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I've ordered a SSD to replace the HDD in my old(ish) laptop rather than buy a whole new computer (advice from previous computer thread). To get the best out of it should I simply clone the HDD before installing the new storage or am I better using the recovery USB to do a fresh Windows install then reinstall/download most used apps and backed up data?
Fresh install every time. Swap the drives, fresh install, if you need to you've then got a complete backup you can drop straight back in should the worst happen (which is unlikely). You can still access the old HDD with the correct cable should you discover there are still files on it.
Fresh Windows install will probably speed the machine ul more than the SSD, together it should make a noticeable difference.
It's more hassle but always better to do a fresh install, you get shot of a lot of the crap that builds up over the years that way. I guess you could clone first and if it runs much faster you might decide it's not worth reinstalling from scratch
Fresh install every time! If there's space in the innards of the laptop, you could consider running two drives - the SSD for the OS and programs, and another drive for files and docs. That way doing a fresh install, while maybe taking 2-3 hours (incl drivers, all the programs etc) doesn't risk losing any of your files and data.
But either way as above you'll be able to still copy files from the old HDD once you've got the new install done on the SSD
I've done it both ways with success, but I'd generally reccomend a clean start unless it's going to be really impactical.
Also as SSDs are that much faster than spinny disks, installing windows and your selection of apps you want is much less painfull/time consuming.
If installing a box fresh windows windows, be aware there might be a slew of updates for windows update to download too, which may bog down your machine temporarily if its old hardware, you can mitigate this to some extent by getting it fresh straight from microsofts website, which should be reasonably up to date in terms of downloads it needs to get fully up to date.
Clean install, installing windows from a USB to an SSD is pretty damn quick.
Assuming it's a 2.5" HDD you can then plug that in with a usb-SATA cable (it shouldn't need any more external power) and copy any files across.
I'm always wary of cloneing an entire disk, drives die when worked hard. Asking it to read the entire disk from start to finish is quite a big ask of an old drive that's spent it's life brings shaken about in a laptop. Recover the files you can't replace first (photos, videos, documents), then stuff that's a faff (music collection, films), and lastly if you can't re download them move any software.
depends how much of a mess your current machine is. if it's set up exactly as you like. I'd tend to just clone it. if it's a mess, fresh install, then set up everything you need, ie, software and hardware and clone it back to your old hdd. That way you've got a back up you can clone if needed in the future.
files beyond that just make sure they live on some kinda cloud service.
I’d also recommend fresh install then copy files / data across (e.g. browser profiles) using a USB / SATA adapter.
Then once you’re happy you’ve moved all your data and have a suitable backup strategy you can trash / nuke / repurpose / smash the old HDD.
I just did a clone (from 500gig HD to 1k gig SSD)...
But..it was a very new machine, with not much on it, so wouldn't have gained anything from the faff of a fresh install....
DrP
When I did mine, I did a fresh install of Win10 from a USB drive.
I then stuck the old HDD in a caddy & copied the files I wanted across.
The old HDD is labelled & stored as a back-up although is now a few years out of date & missing quite a few pics etc.