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Buying a new computer can be fun, until you have to slog through migrating all your old apps, preferences, and files. Wouldn't it be easier if you could just pop your old drive into the new PC and pick up where you left off? Windows allows you to do this in a few easy steps—at least hypothetically.
Since Windows 10, the OS has been much better about handling certain driver conflicts, but it isn't perfect. When you throw an existing Windows installation at a new PC, it will perform its first-time setup as if it were a new computer, grab drivers for your new hardware, and (hopefully) drop you onto the desktop without much trouble. You have to do a few things yourself, but overall, it should work.
I moved my drive from an AMD-based machine to an Intel/Nvidia machine with barely a hiccup. Windows Update was even able to download new patches. But that's not to say you won't run into any problems. This can vary from PC to PC, and you never know what driver conflicts or performance issues may lay underneath the surface of a seemingly fine setup.
All told, I would still recommend doing a clean install if you are migrating permanently to a new machine, but if you need something quick and dirty—like if your old PC dies and you need to access some data from your old installation—this should work well enough. Here's how to move your Windows drive to a new PC.
Back Up the Entire Drive
Before making any substantial changes, it's always a good idea to back up your data—and that goes double when you're messing with your drive. If you have a backup tool you really like, go ahead and use that. I also recommend cloning the entire drive. That way, if something goes wrong, you can restore an exact image of the original drive and try a different approach. For this process, we've found DiskGenius to be one of the few free options left.
If your new PC takes a different kind of drive than your old PC—say, you're migrating from a machine with a 2.5-inch drive to one with an M.2 slot—you can clone the old drive to a new drive with the correct form factor, then plug that drive into your new PC. Note that this may mean buying a new SSD and plugging it in with a USB-to-M.2 SATA or USB-to-M.2 NVMe enclosure in order to clone it. Do some research on which type of drives your new PC supports before buying.
Move Your Drive to the New PC
Once the backup has been created, it's time to swap it into your new PC. Before you do anything, turn off the computer completely and give it a second to power down—you'll be opening the PC and don't want electricity running through it. You may have to look up the model and manufacturer for instructions on opening your specific machine and installing new storage. If you built it, check with the motherboard maker. This process will likely involve the use of a screwdriver.
Boot Back Up
Once the SSD swap is complete, turn on your PC. Chances are, it will try to boot from the new drive automatically. If it doesn't, you may need to press a key at startup to enter the BIOS settings, like F2 or Delete, and change the boot order. All BIOS menus are unique to the manufacturer and hardware, so we can't walk you through step by step. However, generally speaking, you will need to find the boot menu and set the order to the correct drive.
Once the PC finds the right drive, you should be greeted with the Windows logo with the spinning wheel. It will likely say something like "Getting Devices Ready," and you have to let it do its thing. In my experience, this is pretty quick, though others have noted that it could require multiple restarts.
Install New Drivers
Windows will likely install a lot of the necessary drivers for you, especially once you connect your new PC to the internet. You may notice some flickering as it downloads the display drivers, so give it some time to go through its process. You may also find you need to download some drivers manually, if Windows doesn't do so on its own or downloads generic drivers instead of manufacturer-supplied ones.
To be safe, I recommend heading to your PC manufacturer's website and downloading the chipset, audio, and other drivers yourself. If you built the computer, go to the motherboard manufacturer's website instead. You can also head to Nvidia, AMD, or Intel's website for graphics drivers, though Windows installed these drivers for me without my intervention.
If you want to keep things clean, you can also uninstall the old drivers left on your system by searching for "Device Manager" from the Start menu and opening the program. Go to View > Show Hidden Devices, and then right-click devices you no longer use and uninstall their drivers. For graphics drivers, you may want to use a free third-party tool like DDU to really clean them out.
Re-Activate Windows
There's one last hitch to this process: When you toss your drive into a new computer, Windows will recognize that the hardware has changed, and potentially—depending on the type of license you have—de-activate itself. If this setup is temporary, and you are only using it to grab a few things off your old PC, you don't need to worry about activation—Windows should keep working as normal, with an activation watermark in the corner and a few features disabled.
If you plan on using this setup permanently, though, you should re-activate Windows. You can try entering the same product key you used before, but this may fail if you have an OEM license that isn't meant to migrate to new hardware. I recommend trying the activate-by-phone option, though, as sometimes that will succeed when online activation fails.
Again, this whole thing is not a foolproof process—there are many tiny things that could trip things up, so you may have to do a bit of troubleshooting if something doesn't work properly. And even then, there's no guarantee you'll get optimal performance if the system isn't configured properly for your new hardware.
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