Question Replacement SSD, how to boot???

[Everettc45]

Hi, so I bought a new internal SSD for my Dell G7 7790 laptop. It is an M.2 1TB SSD, compared to the existing 256 GB SSD. The laptop also has a 1TB HDD. I have been trying to no avail to get Windows onto the new SSD.


Here's what I have tried:

Create System Image on an external Seagate SSD

Swap in the new SSD

Enter Bios, eventually give up trying to boot after trying every option and almost breaking the computer

Put old SSD back in to try and make a Recovery Drive instead, but that doesn't save personal files? I would like to essentially clone my system drive and just swap it all over to the new.

In progress of downloading Windows 10 Installation Media, not sure how to use it to boot


In short I've been googling for hours and am lost. I need help figuring what is next, with the tools I have. I don't have a Windows CD nor do I have a Disk drive. How do I do this with jujst my computer and an external SSD?

 

[dwd999]

Hi, so I bought a new internal SSD for my Dell G7 7790 laptop. It is an M.2 1TB SSD, compared to the existing 256 GB SSD. The laptop also has a 1TB HDD. I have been trying to no avail to get Windows onto the new SSD.


Here's what I have tried:

Create System Image on an external Seagate SSD

Swap in the new SSD

Enter Bios, eventually give up trying to boot after trying every option and almost breaking the computer

Put old SSD back in to try and make a Recovery Drive instead, but that doesn't save personal files? I would like to essentially clone my system drive and just swap it all over to the new.

In progress of downloading Windows 10 Installation Media, not sure how to use it to boot


In short I've been googling for hours and am lost. I need help figuring what is next, with the tools I have. I don't have a Windows CD nor do I have a Disk drive. How do I do this with jujst my computer and an external SSD?

Many people here use the Macrium software to clone an existing drive onto a new SSD. You could try that, paying special attention to copy all of the existing sdd's partitions and choosing the option to expand the partitions to fill the new ssd.

 

[Everettc45]

Many people here use the Macrium software to clone an existing drive onto a new SSD. You could try that, paying special attention to copy all of the existing sdd's partitions and choosing the option to expand the partitions to fill the new ssd.

Can this be done if the new drive is outright replacing the old one? There is only one slot

 

[dwd999]

Can this be done if the new drive is outright replacing the old one? There is only one slot

You mentioned creating an image to an external ssd; cloning works the same way. Clone the old ssd to the external new ssd and swap them out. This should work if you clone every partition on the old ssd. Note that because this is a laptop you may have to consult Dell if the laptop has any security features that interfere with what you are doing.