Cloning my current hard drive to a new PC

[Baz]

I am thinking of updating my current HP PC which is about 4 years old and running windows 7 for something which will run a bit quicker. When I last updated, I was able to clone my hard drive and all the settings to my current one.

The guys at PC world tell me that with Windows 10 this is no longer possible. I was also thinking of buying bare bones PC and sticking the hard drive into that. However I was told that wouldn't work as my Windows 7 OS is registered to the current PC.

Is there a way top update without the hassle of reinstalling all the software currently installed.

Ta Baz

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

Depends on what windows license you have. If it came with the pc then no you can't transfer it as it's OEM and locked to the hardware. If you bought the license separately then it's possible you could move the install. My money is on it being an OEM license though.

Depending in what your old pc spec is it might be worth looking at upgrades. An SSD hard drive and more RAM (memory) could go a long way to make it a good machine again. Probably cost less than a £100 as well.

 

[Baz]

The windows7 came with the PC, so not much I can do there. I recently updated the RAM to 4 GB , which is the max it can take. I might look at SSD, can I clone the current HD on to the SSD?

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

The windows7 came with the PC, so not much I can do there. I recently updated the RAM to 4 GB , which is the max it can take. I might look at SSD, can I clone the current HD on to the SSD?

Yes you could do that easy enough. It wouldn't cause any license issues. Shame you can't get 8gb in there but the SSD will help a lot.

 

[Baz]

What would the easiest way for a PC numpty to clone the HD

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

If you buy a Samsung SSD you get access to cloning software. Uou also get a 5 year warranty with a Samsung SSD. Failing that you can download a copy of todo backup either the free version or a trial. Buy a cheap USB drive caddy, they are about a fiver. Install whatever software, plug in the caddy with the SSD drive in it and use the clone function. When it's done unplug the old drive and put your new drive in its place. Job done.

Some things to note:

SSD drives are more expensive so your unlikely to get a drive with the same capacity as you have. 250gb SSD is a reasonable size and fairly cheap. You can get bigger but obviously the cost goes up. If your over this capacity you will have to get your saved data off to reduce the size. Maybe a separate USB drive for this if you have one.

If you have had to move data to clone and need the space you can put the old drive back in connected to a second port. Use this drive as a data drive. It doesn't matter it will be slow as your pc is still running on the SSD.

It takes about an hour maybe hour and half.

 

[Baz]

Cheers Ill have a look. My current HD is 500 GB and I have only used 250GB. o I guess I could get a 250GB SSD for the program files and store other non essential stuff on the HDD.

 

[Baz]

OK , so a year after my original thread I finally got round to installing a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB solid state drive.

Very easy to do as Marki_GSA described above. Just swapped the drives over and away it went, no issues with the Windows software all passwords saved.

From power up to ready to go is about 30 seconds as opposed to a few minutes. Wish Id done it sooner. My PC is about four years old, but does all I need it to so very pleased with the update.