Hardware upgrade before / after Windows update?

[Harry_17]

I am planning to replace the HDD in my laptop with an SSD, and do a completely fresh install of windows (rather than cloning my current drive). I'm currently running Windows 7. My question is, should I:

(a) Replace the HDD, reinstall Windows 7 using my current product key, then upgrade to Win10.
CONCERN: After I reinstall windows 7, will it give me the upgrade option straight away. I don't want to have to wait a couple of weeks before windows decides to make the Win10 update available.

(b) Update Windows to 10 before swapping out HDDs, then reinstall Windows from a Win10 iso.
CONCERN: Will Win10 recognise my machine and accept that I have a legit version of windows, since I won't have a Win10 product key.

Thanks

 

[Laptop_Nerd]

Hi,

The easiest way would be to use Windows 10 Media Creation tool so you can just create an ISO image onto a flash drive. Install the new SSD then run the Windows 10 ISO that you've created and that should work just fine as well. You can actually just skip the activation process and you won't need to enter a product key for it.

Here's the complete tutorial on how to do this.
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2745957/create-windows-installation-usb-drive-dvd.html