Mirror a drive for a new build

[SnuggleWalrus]

Hello guys!

About the make the plunge this week and buy the parts for my new system. I had my SSD arrive early and was wondering what's the best process to get windows 10 over from my old HDD onto the new one.

My first thought was to get the product/reg key and just do a fresh re install? (got the key so is this a better option?) or is it worth mirroring the drive over first then putting it in the new build though I can see loads of issues popping up if I do this surely?

Checked the stickies but couldn't find anything on this.

 

[zola25]

Personally I'd clean install on the new hardware. If it's a retail Windows 10 key and linked to your MS account, it should activate ok.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, SnuggleWalrus.

If you're planning on mirroring the already installed OS from a different system in order to use it with your new SSD in a new computer, then you're going to have a bad time.
Go with the clean install as @zola25 suggested. It's the better option anyway. In most cases when people try to swap drives containing an OS and try to boot to it via a different computer, it doesn't work.

Here's a pretty good tutorial on how to make a clean install (to the mods - I assume that since it's Windows 10's forum, it's OK to post this here, but please correct me if I'm wrong): https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

Hope that helps. Cheers!
Boogieman_WD

 

[SnuggleWalrus]

Sadly I've got the free upgrade so researching shows my key might not transfer to a brand new machine. I might just format a USB stick with the windows tool, stick pro10 on it and then purchase a key elsewhere with next day delivery...?

 

[KIA]

Just try it. These days, it'll work more often than not. The worst thing you may have to do is buy a new key.