Replacing Laptop HDD with SSD - how to copy disc image?

[Rob_F]

Hi, I have a 5 year old Win 10 laptop that i'd like to upgrade with a 120gb or so SSD.

My worry is installing Win10 - I'm happy to start from a fresh install but would prefer just to have an exact replica / image of what i currently have. Is that possible for someone computer literate but not an expert by any stretch?

If not, how will it work if I do a fresh install - my HP only has a recovery option no discs or anything - so presumably i'd have to buy a new license key, does anyone know? This might make it cost prohibitive and not really worth doing.

Thanks for any advice,
Rob

[RobDickinson]

Buy a Samsung Evo ssd you can use their software to clone your existing drive and just swap.

Tricky bits though connecting both and confirming what interface the ssd should be (probably sata)

Imo get a 250 minimum

[RizzoTheRat]

Your machine should have come with the windows licence key on something, but there are free utilities you can download and run on your machine to find your licence key if not. You can then download a win 10 install set from Microsoft on to a USB stick (4 GB I think) and install it on the new machine.

Theres also stuff like True Image (and probably cheaper/free equivalents) which can copy the whole disk image and put it on the new disk but personally I'd do a fresh install.

[Mr Pointy]

Rob_F said:

Hi, I have a 5 year old Win 10 laptop that i'd like to upgrade with a 120gb or so SSD.

My worry is installing Win10 - I'm happy to start from a fresh install but would prefer just to have an exact replica / image of what i currently have. Is that possible for someone computer literate but not an expert by any stretch?

If not, how will it work if I do a fresh install - my HP only has a recovery option no discs or anything - so presumably i'd have to buy a new license key, does anyone know? This might make it cost prohibitive and not really worth doing.

In general cloning (copying) your existing drive is a very easy process. You need the new drive, a USB to SATA cable, a spare 4-8Gb USB drive & a copy of Macrium Reflect.

It's easiest if the new drive is the same size or bigger than the old one, but not absolutely essential. The USB drive needs to be formatted as a boot drive as it's to be used as a recovery disc. This usually isn't needed but you may get in a situation where the new drive doesn't boot & the Rescue/Recovery Disc wil be needed.

Download Macrium Reflect & install on your current drive:
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Insert the bootable USB key & use Macrium to make a Rescue/Recovery Disc:
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...for+Windows...
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...g+rescue+me...

Check it does actually boot by restarting the PC with the Rescue/Recovery Disc inserted. You should boot into the recovery environment. Shut down & remove the Rescue/Recovery Disc.

Restart the PC & attach the new drive to the PC using the USB to SATA cable.

Start Macrium & use it to clone the old drive on to the new, making sure you select all the partitions:
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...Cloning+a+d...

If you have to change partition sizes you can do it when you are cloning. When it's finished copying remove the old dive & insert the new. The PC should now boot ok but if not insert the Recovery/Rescue USB drive & follow the instructions to make the new C drive bootable:
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...+boot+probl...

[Mr Pointy]

Although I posted how to clone your drive there will be a bunch of posters saying you should never clone a drive but always start with a new installation. If you really feel you want to do this then you can download Windows 10 from MS & use your existing key. You don't need to buy another licence.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/...

You need to create a bootable USB (8-16GB is enough) & use this download tool to create the media. At the point where it asks for a licence key enter your current Win10 key & it should be happy (although it's very possible it will recognise you had Win10 before & just authorise itself). You can then spend happy hours reinstalling everything.

You can probably make a recovery USB key from within your existing copy of Win 10 but I've never done it as I've always downloaded it from MS. In theory making it from your existing HDD should install the correct drivers which might be an advantage.

[alorotom]

When I did this very thing a few weeks ago for our media machine at home I used macrium reflect but then afterwards you need to manually adjust and set the partition size as it will mirror the old one that’s copied over - literally a 10second job though

[Mr Pointy]

alorotom said:

When I did this very thing a few weeks ago for our media machine at home I used macrium reflect but then afterwards you need to manually adjust and set the partition size as it will mirror the old one that’s copied over - literally a 10second job though

At the point where you have selected the partions to be copied but before you trigger the actual copying you could have altered the partiion sizes. See steps 4 & 5:

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/C...

[Rob_F]

Thank you everyone - the Samsung Evo drives look a little pricey, but great tip. Knowing how to get a MS license key very useful (I threw out everything that came with the laptop a long time ago) and then Mr Pointy - thank you for your step by step instructions - that's perfect. I'll try this as a pet project and let you know how I get on!

[Mr Pointy]

Rob_F said:

Thank you everyone - the Samsung Evo drives look a little pricey, but great tip. Knowing how to get a MS license key very useful (I threw out everything that came with the laptop a long time ago) and then Mr Pointy - thank you for your step by step instructions - that's perfect. I'll try this as a pet project and let you know how I get on!

The Samsung drives are reassuringly expensive but there's a reason for not skimping on the SSD you buy: SSDs do sometimes fail & when they do it's generally in a way that means no data can be recovered, unlike a normal HDD. I always suggest that if you change to an SSD your backup routine needs to be overhauled so that if your drive dies then you can recover your data from your backup. Personally I went over to Dropbox & I take a disk image (again using Macrium) to a USB HDD drive at regular intervals.

[Rob_F]

Mr Pointy said:

The Samsung drives are reassuringly expensive but there's a reason for not skimping on the SSD you buy: SSDs do sometimes fail & when they do it's generally in a way that means no data can be recovered, unlike a normal HDD. I always suggest that if you change to an SSD your backup routine needs to be overhauled so that if your drive dies then you can recover your data from your backup. Personally I went over to Dropbox & I take a disk image (again using Macrium) to a USB HDD drive at regular intervals.

All fair points - it’s a second machine for the odd time I need a windows app (if I’m honest it’s only really switched on when I want a go on euro truck simulator 2) so doesn’t have any vital data on it. My main machine is backed up regularly! It just seems chronically slow but I think that’s mainly from forgetting what spinning discs were like, so might replace that to see if it helps. It’s an AMD a10 with 4gb so would have thought it should still be okay for day to day use if it had an SSD. Like I say, more of a pet project but thank you very much for advice!

[captain_cynic]

I've used Aomei and the Windows 10 backup and restore tool before.

Here's a guide (and a free tool).
https://www.aomeitech.com/articles/ssd-cloning-fre...

[Emeye]

I bought a crucial SSD from Amazon and a £5.99 usb sata to usb cable.

The drive came with instructions with a link to the cloning software and I didn't need a USB drive - it did it all for me.

Everything here:

https://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/ssd-install

I don't even remember having to use a serial number to use the Acronis True Image software.

[eeLee]

CloneZilla is also an option here. It is sometimes better than a cloning tool from one of the disk manufacturers

[C0ffin D0dger]

eeLee said:

CloneZilla is also an option here. It is sometimes better than a cloning tool from one of the disk manufacturers

I was looking for something to snap shot the OS hard drive on my media PC before attempting to change to Windows 10 and had concluded that CloneZilla was the way to go. Bit more techy than some though as it's Linux based but for me this appealed

[geeks]

Also worth noting that if you have Win 10 and no product key then you wont need to the product key to reinstall.

In simplistic terms it creates a hash from the hardware that it syncs with Microsoft, so if you replace a HDD then it will recreate the hash and check it with MS, it will then activate just fine without the need for a key, the system is designed so that you can replace a bit of hardware with little faff, if you are replacing a HDD and a GFX card and something else, then you would probably need your key again or you do them incrementally.