Best way to go about transfering old Hard Drive into new PC

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reinasophia73

PCHF Member
Feb 14, 2022
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Hey guys I recently got a new PC (Dell Optiplex) and it came with a 240GB SSD.

I want to transfer my old hard drive (It had windows 10 home on it).

I am kind of nervous as I have never done this before. I read you should insert the hard drive and make it the boot drive with the BIOS.

What would happen if I installed windows on the SSD first as this is what I plan on doing in the future? Does it need to be the same version of windows 10 or could I install pro?

Should I not even bother with the SSD in the first place?

Whatever gets my old files back safely is the best option for me.

Thanks a lot!
 
Is it just files which you wish to transfer or programs as well?
Windows 10 is usually good when transferring HDD/SSD between computers.
You could trial Macrium Reflect & clone to old HDD to the SSD or even create an image of the HDD, swap it with the SSD, then boot the pc from the Macrium boot drive (which you need to create before swapping the drives) & restoring the image. You may have to use their redeploy option after restore. https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW80/Re-deploying+to+new+hardware
 
I would tackle it this way...
  • remove old drive
  • install new drive
  • install Windows, drivers, updates
  • either connect old drive via an external USB enclosure and copy/paste your personal files, or connect it internally and do it that way
 
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