Windows 10: Upgrading to an M.2 SSD, question about clean installation of Windows 10

Upgrading to new SSD and wanting to do a fresh install of Windows 10 on it. My activation is a digital license. This is how it will go, please correct me if I'm wrong:

1. Physically install SSD
2. Boot computer to USB with Windows 10 install
3. Install Windows 10 on new SSD
4. Change BIOS to boot to new SSD
5. Log in with my Windows credentials
6. Boom, Windows 10 successfully installed and activated

Bonus question, what happens if I boot to the old HDD? Is the old HDD W10 activation, deactivated?

submitted by /u/TobbisDaTrain
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:)

 

Win 10 clean install question

This is what I would do:

• Shrink the hard drive partition until it's small enough to fit on the SSD.
• Clone the Windows 8.1 setup to the SSD.
• Boot off the SSD and make sure that Windows 8.1 is happy (i.e., no complaints about activation).
• Upgrade to Windows 10 on the SSD.

This way, you know that Windows 8.1 has a valid setup on the SSD before doing anything else. Plus, the Windows 10 upgrade will be processed much faster on the SSD. Finally, you still have the hard drive setup to fall back to if anything goes wrong.

 

Windows 10 clean install mess up partitions?

I had no issues upgrading from your exact OS Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit to Windows 10. All my partitions from 2 SSD's and 3 HDD's were fine. Windows 10 even kept the custom names I have for the various drives. A clean install on your SSD shouldn't affect your 2TB drive.

 

Clean Install Workaround for Vista

You may remember this news story on techPowerUp! a couple of days ago relating to the lack of clean installs when using the Upgrade Editions of Vista, which required an old OS to be installed. However, Paul Thurrott has managed to find a workaround for this issue, which ironically lets users do a clean install Vista without any previous version of Windows, albeit a little tedious. Here are the steps:

• Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD as normal
• When prompted for a product code, leave this blank
• Select the version of Vista you have purchased and let Vista install
• When you boot to your desktop for the first time, run the Vista setup from Windows
• This time enter your product key
• When asked whether you want to do an Upgrade of Custom install, select custom and choose a clean install
• Windows will now install for a second time and you should be able to activate it

Remember, these steps are only advised for use in order to achieve a clean install of Vista, it is only legal to use the upgrade editions if you have previously purchased the appropriate version of Windows.

Source: DailyTech