Remove all drivers or fresh install of Win10?

michty_me · 23 Jun 2020 at 11:42

I had a laptop which failed at the start of the year but it had a fresh install of windows 10. This was an intel CPU and GTX GPU laptop.
I've now ordered a new laptop which is AMD CPU and a RTX GPU. When I come to fit the hard drive to my new laptop, Would I be best to wipe clean and start from scratch or could I just remove all drivers and install the AMD and chipset drivers?

I know Win10 isn't much of a push to install these days but was more thinking of other stuff that I had setup on the drive.

Edit: To try make more sense of what I originally wrote!!

VortexA1 · 23 Jun 2020 at 14:54

I'm a bit confused, when you come to fit to your newer laptop, why do you need to remove all drivers?

Freshly installed is always best, however
you would have to reinstall them and change any default Windows 10 settings. Windows 10 handles hardware changes pretty well, and often installs most things automatically. That said, if the hardware changes are major and you've had the OS install on quite a while , a clean install (or reset) is usually a good idea.

michty_me · 23 Jun 2020 at 15:25

VortexA1 said:
I'm a bit confused, when you come to fit to your newer laptop, why do you need to remove all drivers?

Freshly installed is always best, however
you would have to reinstall them and change any default Windows 10 settings. Windows 10 handles hardware changes pretty well, and often installs most things automatically. That said, if the hardware changes are major and you've had the OS install on quite a while , a clean install (or reset) is usually a good idea.

Surely all the drivers would be installed for WiFi, Ethernet, GPU, Chipset etc etc of the old laptop?
The windows install was only a couple of months old really with mostly games installed installed and a few programs like throttlestop. Maybe I should just wipe and fresh start for the sake of possible issues. At least I'll know it is clean and totally fresh.

Mcnumpty2323 · 23 Jun 2020 at 15:29

You mean you want to move the hard drive from the old laptop and put it
In the new one?
Otherwise I am also confused lol

michty_me · 23 Jun 2020 at 15:32

Mcnumpty2323 said:
You mean you want to move the hard drive from the old laptop and put it
In the new one?
Otherwise I am also confused lol

Hmm, Yeah, Reading that back now it doesn't make the greatest of sense. I had a mad rush at work so quickly checked it together. My bad.

VortexA1 · 23 Jun 2020 at 20:14

I would order an external drive if you don't already have one, and then put the old drive in. Windows 10 handles new hardware pretty well then back all your stuff up..then put a clean install of Windows 10 on. After that then re-put your documents/files back. More effort but I think that would be better in the long run and just stops any potential problems later, also your documents and files will be backed up.

michty_me · 23 Jun 2020 at 22:01

VortexA1 said:
I would order an external drive if you don't already have one, and then put the old drive in. Windows 10 handles new hardware pretty well then back all your stuff up..then put a clean install of Windows 10 on. After that then re-put your documents/files back. More effort but I think that would be better in the long run and just stops any potential problems later, also your documents and files will be backed up.

Yeah maybe a good idea just doing that! I'll go down that route I think. Thanks.

Mcnumpty2323 · 24 Jun 2020 at 00:55

michty_me said:
Hmm, Yeah, Reading that back now it doesn't make the greatest of sense. I had a mad rush at work so quickly checked it together. My bad.

No worries mate
And another possibility can your new laptop take more than 1 hard drive?

michty_me · 24 Jun 2020 at 07:27

Mcnumpty2323 said:
No worries mate
And another possibility can your new laptop take more than 1 hard drive?

It can, But I've just realised its two M.2 slots only and no connectivity for a 2.5" drive. I may have to re-think things a little. Unless there is an M.2 to 2.5" HDD adapter.

darael · 24 Jun 2020 at 10:17

Although you could probably use Macrium Reflect and a USB caddy to clone the drive to your new laptop's M.2 drive, I'd probably just bite the bullet and do a clean installation. Even on new laptops I prefer to do a clean installation, as they seem to come with bloat from the manufacturer by default.

VortexA1 · 24 Jun 2020 at 13:40

darael said:
Although you could probably use Macrium Reflect and a USB caddy to clone the drive to your new laptop's M.2 drive, I'd probably just bite the bullet and do a clean installation. Even on new laptops I prefer to do a clean installation, as they seem to come with bloat from the manufacturer by default.

Yep sensible; clean installation. Have a USB caddy and then get off all your documents and files once installed, and then you have your original external hard drive to have as back up for docs/files too.

michty_me · 24 Jun 2020 at 13:48

Full fresh install it is. Looks like I'll need to buy a second M.2 drive for all my games though so may just sell the MX500 on.

VortexA1 · 24 Jun 2020 at 14:05

michty_me said:
Full fresh install it is. Looks like I'll need to buy a second M.2 drive for all my games though so may just sell the MX500 on.

Let us know how you get on with it. I would be interested.

michty_me · 24 Jun 2020 at 14:14

VortexA1 said:
Let us know how you get on with it. I would be interested.

Shall do!

Mcnumpty2323 · 24 Jun 2020 at 16:09

michty_me said:
It can, But I've just realised its two M.2 slots only and no connectivity for a 2.5" drive. I may have to re-think things a little. Unless there is an M.2 to 2.5" HDD adapter.

Was hoping it would be one M2 and one
2.5
Guess that's progress for you lol

michty_me · 24 Jun 2020 at 16:25

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Was hoping it would be one M2 and one
2.5
Guess that's progress for you lol

Well, From what I've been hearing was that the AMD chipset didn't support a SATA HDD. I assume they meant for that motherboard but I have noticed the likes of Asus, Dell, and HP only show M2 slots also where as I think the Legion had both.

Mcnumpty2323 · 24 Jun 2020 at 17:24

Guess it's also down to the fact M2 drives just take up way less space
When you want a really thin laptop
Or better airflow in them that's pretty major

michty_me · 24 Jun 2020 at 17:26

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Guess it's also down to the fact M2 drives just take up way less space
When you want a really thin laptop
Or better airflow in them that's pretty major

Yeah thats a fair point also. Absolutely would help in those regards too.

Mcnumpty2323 · 24 Jun 2020 at 22:13

michty_me said:
Yeah thats a fair point also. Absolutely would help in those regards too.

Plus if it's 2 x decent nvme M2 drives Copying files to/ from them is where they
Really shine

michty_me · 24 Jun 2020 at 22:55

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Plus if it's 2 x decent nvme M2 drives Copying files to/ from them is where they
Really shine

The one I currently have is a 1TB Corsair MP510.
I think I'll look at the Sabrent 2TB.
It has higher read/Write speeds than the MP510.
Still a lot higher speeds than the SATA SSD.