Removing Windows 10 from HDD and adding an SSD as Boot drive

[BruceyBaby]

Was looking at getting my Dad an SSD for Christmas as his PC at this moment is running on a single mechanical HDD.

I'm just wondering what's the best way to remove Windows 10 from his current HDD as I will be installing it on the new SSD. Can I go through the Windows 10 installation process with just the HDD connected, delete all the partitions, turn off the computer, disconnect the HDD and connect the SSD and then go through the set up as normal?

I've done something like this once on my own PC and that was a few years back and I've forgotten!

Also, his Windows license is connected to his Microsoft account, does he just need to sign back in after installing Windows 10 to activate Windows?

 

[Jamin280672]

Was looking at getting my Dad an SSD for Christmas as his PC at this moment is running on a single mechanical HDD.

I'm just wondering what's the best way to remove Windows 10 from his current HDD as I will be installing it on the new SSD. Can I go through the Windows 10 installation process with just the HDD connected, delete all the partitions, turn off the computer, disconnect the HDD and connect the SSD and then go through the set up as normal?

I've done something like this once on my own PC and that was a few years back and I've forgotten!

Also, his Windows license is connected to his Microsoft account, does he just need to sign back in after installing Windows 10 to activate Windows?

Macrium reflect, clone the HDD to the SSD, it will clone the whole contents, unplug the hard drive to confirm its booting off the SSD and then just format the Hard drive to wipe it clean, leave it in the PC for backup's and additional storage like photo's etc.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

 

[d_brennen]

Last time I tried that I had to resize the partition of the hard drive to fit within the capacity of the SSD for it to work. There wasn't much on the HDD so it fit fine. There's probably an option in Reflect from that but was in a rush

 

[BruceyBaby]

Macrium reflect, clone the HDD to the SSD, it will clone the whole contents, unplug the hard drive to confirm its booting off the SSD and then just format the Hard drive to wipe it clean, leave it in the PC for backup's and additional storage like photo's etc.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

I was thinking of doing a fresh install of Windows as his PC was built 5 years ago and hasn't been formatted once, so has accumulated quite a bit of rubbish.

The SSD is only 250gb as well. Just want to install Windows, Steam, Origin etc to the SSD and then install his games on to the HDD.

 

[Jamin280672]

I was thinking of doing a fresh install of Windows as his PC was built 5 years ago and hasn't been formatted once, so has accumulated quite a bit of rubbish.

The SSD is only 250gb as well. Just want to install Windows, Steam, Origin etc to the SSD and then install his games on to the HDD.

Oh well in that case do it like that, just unplug the old HDD first, install Windows to the new one and then boot of the new installation and just format the old hard drive, simple as that, just make sure you backup anything he wants to keep, pictures, documents etc, just copy them to the SSD, format the HDD and then you can copy them back to the HDD afterwards.

You can change the default folders inside steam and origin to install all games to the HDD which will probably be D: instead of C: the SSD