Moving Win 10Pro on new SSD help

[AntonyDisilva]

I'm hoping someone can help.

I have Win10P installed on my 250g SSD. I have been trying to clone this drive to a new 1TB SSD with no luck. All the files seem to transfer but it won't load windows. I have the original CD for Win 10P , is it possible to just install the new SSD and just reinstall windows? I don't want to lose windows. As I type this I wonder even if i take out the old drive completely and something doesn't work, could I just reinstall old drive and be up and running again? All of my data is backed up so a fresh install is not an issue as long as I can have a running OS on the new SSD. Any help would be appreciated. I have searched online, but instructions unclear.

[Boggin]

I create a system image prior to replacing a HDD but going from a smaller one to a larger one gives you unallocated space which you then have to extend to C:

As you have all of your stuff backed up then it may be easier to just do a clean install on the new SSD and you will still have your old SSD as a fall back.

[Willy2]

- Windows checks whether or not there has been a change of the computer set up (in your case a different/larger drive). If there has been a change then Windows will ask for a license key or you need to re-install Windows from scratch.
- Don't worry, all the Windows system files won't be wiped but moved to a folder called "C:\Windows.old". And making a backup of your (personal) data is always a good idea before re-installing Windows.

[Boggin]

Once Win 10 has been installed on a machine, the fingerprint it takes is that of the motherboard.

I recently swapped out a failing 640GB HDD for a 1TB one.

I had to factory reset it back to Win 7 to remove the recovery partition and extend that to C: and then reinstalled Win 10 without any prompts for a product key.