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Upgrading Rig/Swapping OS
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Upgrading Rig/Swapping OSPosted:

Pikaaa
  • Christmas!
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Joined: Oct 19, 201211Year Member
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Joined: Oct 19, 201211Year Member
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I'm upgrading my rig and was wondering if there is a way to swap my OS to my 500GB instead of my 120GB because it always gets close to max capacity. Do I need to uninstall windows one to the other? If so how do I do that?
#2. Posted:
Gnarcotic
  • Summer 2018
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You can always clone your HDD, however myself and the majority of others would just recommend that you perform a fresh installation.


Firstly, grab a flash drive 4GB or higher and download the latest build of Windows 10 ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] ).

With the flash drive inserted, run the Windows tool you have just downloaded and point the installation to your flash drive. It will normally take around 10-15 minutes to create a bootable USB, be patient. Once completed, turn off your PC.

Now that the PC is powered off, unplug your 120GB HDD where Windows is currently installed on. (This is to ensure that you do not wipe over it when installing your fresh copy onto your 500GB. You will be plugging it back in later)

Next, power on your PC (with the bootable flash drive inserted) and depending on your BIOS, keep pressing either the DEL, F11 or F12 key to enter your BIOS's boot menu. Once there, chose your flash drive, and continue.

Installing Windows is pretty self explanatory, and it pretty much guides you through the installation as you read it onscreen. It's a matter of just chasing your language and clicking next a bunch of times.

When it asks you for the type of installation, hit Custom. You should now only see your 500GB HDD and not your 120GB. Ensuring that you do not have anything important saved on your 500GB HDD, you can delete every partition until a single partition is left. Once done, press next and Windows will begin to install.

After around 15-20 minutes, your PC will restart a couple of times and Windows will be installed. Setting up Windows is also very simple, it's a matter of clicking next until you get to the desktop.

Once at the desktop, head over to your motherboards manufacturers website and install the latest drivers to get everything up to date. Do the same for your video card and any other missing drivers found in Device Manager.

When you are finally up and running, power off your computer and plug in your 120GB HDD that you unplugged earlier. Power on your PC again, ensuring that you're booting from your new 500GB install. Press WINDOWS+E to open "This PC" and navigate to your old 120GB HDD. Under the "Users" folder, you can find all of your old data, and can be simply dragged over to the new HDD. Once your data has transfered, you can simple right-click the drive, and hit quick format to erase the 120GB.

If you get stuck with anything, feel free to PM me and I will try to help.
#3. Posted:
AD4M
  • Summer 2020
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Run Produkey and get your OS key. Hopefully you don't have an OEM version otherwise I'd be upset.

Fresh install, best way. As mentioned above install the the OS onto an external media player such as USB or CD.

I take it you'll use the current HDD for games etc?
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