[SOLVED] New SSD With an Upgraded Windows 10 (From Windows 7)

[Nathan-08]

I checked the forum, but was unable to find a situation the same as mine.

A few years ago, I upgraded my Windows 7 home to Windows 10. As I understand, I now have a digital key as opposed to a 25 digit licence, like the one that came with Windows 7. I am running Windows 10 on a 128gb SSD and, as you can imagine is somewhat small. So I am thinking about buying a 500gb M.2 drive for my primary (I have a 1TB HDD as a secondary drive).

I have read about how to make a backup thumb drive and how to reinstall Windows if you downloaded it originally to that machine, but is the process different if you are on a version of Windows 10 that only has a digital key? I have read about people having a very difficult time moving to another hard drive with a digital key.

 

[USAFRet]

A Win 10 reinstall on a new drive in this same system imparts no licensing/activation issues.
What specific drive and motherboard are you working with?

To create your Win 10 USB:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Then:

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

 

[Nathan-08]

What specific drive and motherboard are you working with?

I currently have a Gigabyte Z370P. When I originally upgraded to Windows 10, I had an older motherboard, but upgraded shortly thereafter. It has been in the system for about 2 years. My drive is a Kingston 128gb Sata 3 SSD

 

[USAFRet]

And the new M.2 drive?

 

[Nathan-08]

And the new M.2 drive?

Haven't purchased it yet, but I have been looking at two:

Silicon Power 512gb NMVe M.2 2280 PICe Gen 3 - https://www.newegg.ca/silicon-power-p34a80-512gb/p/N82E16820301394

-Western Digital WD Black SN750 NMVe M.2 2280 500gb PCI-Express 3.0 - https://www.newegg.ca/western-digital-black-sn750-nvme-500gb/p/N82E16820250109

 

[USAFRet]

Ok. Should be no problem.

Links above guide you through creating your Win 10 USB, and then a fresh install on the new drive.
Have ALL other drives disconnected when you do the install.

 

[Nathan-08]

Ok. Should be no problem.

Links above guide you through creating your Win 10 USB, and then a fresh install on the new drive.
Have ALL other drives disconnected when you do the install.

Thanks, I appreciate the answers

 

[Guy_Simonian]

You can either create an ISO thumb drive which is what I did, or download the install directly from Microsoft. Uninstall MSE if it is running as it is not compatible with Win10 and will cause the upgrade to fail. You may also want to disconnect any peripherals or networking cables first.