Windows 10: Switch HDD to SSD + Add m2 2280 SSD then Activation? Or Activate then swap all the...

Good Afternoon,

Just purchased a brand new desktop PC (it still in the box). Its preinstalled with Windows 10 Professional (awaiting activation) on the a single drive which is a 2.5" HDD. I don't' want that drive in the computer and I've purchased two new SSD's to upgrade the system. Once I remove the HDD, its no longer part of my equation.


Current out of the box setup:

2.5" HDD with Windows 10 Pro awaiting first startup / initiation and activation.


Where I want to go:

M.2 2280 SSD as Primary drive with Windows 10 Pro installed and activated here

2.5" SSD as secondary drive for my files/documents/data.


How do I get the preinstalled Win10Pro off the HDD, and activate it on the M2 SSD as the primary OS boot drive? Should I activate windows before making all these hardware changes? Or should I clone/reinstall Windows 10 Pro to the M.2 SSD then activate? Last step is adding the additional SSD for data, but that's not a priority … or is it? Add it before activation?


This is the headache I get for buying an pre-built system that wasn't originally spec'd the way I wanted. Oh well.

Do the HDD/SSD changes make a diff to the activation process? or is it all hardware encoded to the motherboard which remains unchanged?


Advice?

:)

 

Migration from Hdd to m2.SSD

Recently I have purchased a new laptop (hp probook 450 G4) and a new original windows 10 home edition and now I want to upgrade my 1 TB Hdd to a new m2 ssd and my laptop supports another slot for the m2 ssd so I can run both
the m2 ssd & hdd at the same time but I will make the m2 ssd the boot drive and the hdd will be the data drive.
MY Question is how can I migrate system drive to the new m2 ssd without the need to reinstall windows or any other installed programs and there is another thing, when I checked the disk management I found 3 recovery partitions will I have to
migrate them too or I have to migrate the system drive only

 

Upgrading hdd to M.2 SSD

Hi ColMac75

Honestly to get the best performance from that M2 you need to clean install Windows 10 onto that drive

You must disconnect the HDD before you install Windows 10 onto the M2 SSD, otherwise the boot config or pagefile can end up on the HDD and your system will then not boot form the SSD

Click this link:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

to download the Media Creation Tool (Click on Download Tool Now), with that you can download the latest Windows 10 ISO (Select Create Installation Media for Another PC), you can create a bootable USB flash drive (min 8GB) using that tool

Then, Boot your PC from the Installation Media you just created (change Boot Order in your BIOS) to begin installing Windows 10

Since you previously had Windows 10 installed and activated on that PC during the installation process skip the steps which ask for a product key and select the option 'I am Reinstalling Windows 10 on this PC', and activation will not be an issue, your PC will
have a digital entitlement stored on the Microsoft Activation Servers

 

New pc build ssd and hdd

I recently finish to build my gaming system

and instead get a HDD

I choose a secondary SSD for overall performance vs a regular HDD

and the SSD have other benefits compare to a HDD.!

my primary SSD 111GB I have the OS and the game I play everyday

my secondary M2 SSD 256GB I have my backup and one more game

my primary SSD still have 37,8GB free space

my secondary SSD still have 150GB free space

why I choose an SSD for my secondary hard drive?

because the price was reasonable and plus I have a M2 SSD port on my motherboard

and I never run out for space

and obviously because the SSD is faster and doesn't produce heat like a HDD does

I used to use a 500GB HDD in my old build

and I remember when I defrag the HDD it take at least 1 hour

the SSD doesn't have to be defrag and I love it...!!!!