Win10 clean install on Win8.1 laptop or clone the old?

[Hattu]

Hello!


My mom has an old (i7-3630 based) HP laptop with Win8.1 in it. There's no licence number sticker at the bottom, no installation media either. I've read somewhere, that the licence is in the BIOS and it's not needed.


However, there's good deal on Black friday, Samsung 860 evo/1T at ~100€. And i was like why not update her laptop. She said it has become sluggish.


Win8.1 is updated from 8.0, but newer installed again from scratch. It 'd be nice to put clean win10 (or Win8.1) in it, as i newer cloned a disk. I have the HW for it, thou.


So, i have like 3-ish options:


1: Clone the old HDD to SSD. There are several weird partitions, i don't know how those get cloned.
1.1: Update W8.1 to W10, there's info in internet how to do it. It may work or not.


2: Make W8.1 installation/rescue media in Windows and make clean/rescue install.
2.1: Update to W10 and so on...


3: Make W10 installation media in old Windows, clean install and pray the licence works.
3.1: Before update use some software to dig up the licence, just in case.


I hate installing in general, and haven't done it in ages.


So. What should i do? Option 3 is the one i want the most. But will the old Win8 licence work with clean Win10 install, as it still should be possible to update old install to Win10?


I don't have access to it until monday or so, but i'd like to prepare.


Any tips for free sw to dig up the licence and easy cloning those several partitions? Something else to think about?


Thanks.

 

[sam_86314]

Software like Acronis True Image can clone all of the partitions on the drive. Samsung should have their own version of it.

Another option would be to clone the drive over, update to Win10 on the new drive, and use the Fresh Start option in Windows Defender. That way you can have a clean install without losing your license.

A fresh install would also be able to grab the license in the BIOS, so it would activate. I've done it many times on laptops with the built in licenses, and it works every time.

 

[Hattu]

Software like Acronis True Image can clone all of the partitions on the drive. Samsung should have their own version of it.

Another option would be to clone the drive over, update to Win10 on the new drive, and use the Fresh Start option in Windows Defender. That way you can have a clean install without losing your license.

A fresh install would also be able to grab the license in the BIOS, so it would activate. I've done it many times on laptops with the built in licenses, and it works every time.

So, you recommend cloning, update OS in new drive and fresh start than just installing clean Win10?

Just to make clear, english is hard sometimes. For me, at least.

 

[Mussels]

I suggest a clean install first, and see if the OS activates and you can find drivers for all hardware first


Cloning from mech to SSD can have issues, i've seen OS's think SSD's were mech drives and defrag them to death after cloning.

 

[Hattu]

I suggest a clean install first, and see if the OS activates and you can find drivers for all hardware first


Cloning from mech to SSD can have issues, i've seen OS's think SSD's were mech drives and defrag them to death after cloning.

Good points! Defrag is activated atm, so If i end up cloning, i must remember to turn it off.

 

[Mussels]

Good points! Defrag is activated atm, so If i end up cloning, i must remember to turn it off.

check what windows ID's it as, and then check for things like scheduled defraggers, etc.

That said i always recommend against cloning, a fresh start is always best.

 

[Hattu]

I managed to get the drive and went to my mom. So far so good. Made fresh Win10 install, everything seems to be working, only one device driver missing. There were several unknown at first, but they are working now.


Thanks everybody, i just needed a little push to get forward.