Windows Upgrade

Guys - I'm hearing conflicting things so I'm asking for your advice.

My home desktop computer has a 125GB SSD and a 1TB hard disc to store all documents, photo's, music etc. The SSD carries Windows and Microsoft Office etc.. but it's got full and I have a new 500GB SSD to install.

My question is this:

I know I can clone the current SSD and clone to the new one. But I have Windows 7, should I clone the whole of my current SSD and then upgrade to Windows 10 over the top of Windows 7? Os should I just clean install Windows 10 as a new installation on the new SSD. And also I see references to Windows 10 being free to download and install. Is that accurate or do I need to buy it brand new?

Thanks

What I would do.
 
1, Use Macrium Reflect free (Home edition is the free one) to make an image backup of your current SSD to an external hard drive. You should be doing this on a regular basis anyway. If not now is the time to start. I prefer this to cloning. Has always worked better for me. You can get an external 1TB USB hard drive for around $50.
2. Use Macrium to create it's Rescue USB flash drive.
3. Remove old SSD, install new SSD.
4. Boot Macrium Rescue USB flash drive.
5. Restore Macrium backup image from external hard drive to new SSD, deleting all partitions on the new SSD during the process.
6. Run Macrium's Fix boot problems utility. Probably not necessary but doesn't hurt and may resolve a  problem.
 
Now you will have a 500GB SSD of which only 125GB is used, so use Minitool Partition Wizard Free to expand the C: partition to use all of the remaining 500GB.
 
Reboot and your done. Sounds like a lot but it's really not.
 
Once that's done then do another Macrium Backup.
 
Now do the free upgrade to Windows 10,  yes, it's still free, using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool.

You can do the upgrade directly via the MCT or create a USB flash drive to do it from. Uninstall any anti-virus before you start the upgrade. I also recommend disconnecting from the internet until the upgrade is complete. This allows you to create a Local account rather than use a Microsoft Account. You can do that later if you want. I use one and recommend it but many people for some reason don't like the idea. Skip any updates it offers, just get to the upgrade as quickly as possible.

Do a Windows Update as soon as the upgrade is finished.

If you create a USB flash drive (8GB minimum) then you insert it and run setup.exe from the flash drive. If the upgrade fails you can always do a Clean install then copy your data from the Macrium backup to the new install. Programs will have to be reinstalled.

Thanks so much for the reply Ztruker. Yes you're right it does seem a lot. ok a couple more questions if that's ok:

1. You mention I should get a 1TB external hard drive. I already have a Western Digital 2TB drive which is hopefully constantly backing up my folders. Can I use this or do I need something additional?
2. Regarding the Rescue USB flash drive you mention: I have a 128GB usb flash drive which I use to back up folders on another laptop. Can I use that and does it have to be clean or can I leave the backed up folders on it?
3. When I download the Macrium Reflect should I install this on my E drive since I'll be removing the SSD which has my c drive?

OK I think that's it, sorry if I asked any dumb questions.

1. You mention I should get a 1TB external hard drive. I already have a Western Digital 2TB drive which is hopefully constantly backing up my folders. Can I use this or do I need something additional?
2. What do you mean constantly backing up your folders? You will need a full bit image backup of the 128GB SSD, prefereably using Macrium Reflect Free. You can use the 2TB drive. Just create a folder on it called Macrium Backup and place the Macrium Backup in there.
3. Regarding the Rescue USB flash drive you mention: I have a 128GB usb flash drive which I use to back up folders on another laptop. Can I use that and does it have to be clean or can I leave the backed up folders on it?
4. You are going to need 2 smaller flash drives or you can get away with one flash drive in which case the 128GB will work. It will be formatted so everything on it will be wiped out. I would suggect buying a couple 16GB flash drives and using them instead.
5. When I download the Macrium Reflect should I install this on my E drive since I'll be removing the SSD which has my c drive?
6. You can install Macrium Reflect Free on your E: drive. You will still be able to use it from there to make the image backup.

 

OK I think that's it, sorry if I asked any dumb questions.

They are not dumb questions at all. Please ask any more you may have. Better now than later.

Many thanks, I ordered the flash drives and I'll have a go at this over the weekend. I'll let you know how it goes, thanks again

Good luck.

Hi again - thanks for the help. I finally plucked up the courage to address this. I downloaded Macrium and figured out how to create an image of my C Drive and that's now sitting on an external H drive. I understand I have to create a USB Boot Rescue drive and I do see the options but it just hangs and don't seem to go anywhere. Should I be creating a USB Boot Rescue drive through Macrium?

Update, I was able to create a rescue disk!! I took quite a long time but I think the reason was a probably that I was using an external hard drive with some software on it that was locking the drive. If that's possible. Once I unlocked the software and left it open it seemed  to work. Next step I believe is swapping out the SSD for the new one, boot up and hopefully restore the image.

There are a couple of things I'm not sure about but they may become obvious along the way.

OK so I swapped the SSD and tried to boot from the flash drive. However, It wouldn't boot. It looked like it was trying to. A Windows XP logo came up but then I got a blue screen and everything stopped there. Tried a couple of time so no avail so I put my old SSD back in. I'd like to install my bigger SSD but don't really know where to go from here. Can you help? Thanks

Update, I was able to create a rescue disk!! I took quite a long time but I think the reason was a probably that I was using an external hard drive with some software on it that was locking the drive. If that's possible. Once I unlocked the software and left it open it seemed  to work. Next step I believe is swapping out the SSD for the new one, boot up and hopefully restore the image.
 
There are a couple of things I'm not sure about but they may become obvious along the way.

 
Not sure what you are saying here. Do you mean an actual external USB hard drive or what. Need more info.
 
You should be creating a USB Rescue flash drive via Macrium, not a Rescue Disk (Hard Drive). That will allow you to restore the Macrium image you created to the 500GB SSD and also if anything goes wrong with the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
 
1 Flash drive for Macrium Reflect Rescue.
1 Flash drive for the Bootable Windows 10

See: How to Crete Rescue Media
See: How to Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 from

Once you have both flash drives, continue below:

First restore Windows 7 to the new 500GB SSD:

Remove small SSD, install 500GB SSD
Boot the rescue flash drive.
Select the Macrium backup image source
Select the 500GB SSD as the targe
Click Next, Finish then Continue …

If the new SSD won't boot, boot the Macrium Rescue flash drive again, select Restore and click on Fix Windows Boot problems. Let it do it's thing and that should correct and problems. Hopefully wont need this.

The image will be restored to the 500 GB drive but it will only use 120GB, the rest will be unallocated so you will have to expand C: to occupy the rest of the drive. You may be able to do this from Disk Management, but probably not. I use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition for this and any other active partitioning I need to do.

Once that's done, Windows 7 should boot okay. If you want, you could take another Macrium Backup image now that will include the allocation for the full 500GB SSD. Won't take long and would be good to have.

Now move on to upgrading top Windows 10.

Follow this tutorial for the upgrade: How to Upgrade to Windows 10

Thanks I appreciate your help again. I didn't create the two as follows:

1 Flash drive for Macrium Reflect Rescue.
1 Flash drive for the Bootable Windows 10

I thought I was following the Macrium instructions but obviously did it wrong. I'll have another go later and report back.

Thanks again

Okay, let me know how it's going.

Sure. What are you upgrading from? It can be Win 7 or 8.1. If the computer came with 8 or 8.1 then the key is embedded in BIOS and will be picked up by the Windows 10 installer so you won't have to do anything.

Let Media Creation Tool create a USB flash drive to use for installing Windows 10 from.

Make sure you have your current installation backed up.

The first thing you need to do is backup your current install. The best way to do this is to use Macrium Reflect Free to make an image backup to an external hard drive. If you don't have an external hard drive now is a good time to get one as regular backup should be a part of your normal process. You can get a 1TB external hard drive for $60 (less if on sale).

There are other backup programs available but Macrium is the one I use and recommend.

• Acronis True Image. A full featured backup solution. …
• EaseUS ToDo Backup. A flexible solution in the backup arena. …
• Paragon Backup & Recovery. Enterprise options for home backup. …
• NovaBackup. Does the basics well, but only the basics.

If you have other disk drives in the computer, disconnect them until the install is completed.

Then boot the USB flash drive. During the install, delete all partitions on the SSD if there are any and let the installer create the partitions it needs/wants. 

When asked for a key (Win 7), skip it for now, activate once the install is completed.

If you want to use a local account instead of a Microsoft account (I prefer a Microsoft account) then disconnect from the internet before you start the install. Don't connect until the install completes.

Once the install completes, connect the internet and immediately do several Windows Updates.

Now install Macrium Reflect and backup your new install.

Your ready to go.

I was responding to OP’s question.

Upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10,install Windows 10 on SSD,or download Windows 10.

These can be done on Windows computer.

Sorry, no idea what you are responding to. Also the OP's posts were 3 months ago so unlikely still relevant.

Would be nice to know how he/she made out though.