Upgrade to SSD maintaining my OS

[thisusernameisnotavailaLOL]

I own a Dell Inspiron Mini 1012 which came with Windows 7 Starter Preinstalled (OEM version). I upgraded to Windows 10 home. The computer is now fairly slow so I'm considering upgrading the RAM and SSD. I've been looking for different ways to install the OS in the new SSD, but I've been finding the following problems:

1. Dell won't provide me with a copy of my Win7 OS (neither iso file nor usb drive). I can't download a copy from microsoft since the Product Key of Win7 belongs to an OEM OS (Dell, in this case).

2. I might install Win10 directly to the new SSD (I already have a bootable USB of it) and activate it with my Win7 OEM product key. I'm concerned, since I think I will find some problems if I do this, such as not being able to register Win10 since my Product key of Win7 would only be legit for upgrades to Win 10 and not for clean installs of Win10.

3. I could set a recovery external hard drive (which I already own) before changing the old internal HDD to the new SSD, but I don't know if this would only save my files or if it would save the OS too. If it hapened to save the OS, I have no idea how I could install it in my new internal SSD.

Any ideas in how I could install an OS (either Windows 7 or Windows 10) in this new SSD? I haven't bought the SSD yet and I won't buy it if I can't install it with my OEM Windows license, so I can't do the "trial and error" method to find out an option that wll work.

Thank you all very much!!

 

[NA Feraligatr]

First off, you won't be able to activate windows 10 with a win7 product key.

As for getting your OS to the new drive, I know Samsung SSDs come with cloning software that I've used myself. It works flawlessly, you just have to make sure your new drive has enough storage space. I'm sure other manufactures have similar software, and there is free versions out there as well.

Basically, just back up any sensitive data or data that won't fit to your external drive, then use the cloning software. Restart your computer, go into bios and set your SSD as the boot drive and you're all set. After that you can format your old drive and use it as extra storage space for files and programs you don't access as often.

 

[sammy sung]

Questions

- How much space is taken up on your current drive?

- How large is the SSD?

Something to do in the meantime. Download this utility and pull your active Windows 10 Key from your current drive.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Windows 8/8.1/10 is embedded into your bios. In theory you could just install windows 10 to the SSD while connected to your mobo and it would be recognized. Pulling the key in the event it doesn't recognize, you could select "enter new product key" and do so. If that doesn't work, call the microsoft support center and plead your case to the first guy you speak with, until it goes over his head and transfers you to a technician, and repeat the process until they transfer you to their supervisor.

 

[sammy sung]

First off, you won't be able to activate windows 10 with a win7 product key.

As for getting your OS to the new drive, I know Samsung SSDs come with cloning software that I've used myself. It works flawlessly, you just have to make sure your new drive has enough storage space. I'm sure other manufactures have similar software, and there is free versions out there as well.

Basically, just back up any sensitive data or data that won't fit to your external drive, then use the cloning software. Restart your computer, go into bios and set your SSD as the boot drive and you're all set. After that you can format your old drive and use it as extra storage space for files and programs you don't access as often.

Yeah, pretty much my angle with asking for drive sizes. You could use a utility like Macrium Reflect to first image your drive as a back-up, then clone the current HDD to the SSD in the event partition sizes allow. This of course will have everything currently on your HDD on your boot drive. But if you image the HDD beforehand, you can just delete undesirables from it before cloning

 

[NA Feraligatr]

First off, you won't be able to activate windows 10 with a win7 product key.

As for getting your OS to the new drive, I know Samsung SSDs come with cloning software that I've used myself. It works flawlessly, you just have to make sure your new drive has enough storage space. I'm sure other manufactures have similar software, and there is free versions out there as well.

Basically, just back up any sensitive data or data that won't fit to your external drive, then use the cloning software. Restart your computer, go into bios and set your SSD as the boot drive and you're all set. After that you can format your old drive and use it as extra storage space for files and programs you don't access as often.

Yeah, pretty much my angle with asking for drive sizes. You could use a utility like Macrium Reflect to first image your drive as a back-up, then clone the current HDD to the SSD in the event partition sizes allow. This of course will have everything currently on your HDD on your boot drive. But if you image the HDD beforehand, you can just delete undesirables from it before cloning

Yeah, I forgot to mention that. It's a good idea to clean up your drive before cloning.

 

[thisusernameisnotavailaLOL]

First off, you won't be able to activate windows 10 with a win7 product key.

As for getting your OS to the new drive, I know Samsung SSDs come with cloning software that I've used myself. It works flawlessly, you just have to make sure your new drive has enough storage space. I'm sure other manufactures have similar software, and there is free versions out there as well.

Basically, just back up any sensitive data or data that won't fit to your external drive, then use the cloning software. Restart your computer, go into bios and set your SSD as the boot drive and you're all set. After that you can format your old drive and use it as extra storage space for files and programs you don't access as often.

Hi Feraligatr,

The only problem I see with your solution is that the old HDD and the new SSD are both internal, so I won't be able to connect them at the same time. I understande what you say. If I could plug both of them at the same time, I could just clone the old HHD into the new SSD, but since I cannot plug them at the same time, I can't clone (unless I'm missing something)...

I might try to clone the old internal HDD into an external HDD I already own, so when I install the new internal SSD, I can have both plugged in. The problem here is that I have no idea how to transfer the data from the external HDD to the new internal SSD. (With bootable USB you just have to boot from USB and it will install the OS, but with this method I just don't know how to do it. I don't think that booting from the external HDD will work). What is your opinion on that?

BTW, my new SSD will have enough storage space. The old HDD is 250GB (of which I'm using around 40% or less) and the new SSD is 240GB. Considering I don't care about the data that's installed (I just want the OS) it should be more than enough.

Am I right? Do you have any other ideas?

 

[thisusernameisnotavailaLOL]

Questions

- How much space is taken up on your current drive?

- How large is the SSD?

Something to do in the meantime. Download this utility and pull your active Windows 10 Key from your current drive.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Windows 8/8.1/10 is embedded into your bios. In theory you could just install windows 10 to the SSD while connected to your mobo and it would be recognized. Pulling the key in the event it doesn't recognize, you could select "enter new product key" and do so. If that doesn't work, call the microsoft support center and plead your case to the first guy you speak with, until it goes over his head and transfers you to a technician, and repeat the process until they transfer you to their supervisor.

hi sammy thanks for your answer!

Yes, the space of the new SSD will be enough to install everything that's in the old HDD. No, I don't think Win10 is "embedded" anywhere in the motherboard (or at least it does not make any sense to me...). I will try the tool you provided and tell you the results.

Please, have a look at my response to feraligatr and give us your opinion on that.

 

[NA Feraligatr]

First off, you won't be able to activate windows 10 with a win7 product key.

As for getting your OS to the new drive, I know Samsung SSDs come with cloning software that I've used myself. It works flawlessly, you just have to make sure your new drive has enough storage space. I'm sure other manufactures have similar software, and there is free versions out there as well.

Basically, just back up any sensitive data or data that won't fit to your external drive, then use the cloning software. Restart your computer, go into bios and set your SSD as the boot drive and you're all set. After that you can format your old drive and use it as extra storage space for files and programs you don't access as often.

Hi Feraligatr,

The only problem I see with your solution is that the old HDD and the new SSD are both internal, so I won't be able to connect them at the same time. I understande what you say. If I could plug both of them at the same time, I could just clone the old HHD into the new SSD, but since I cannot plug them at the same time, I can't clone (unless I'm missing something)...

I might try to clone the old internal HDD into an external HDD I already own, so when I install the new internal SSD, I can have both plugged in. The problem here is that I have no idea how to transfer the data from the external HDD to the new internal SSD. (With bootable USB you just have to boot from USB and it will install the OS, but with this method I just don't know how to do it. I don't think that booting from the external HDD will work). What is your opinion on that?

BTW, my new SSD will have enough storage space. The old HDD is 250GB (of which I'm using around 40% or less) and the new SSD is 240GB. Considering I don't care about the data that's installed (I just want the OS) it should be more than enough.

Am I right? Do you have any other ideas?

You should be able to clone to the external hard drive, set it as your boot drive, and then clone again to the SSD, then set that as your boot drive. Never done it, but seeing as you can have an OS on a USB and use it as your boot drive, (not as an install, but purely running off the USB) I don't see why you couldn't.

The only difference is the transfer rates, which would be slower. But not an actual problem.