Windows 7 clean install on new SSD

[ryangall92]

Here's my situation: I'm considering buying a new SSD for my Sager NP8235 laptop (it has 2 spots for mSATA SSD's). However, I already have Windows 7 Professional on my HDD (upgrade version, bought through my university). I would like to do a clean install of this OS onto my SSD and obviously make it the boot drive.

I've read through a lot of threads regarding this process but I am still confused. Would I simply be able to install the SSD, install Windows 7 via a boot drive, and then reformat the hard drive after? Or would I have to first unplug (or wipe) the hard drive and THEN install the SSD and Windows?

Lastly, would I be able to reuse the product key that I was given? I'm assuming that I'd have to go through the phone activation process.

 

[geofelt]

1. If your new ssd is large enough to hold the contents of your current boot hard drive, cloning would be the simplest and fastest.
Samsung and Intel offer free cloning software for their drives.

2. On a clean install, Disconnect or remove your current hard drive first. Otherwise, windows will place a hidden recovery partition on it, complicating matters. Later, you can reattach your hard drive and do what you will with it. Your files would still be available, but programs would need to be reinstalled.

3. The product key should still be good. You probably would not even need to do the phone activation since your motherboard has not changed.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

If you've got a Windows 7 installation DVD you can use that install Windows on to your new SSD, using the same Product Key supplied with that DVD.

However, before commencing Windows installation, disconnect the existing hard drive first to avoid confusion when Windows Setup asks you to choose a drive to install to, and also to stop Windows Setup creating a dual-boot configuration.

Since you are changing only the hard drive, and assuming this will be the first time you've changed the drive since the previous Windows install process, Product Activation should work via the normal online method.

 

[burdenbound]

I don't know if you will have to go through the phone reactivation and everything for an upgrade copy but you will need some earlier form of windows installed in the SSD to use the upgrade disk. You can not do a clean install of 7 with an upgrade disk, so if you have XP laying around install that on the SSD and then use the upgrade disk, if that works with out issue you can then wipe the old hard drive to use as storage.

Or if you do not want to worry about all that you can clone your current drive to the SSD, it requires a connector that will sometimes come with a new SSD or you can order it separately. It's fairly inexpensive, you just need to make sure that you clear off your current HDD so that all the contents will fit on your smaller(generally) SSD.

I recommend EaseUS todo Backup, I used it for the same thing and it worked perfectly, there are some guides online on how to use it. Really straight forward.

 

[ryangall92]

With regards to the upgrade version, it worked fine for a clean install on the HDD. I basically followed this process.

I knew about the cloning/migration process, however I am a little worried about it. I have seen that many people suggest just doing a clean install. Is it safe to do the migration?

 

[burdenbound]

With regards to the upgrade version, it worked fine for a clean install on the HDD. I basically followed this process.

I knew about the cloning/migration process, however I am a little worried about it. I have seen that many people suggest just doing a clean install. Is it safe to do the migration?

If you know your upgrade CD will work then it's your call which path you want to take. It's perfectly safe to clone the HDD on to the SSD, many people do it with success. The benefit of cloning is that you do not have to reinstall all of your programs etc, but there are times when you want to do a fresh install to clean out the cobwebs.

Either path you go I would back up any data you don't want to lose to an external hard drive or to the cloud. Also when I cloned my drive it took a pretty long time, I let it run overnight, where as a fresh install on an SSD is really quick.

 

[ryangall92]

Okay, thanks for all of the replies. I will strongly consider cloning then. As this laptop is still pretty new (~4 months), there probably isn't too much clutter.