Moving my install (Windows 10 pro) to a new PC

sybaris · 1 Jul 2021 at 11:01

Ok so I am getting a new PC.
It will have different storage requirements and different partitions though I always put my OS on its own drive.
Is there an easy way to transfer my install from my old PC to my new one?
Or is it cleaner and better in the long run to install from scratch?
Also I was thinking about disaster recovery once I have set up the new PC.
Is it best to create a windows system image of are there any better alternatives out there?
Just thinking if I need to rebuild for some reason and restore points don't work.

Quartz · 1 Jul 2021 at 11:11

sybaris said:
Is there an easy way to transfer my install from my old PC to my new one?

Just clone it. Windows should sort itself out the first time it boots on the new system. You will likely be asked for a new license key.

sybaris said:
Or is it cleaner and better in the long run to install from scratch?

This is always best, but time-consuming.

thenewoc · 1 Jul 2021 at 11:37

Did this a little while ago when I upgraded the NVMe drive in the laptop. Used Macrium Reflect to create a full drive image and output it to a shared folder on my desktop machine. Restored image from there to the new NVMe drive and resized the partitions with EaseUS Partition Master. Both are free programs and was quite straight forward to do. I made a Macrium Reflect USB drive as that meant I also didn't need to be logged in to the Windows system I was imagining and didn't include MR in the drive image since it wasn't installed on the laptops drive.

sybaris · 1 Jul 2021 at 20:08

I'll check that out. I am tempted to start afresh. Clean build, not corruption, no broken drivers but will probably take the best part of a week to get everything how I like it.

nade · 8 Jul 2021 at 08:44

I had been using an old Win7 retail license on another PC and built a new PC earlier this year and wanted to re-use my Retail key for that.

Assuming you've confirmed the windows key for your license, you could do what i did and follow just the 1st step from the following link to deactivate on old disk drive and then re-use the key:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-transfer-windows-10-license-new-computer-or-hard-drive

I had trouble working out the correct key to use, some of the commands online give different keys. Guess it's because I upgraded from Win7 previously to Win10. But i found an app online named "ShowKeyPlus" and the installed key that gave me worked perfectly.