Question Installing win 11 on new M.2 Drive to replace old HDD

[vegasjon777]

Hello all!
I just installed a new M.2 1TB SSD to replace the WD hard drive I have in a pc. My question is I dont have a Win 11 CD, and am having issues with the process to install and ISO file or use a USB flash drive, as the one I have is an Ironkey and has a app that has to launch to mount it. Anyhow, anyone got a simple process, like creating a WIn 11 backup from my old drive? Im still booting to it and the new M.2 is currently just an NTFS formatted drive...Hope this made sense!

 

[USAFRet]

Hello all!
I just installed a new M.2 1TB SSD to replace the WD hard drive I have in a pc. My question is I dont have a Win 11 CD, and am having issues with the process to install and ISO file or use a USB flash drive, as the one I have is an Ironkey and has a app that has to launch to mount it. Anyhow, anyone got a simple process, like creating a WIn 11 backup from my old drive? Im still booting to it and the new M.2 is currently just an NTFS formatted drive...Hope this made sense!

Here is the process for WIn 10.

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

Win 11 is no different, except you get the MediaCreation tool from here:
https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

 

[USAFRet]

Or, if your current Windows 11 install is running fine, you could do a clone operation from the current drive to the new SSD.

Is your Win 11 running OK?

 

[vegasjon777]

Hi! Win 11 runs ok, its the hard drive thats the problem. When I boot up, it Max's out for about 20 minutes at 100%. User workbench shows the transfer rate at 94 Mb/s...I've ran all kinds of diags on it, closed services, etc...but nothing helped. I'd rather have move the WD 4TB to be a data drive and use the M.2 for OS...

As for the media creation tool- there are 2 options- I could do the ISO but dont have a CR-R or BR on hand, and the USB I have is the Ironkey one and not sure if I could boot with it as you have to launch the app on it to mount it with a password. I do have an external 8TB USB backup drive I could format and maybe use...

 

[USAFRet]

Hi! Win 11 runs ok, its the hard drive thats the problem. When I boot up, it Max's out for about 20 minutes at 100%. User workbench shows the transfer rate at 94 Mb/s...I've ran all kinds of diags on it, closed services, etc...but nothing helped. I'd rather have move the WD 4TB to be a data drive and use the M.2 for OS...

As for the media creation tool- there are 2 options- I could do the ISO but dont have a CR-R or BR on hand, and the USB I have is the Ironkey one and not sure if I could boot with it as you have to launch the app on it to mount it with a password. I do have an external 8TB USB backup drive I could format and maybe use...

Given that, cloning is NOT a good idea. Too many issues.

Your 8TB external? A MUCH better option is to obtain a small 8GB flash drive for this process.
That 8TB would be totally reformatted and wiped out in this process.