Windows 10: New Hard Drive. Will it still activate okay

I have a removable SSD as my windows drive to boot from. It has issues and I can't change any IP stuff on any of the network adaptors because I can't remove the VMWare Bridge Protocol.
I have ordered a new SSD same brand and size. I plan to pull the old drive out (was upgraded from Win8.1 to Win 10) and pop the new drive in and start fresh. The other drive is there in case it does not work and I can just pop it back in.

Plan to do a fresh install of Win 10. Now the question is will it activate okay and keep the other disk activated as well or will it fail to activate? I want to keep the old drive fully operational till I have everything transferred which may take a while.

Thanks.

:)

 

Would I be able to get a free product key from microsoft if my hard drive fails?

Okay so I say I've installed windows 10 onto a new hard drive(using the usb), but using the same components, skipped the steps for entering the activation key, and as soon as I log into my microsoft account, windows automatically activates?

 

Would swapping HDs mess up the MBR?

No problems for activation. Your computer will still activate, whether with the new or old hard drive. You'll only fail to activate if you change the motherboard, because a computer with a new motherboard is considered a new computer for the purposes of
activation.

 

Hi veldthui,

Yes it will activate as the MS servers will recognise your system and know you have previously activated W10 on it. Make sure you skip the activation step during installation of W10 and leave it to do it itself once you have finished.

 

Hi, it should do.. I've switched HDD's, no problem. If all else fails, talk to Uncle Microsoft, making sure you have a valid key to quote.