[SOLVED] Transfer Windows 10 to new SSD

Nov 9, 2019
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Hi Guys.

Long time reader, first time poster.

Really excited for the delivery of my new SSD next week:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0771YJNSX/

First of all, is it a good one? My brain is too small to understand the DRAM stuff.
Do I need DRAM?
I use my laptop a few times per week for web browsing, microsoft office and Dota.

My second question is how do I get windows on to my SSD?
Is my windows license tied in to my hardware?
Similarly, when I upgrade my RAM in a couple of months time, will this break the Windows license again?

Many thanks

ES
 
Solution
OK, laptop cloning, SATA HDD to SATA SSD.
Can do.

Requirements:
External drive to hold the current contents
USB flash drive or DVD to boot from later

  1. Download and install Macrium Reflect
  2. Run that, and create a Rescue CD or USB (you'll use this later). "Other Tasks"
  3. In the Macrium client, create an Image to some other drive. External USB HDD, maybe. Select all partitions. This results in a file of xxxx.mrimage
  4. When done, power OFF.
  5. Swap the 2 drives
  6. Boot up from the Rescue USB you created earlier.
  7. Recover, and tell it where the Image is that you created in step 3, and which drive to apply it to...the new SSD
  8. Go, and wait until it finishes.
  9. That's all...this should work.
There are indeed no-name brands that will indeed save you a few quid when on sale...

I'd pay a few more bucks/pounds/quid/rupees for Crucial's MX500 in your needed capacity. (500 GB drives usually cost only 50% more than 250 GB drives, but, if you know 250 GB is more than enough, go for it...)

If WIndows 10 was already activated, no issues with new drive hardware, so you can clone/image everything over to the new drive with Macrium Reflect, or, Acronis True IMage, as a functional reduced version can be used with Crucial products or WD drives.. (If no space for both drives in laptop, remove the laptop's drive, and do it by installing both SSDs within a WIndows desktop, then reinstall the newly cloned/imaged drive into laptop, and boot from it...
 
Integral seems to be a UK only budget type hardware manufacturer. That unit apparently uses a Phison controller and MLC NAND. It's likely a much older model.

It wouldn't have been my first choice, but it's probably no worse than the budget series models offered by companies like Team or Adata.

You will want to do a clean install of Windows.



And these should answer your other questions.

 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
New 240GB SATA SSD.
What size/type is your current drive?
How much actual space is consumed on it?
Migrating may or may not be a possibility.

Moving to a new drive will not incur any licensing issues. Nor will the addition of new RAM.
 
Well, in that case, you can clone away.

Personally, I'd rather see a clean install with a new SSD though. Especially if it's been a fairly long time since you've done a clean install anyways. If you've done one within the last six months or so, then cloning is probably fine. I mean, it's fine either way, but having a clean start with a clean SSD always tends to make more sense unless you are particularly sensitive to having to reinstall things.

USAFRet has a good checklist for cloning.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
OK, laptop cloning, SATA HDD to SATA SSD.
Can do.

Requirements:
External drive to hold the current contents
USB flash drive or DVD to boot from later

  1. Download and install Macrium Reflect
  2. Run that, and create a Rescue CD or USB (you'll use this later). "Other Tasks"
  3. In the Macrium client, create an Image to some other drive. External USB HDD, maybe. Select all partitions. This results in a file of xxxx.mrimage
  4. When done, power OFF.
  5. Swap the 2 drives
  6. Boot up from the Rescue USB you created earlier.
  7. Recover, and tell it where the Image is that you created in step 3, and which drive to apply it to...the new SSD
  8. Go, and wait until it finishes.
  9. That's all...this should work.
 
Solution
Nov 9, 2019
8
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Thanks guys

I went with your advice and did the fresh install.
I love my new SSD!
cant believe I used a HDD for so many years. I'm going to upgrade ram next I think.

Any suggestions on manual windows optimisations and tweaks or do you recommend a tune up utility of some sort?

What about backup seeing as I've got a fresh OS. Any recommended backup apps?

Thanks again

ES.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
The only real 'optimization' you need to worry about is - Don't fill it up too much.
Leave about 15-20% free space.

Backups?
 
Nov 9, 2019
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Thanks fellas. Great thread regarding backup.

And what about recovery?
Is there a way to make a recovery disc/USB.
I've got my PC set up exactly the way I want it and could do with a recovery image to save me doing a factory reset in the future.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Thanks fellas. Great thread regarding backup.

And what about recovery?
Is there a way to make a recovery disc/USB.
I've got my PC set up exactly the way I want it and could do with a recovery image to save me doing a factory reset in the future.
As outlined in the backup thread above, full disk images are the way to go for that.

Full disk, then a series of Incremental or Differential, using Macrium Reflect.

For instance, this is images of my C drive as it exists in the NAS box:
MyOlwFr.png

I could recover that drive from its condition on any day from Nov 2 to Nov 15.
Full image on Nov 2, and then a series of daily Incrementals.

Also, you could create a base image of Today, and just store that one away for future need.
 
Nov 9, 2019
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Thanks mate.

That looks perfect and its free!

- I'll make a base image of today - a fresh untainted OS with all my apps and drivers installed.

- I wont bother with incrementals/differentials as windows restore can do something similar I think (correct me if I'm wrong)

- Google drive will take care of backing up files

Many thanks for all the help
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
- I wont bother with incrementals/differentials as windows restore can do something similar I think (correct me if I'm wrong)

Macrium or Windows Restore...one or the other, not both.

Windows stores that 'Restore' on the same drive.
If you recover with a Macrium image, it wipes out the entire drive with whatever that Image is.
 
Nov 9, 2019
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Awesome.
Cheers fella.
I'll make a Macrium base image for now as a sort of "factory reset" image for when my computer gets really buggered up.

I'm happy for Windows Restore to make incremental restore points until then.

Many thanks for all the advice

Snakes
 
Or Acronis true image. I like Acronis better than Macrium reflect for backups. Obviously though, Macrium has the advantage of being free. I don't think fifty bucks for a lifetime license that gives you basically a high feature quality product is unreasonable. It does some things that Macrium can't do such as the Acronis Universal restore and booting from an Acronis restore disk to immediately begin a full 100% partition level image replacement. Macrium has a Windows PE restore disk boot environment option too, but I don't think it's as capable or intuitive as the one from Acronis, but that might just be my preference.

Both are certainly viable options worth exploring.