So I am adding a ssd to the 2nd drive slot on my laptop soon. Should just plug and play. Its a 2.5 in slot for storage.
But if i wanted to replace the main storage slot with a higher capacity, all i would really need is windows pre loaded onto a usb from the windows website? wondering about keeping the same license that was already on the laptop?

main storage is a m.2 ssd at 256gb, if i do replace it ill probably use a 1tb m.2 ssd. probably easier to just replace it now before i save any data on that drive

If you can clone do that
Otherwise make sure all drivers are available on the laptop

Definitely clone.

so clone the main ssd drive to the new samsung evo that i am installing? then i can like transfer that cloned fileset to an external ssd?
since ive heard the samsung evo comes with great cloning software?

Clone the current OS drive to the new drive that will BE the OS drive. On laptops, that's always the best method.
That will clone the drivers, the OS, any hidden factory restore partitions.



/e IF you try to do a fresh install of Windows on the new OS drive, you will lose the drivers and the hidden factory restore partition. The drivers, you "should" be able to find on the manufacturer's website.
The hidden factory restore partition will be lost. This is why you want to clone, rather than fresh install.

As for the Windows license, you can use AIDA64 to get that before you do anything. It'll be found under Software > Licenses.
It's always a good idea to grab that before you do anything... just in case.

This post was edited by Ghot on Jul 21 2019 07:47pm

if you can find all the drivers for it on their website then do fresh install would get rid of bloatware
I could care less about hidden factory partitions myself
windows 10 might be able to find them all anyways but I have had few installs I had to manually find shit like audio and network


but if you tweaked and customized with windows and stuff I'd clone unless they could be redone fast

i have not dont anything yet with the laptop, new laptop. so yea i do want to manually remove bloatware... or fresh install would be nice. ill have to take a look. id want to keep the m.2 ssd drive as the main drive, bit faster than the 2.5in ssd? better to starting up windows

IF you can find the drivers... then a fresh install is OK. You WILL lose the factory restore partition... but that's not really necessary anyway. Just make sure you have the drivers...pre-downloaded to a USB stick or similar, before you try a fresh install.

The M.2 drive is like 5x faster or better than a 2.5" drive.

yea thats why id like the keep the m.2 drive as the main drive and not make the 2.5" as the main drive.
but i would like to backup the files from the main m.2 drive to the 2.5" every now and then. since they are SSDs probably don't need backup software and can just drag and drop files? be fast enough? but just wouldnt save much space cause files wont be compressed?

I'm not sure what "files" you're talking about. IMO, you either backup the whole OS partition, or don't backup anything. And I reaslly don't understand what you're referring to when you say "drag and drop files"
Drag and drop only works for data... like pics, music... etc.


/e I have about 31GB total on my C: drive (OS, and all my programs and games... everything). My whole C: partition backups using Acronis are 16.5GB. I "could" compress the backups further, but then they take more time to create or restore from. I never understood the need for partial backups. It takes me 6 mins to make a backup at 50% compression, and 9 mins to restore from one.

This post was edited by Ghot on Jul 23 2019 08:49am