Question Steps for upgrading HDD to SSD and fixing whatever mess i did with my BIOS?

[Jtull55]

Context is i had some boot problems months ago, upgraded and bought some new parts (RAM,MOBO,CPU) that needed upgrading or replacing but ended up having to mess with the boot options in my BIOS to boot as legacy as my HDD would not be recognized as a boot-able device which worked for a fair while. honestly i'm a amateur at this stuff so not sure what i did but after 2 or so months my pc couldn't post again and had boot error LEDS on my motherboard and apparently taking out one of my 8gb RAM sticks solved it(???).

But i've decided to get a SATA SSD and put my OS and maybe 2-3 games on it and just reset as much as i can. My questions are:

1. What are the steps to upgrading my hard drive so as not to lose what i want on it and to fix these boot problems I've been having?
2. Will this even fix the problems my PC has been having with booting as well as programs/games freezing, very slow loading of web-pages/Chrome and 100% hard disk usage in my task manager?
3. Is there a way of making sure i dont have to pay for a new Windows 10 OS e.g. cloning it? or do i have to cop it and pay for a new OS?

My build is:
CPU: AMD RYZEN 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processer
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B550-A GAMING ATX AM4
GPU: 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Storage(currently): 1TB Seagate SATA HDD
Storage (upgrade) : Samsung 870 EVO 2.5in SATA SSD 1TB
RAM: 2x8gb Corsair LPX Vengeance 2400 Mhz (now only 1x8gb after taking one out)
PSU: Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold fully modular ATX (2019)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid tower case
OS: Windows 10 64-bit

 

[Lutfij]

Since you're looking at a Samsung 250GB SSD, you can clone the OS though I tend to reinstall the OS afresh, after I've made sure that the laptop/desktop/platform is on the latest BIOS version while on existing (known working)hardware. Your platform could actually benefit from using a dual channel DDR4-3200MHz ram kit to get the most out of your Ryzen platform.

As a side note, did you reinstall the OS after you swapped in the new motherboard, processor and ram? If you didn't, that's the cause of your booting issues. FYI, you shouldn't be cloning at this point but reinstalling after creating your bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools.

 

[faalin]

Not knowing what computer you had before,

1. move anything you want to keep from the SSD to the HDD
2. download and make sure your on the latest BIOS from ASUS
3. boot into bios and set to factory default settings, you can even clear the cmos while you're at it.
4. remove HDD from system and reinstall windows on the SSD, make sure you only have 1 drive install in the system. This should have been done when you swapped out for new RAM,MB,CPU

Since you moved windows from the old computer to the new one when reinstall it should see it and activate it for you.

You can also run Memtest86 LINK to test your ram, if you have a bad stick RMA the entire kit to corsair for a new one.

 

[Jtull55]

Since you're looking at a Samsung 250GB SSD, you can clone the OS though I tend to reinstall the OS afresh, after I've made sure that the laptop/desktop/platform is on the latest BIOS version while on existing (known working)hardware. Your platform could actually benefit from using a dual channel DDR4-3200MHz ram kit to get the most out of your Ryzen platform.

As a side note, did you reinstall the OS after you swapped in the new motherboard, processor and ram? If you didn't, that's the cause of your booting issues. FYI, you shouldn't be cloning at this point but reinstalling after creating your bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools.

Hi! Thank you for the great reply sorry i didn't see it sooner so to answer your questions:

1. i actually bought some DDR4-3200MHz ram because i checked ASUS support and the RAM im using currently (The 2400MHz kit) apparently isn't compatible when i checked the serial number and the 3200MHz version was apparently.
2. I did not re-install OS after swapping everything over unfortunately mostly because i didn't know that is something you should do but also at the time my PC would not post at all & i could not find my Windows install USB 3.0 to make a fresh install. so yeah i messed up lol.
3. not a answer but how do i check and then fix my BIOS version? is the latest version downloadable on the ASUS support? then i install and reset? and should i be saving all my files/folders i want to keep 1st before doing that?

So just to double check my steps are after getting my new parts i:
1. put whatever files/folders/documents/games i want to keep on my SSD.
2.check BIOS version and update if necessary.

1. make bootable Windows installer USB.
2. remove HDD add SSD install it as only boot device, fresh Windows 10 install and done.

Thanks again for your info!

 

[joan16v]

The best is to clone the disk, for example with a Boot USB like Hirens BootCD PE, and the utility Lazesoft Disk Clone.

 

[USAFRet]

upgraded and bought some new parts (RAM,MOBO,CPU)

With these new parts, did you do a full OS reinstall?