Windows 10: Getting Win10 free upgrade installed on new drive

Greetings,

I've researched this but have a bit of a unique situation. I am running windows 7 on a SATA2 SSD but I plan to upgrade to a PCIe SSD when I install Windows 10. Up until now I thought I would have to spring for a new OEM windows 10 disk, however I wonder if this will work? To be clear I am not trying to dual boot.

So say I get Windows 7 all happily updated on my old SSD and I get the magic Windows 10 upgrade notification icon. Then I install my fresh new PCIe SSD and reboot.

I will be booted into Windows 7 with a new, unformatted (but recognized) new drive while running Windows 7 on my old drive.

If I start the free upgrade process, will it let me choose that new drive as my installation location for Windows 10? Or does that break the rules of changing something in the system....

Thanks for any thoughts.



:)

 

Installing Win 10, going back to 7 and then someday returning to 10 - any cost?

Is Win10 or Win7 currently installed on the computer-in-question?

Qualifying computers (i.e., legit product key) get one (1) free upgrade to Win10 thru 28 July 2016 (i.e., you can rollback to Win7 then upgrade to Win10 as many times as you wish thru 28 July).

If you're asking if you can have Win7 installed on, e.g., the C: drive and Win10 installed on the, e.g., F: drive, yes - but Win10 on the F: drive cannot be an upgrade.

=====================================

Installing or reinstalling Windows 10 using the media creation tool

Windows 10 herunterladen

How to get the Free Win10 Upgrade

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-upgrade

Win10 Upgrade FAQ

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq

You will find appropriate support for Downloading, Installing (upgrading to) & Activating Windows 10 by beginning your own, new thread in this forum:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install

You will find appropriate support for the free Win7-to-Win10 upgrade offer in this forum:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_upgrade-winup_7

 

Re-install Win10

New laptop - one 125 SSD, one 1T HD.

Came with Win8.1 on SSD - upgraded to Win10.

Long story short, I screwed up and ended up with 117GB of my 125 SSD used. I want to wipe that SSD drive and depending upon the size of Win10, reinstall it on either the SSD or the 1T drive.

I do want to keep SSD free for a computer game.

As it is, the SSD is drive C: and lots of programs install stuff there even if you install to drive D:.

So,

1- can I wipe the SSD and re-upgrade to win10 to either the SSD or the 1T drive or will it not pick up that I had win8.1 on this new computer and was upgraded to win10?

I did not have an option when I upgraded to start as win8.1 was already on the SSD.

2- since I will not have internet access on this computer if I wipe the SSD can I use the media install tool I have downloaded from MS and have on a thumb drive to boot from?

3- Will this allow me to get to the internet to download the rest of win10?

Tks for the help - jb

 

Short answer: No. You'd have to upgrade the current OS (7 in this case) on the drive it's installed on, overwriting the existing OS.

 

I believe that to get 10 to activate, it must be installed as an upgrade over a qualifying OS.

I'm not certain, but I also think that you could then remove the old SSD, install the new one, and clean install 10 on the new SSD, from a bootable USB drive or DVD. (Press the little "skip" button when the installer asks for a key.) I believe that the result will activate online. (You've changed your hardware, but not enough to make the activation fail. If it does fail, activate by telephone.)

If you have a reason to preserve Windows 7 on you old SSD, I suggest that instead you image it and later restore the image. (That'd be a really good idea anyway, in case the 10 upgrade fails spectacularly.) However, it'd be against the license agreement to continue to run 7 after you've used it to qualify an upgrade to 10.

 

Thanks to you both for the input.

I can certainly make an image of my old SSD...no problem there. And for prior windows version, a hard drive change normally re-activated.

Hmmm, but just remembered I have an OEM version of Windows 7....so sigh...even though 10 would be on the same PC which sticks with the OEM license, I'll need to check out those upgrade possibilities. Glad I remembered that!

Thanks again,

 

As soon as you upgrade from a qualifying windows on same MB and it's activated, you can clean install windows 10 on any disk you want as long as it's on same MB (that's what license is tied to).
If that W7 is OEM for that computer, you can upgrade it to W10 and when it activates, remove that SSD and install W10 on new one. Of course , you'll end up with W10 with OEM license.

 

Just installed 7, the upgrade to 10 on the old drive. Once you can boot to Windows 10 and see that it is activated, swap the drives and do a clean install on the new SSD. The hard drive has never been part of the "computer" that can't be changed under OEM licenses. It's easy to figure out what you can and can't do if you just assume this free license is OEM.

As long as the other components stay the same, specifically the motherboard, you'll be fine.

 

I can confirm this to be true because I've done the same thing -- to "migrate" Win10 from one drive to another in the same PC.

 

Hi All.
After searching many threads this seems to be the most appropriate thread.

I have W7 64 Pro retail installed and upgraded to W10, after a few days the profiles started to fail, lost so many functions and it had a few other niggles so I reverted back to the reliability and stability of W7. W10 was activated during it's troubled, but short, life.

Now, I have a spare 279gb hard drive (Drive E disk 2 as below) sitting in the PC doing nothing so am thinking why not put W10 on that?
The 'rig' specs have been registered - MB/CPU/Graphics card - so no changes to my system.

If I removed the W7 HD, what method would be best to install W10 on the unused HD? I have printed out about every install tutorial but not being very knowledgeable on the subject would welcome your advice. And assuming that the install worked then replace my W7 HD would I then be able to dual boot? Keeping my W7 active while exploring the virtues or otherwise of W10.
Disk management as below. Didn't know about the un-allocated space on C!!