Windows 10: can i reformat ssd with cloned image to do clean install instead?

I cloned my HDD to my new SSD and it seems like it did it without error. However, I didn't physically swap them as I needed some guidance about the location of the SSD when doing the first reboot and now 4 days later I have fixed a couple of ongoing issues with my system uninstalled some no longer useful apps and installed a couple larger apps that would be better for the SSD to already be installed because of the disc writing limits. Here are some questions that are nagging head about wanting to have a successful migration today.

1. can I hook the SSD back up to my laptop and reformat it and will that erase all traces of the Source drive?
2. do I format the SSD to have no allocation and be in NTFS format?
3. after creating a new disc image of my current system on my laptop (which I presume should be a complete image including the boot and recovery sections) which will be stored on my FreeAgent external usb hard drive the next step should be?

do I...

a. then remove existing hdd from laptop and plug the ssd in (while shut down of course)
b. insert bootable recovery usb thumb drive and restart the computer pressing F12 to enable AHCI .
c. plug in external usb and restore system image to ssd
d. anything else? do I have to use Trim for anything?

Please let me know if this seems like I am doing what I should be doing.

Thanks,

Danny R

:)

 

How to create a 2nd install of windows on a different drive on my pc

Depending to some degree on how much software you have installed keeping a clone of your Windows is a

good idea even if you don't think you SSD/HDD is about to fail. It's so much quicker than reformatting.

It's also a good idea, imo to make a fresh clone prior to the new version updates, such as 1703,

as they can go wrong.

You can clone/image/migrate your current Windows to another HDD.

I prefer removing the cloned copy as this is safer than leaving it in the machine.

I use AOEMI Partition Assistant, but Macrium Reflect is well regarded among the free cloning software.

Free Partition Manager - AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

The tutorial below shows methods for 'refreshing' Win10. At the bottom are links to other tutorials

on how to do a clean install, etc.

- Once you have activated Win10, even with an upgrade from a previous version of Windows, you do not

need to worry about having an activation key should you reformat/clean install Win10 on the same machine.

Win10 links the activation to your machines motherboard.

- Why, or how, have you determined your SSD is on it's way out ? Have you run Windows disk checking tool

and found issues, or perhaps run a program such as Crystal Disk info and found yellow flags ?

CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World

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Migrating to a SSD - clone or fresh install?

I bought a PC with Windows 7 pre-installed on a HDD. A few months ago I upgraded to Windows with no problems.

Now I would like to replace my HDD with a SSD. I would prefer to do a clean install, but I'm worried about activation. Can I use my current code/product key for a clean Windows 10 install on the SSD? Or should I clone the HDD image instead?

If I can do a clean install, where can i find the Win 10 iso to do the isntallation with?

 

Steps 1,2, and 3 all you have to do is 3, image your ENTIRE hdd, then reimage all of those partitions to the ssd.

The contents of your image have to fit on the ssd. Of course *Smile

Don`t worry about setting up the ssd, the reimage should take care of everything.

Trim is automatically enabled in windows.

I would just check that the alignment is correct with Partition Wizard or Diskpart. PW is way easier for a novice. It can check it and correct it for you.