Following on from my previous thread about ageing laptop probs I’ve bought the SSD recommended by Cougar. The laptop I’m going to upgrade has Win8 which was an immediate upgrade from the Win7 it came with. So i’m hoping I can create a Win10 image and install that over the top. I’m currently sorting out and backing up all the files on it but should I clone the existing system or just start all over again? I’m assuming it’s not just a case of unplugging the old HD and plugging the new one in?

Install a fresh copy of 10 on the SSD using your old product key to activate it. Box fresh.

If it works, all good otherwise try doing an accessibility upgrade.

I cloned my HDD and somehow made a **** of it resulting on my MBR living on the old HDD and everything else on my SSD. The two drives are literally symbiotic now and I can’t remove one without upsetting the other.

So I do just unplug one drive and plug in the other? Does it just recognise it automatically?

Yep give it a go, I know you can still happy upgrade 8.1 to windows 10 without issue, but havent done it using the W8 code on a fresh W10 install, but try it. If it doesn’t work slap the old disk back in & run the upgrade, then once activated, replace it with the W10 Ssd and it should then be activated

I would first create a bootable Win10 media, either DVD or USB stick. Check that you can boot to that – you might have to change the boot order in the BIOS settings. Once you know you can boot from your Win10 media, just swap in the new SSD and try installing. If it goes bad, you should be able to just put the old disk back in to troubleshoot. If you try installing over the top of your existing installation and it goes wrong, it will be much harder to fix.

Install a fresh copy of 10 on the SSD using your old product key to activate it.

If you’re coming from W8.1 you shouldn’t need a product key at all, the activation servers know you’re eligible.

You should just be able to swap the disks, boot from USB and install W10 fresh. You’ve got the download link from the other thread, yes?

Yes thanks Cougar.

So, all files copied into an external drive. There are various programs that I can just download or I have discs for. Everything else I can see either relates to windows, so is irrelevant I assume, or is connected with other things like AVG or google. All my passwords, etc should be saved to my google account hopefully so good to go.

Thanks for your help, see you on the other side.

I’ve twice recently (since December) upgraded a PC with Windows 10 fresh install, by entering the machine’s Window’s 7 key – Microsoft are still allowing free upgrades.

No need for AVG with 10, the built in AV is fine.

Back in the game. That seems excellent, thanks all.

Just out of interest how do you think W10 would go on another laptop without replacing the HD? I think it’s i3/8G RAM.

Be fine with that spec.