[SOLVED] New rebuild help

[SpeedForceHero0]

Hello all need a little advice. I’m upgrading my current pc. Replacing motherboard and cpu and adding a m.2 ssd. I’m wanting to just start fresh. move my OS to the m.2 and reformat all the drives clean that way I know everything is the way I want it. What steps should I take and in what order? I’ve got the pc hardware part as I’ve built a few PCs . But it’s always been with a fresh copy of windows from a boot drive thats new. Never moved the OS and cleaned the drives to start fresh always started with all new hardware lol thanks

 

[Barty1884]

Moving the OS and clean installing are two different things - So you either want to move (clone) or reinstall.

With new hardware, on a new SSD, I'd suggest a clean installation. Cloning takes the good/bad/ugly from your current install.

Create bootable Windows install media with a USB drive on your old system. Build the new, only connect your new SSD and install Windows, install drivers etc. At that point, connect your old drive & migrate any files etc you want to keep. Once you're 100% sure you've got all you need (and you have an external backup.... Right?) you can format the 'old' drive to be used as secondary storage.

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

 

[SpeedForceHero0]

Yeah I’m wanting to do a clean install. Just to pretty much start fresh. So I guess I’ll make a bootable usb. I’m hoping I can get that accomplished my old computer I’m updating is a Lenovo legion gaming pc I’ve heard that it my have a OEM license key witch windows may give me trouble with.

 

[Barty1884]

Make sure you tie your license to a MS account and then re-sign back in with the same accounts.
No guarantees in terms of moving an OEM license, but it can be done. You may have to use the activation troubleshooter or live chat function to have MS activate it for you..... it can be done, but I'd say chances are 50/50 of a problem-free activation.

 

[SpeedForceHero0]

Yeah I’m wanting to do a clean install. Just to pretty much start fresh. So I guess I’ll make a bootable usb. I’m hoping I can get that accomplished my old computer I’m updating is a Lenovo legion gaming pc I’ve heard that it my have a OEM license key witch windows may give me trouble with.

For sure who wants to pay 139 bucks for windows. I’ll do everything I can to reuse the windows key from this machine. Thanks for the reply’s appreciate the help.