

[Romeski]

For purchasing a license?
Microcenter, Newegg, Microsoft.

Anything much below $95 ain't 'valid'.

Okay, thank you so much for all the help!