Solved Can Microsoft 365 be installed on new SSD without removing from old HDD?

KenY7744 · Mar 12, 2022

I have an old HDD in my Win10 PC with an instance of Microsoft 365 installed. I have the 6-license version of MS365 and all licenses are being used.

I want to swap out my HDD for an SSD. I will be swapping SSD and HDD back and forth as I build up the new SSD with all my software, so that I can retain functionality while the SSD is being configured. But I am wondering if I can install MS365 on the new SSD without removing it from old HDD.

CornishRattler · Mar 12, 2022

Pretty sure you can be signed into 6 at the same time, I could be wrong though. So if you weren't using the HDD and SSD at the same time the amount of signed in devices would still only be 6

johnlgalt · Mar 12, 2022

KenY7744 said:
I have an old HDD in my Win10 PC with an instance of Microsoft 365 installed. I have the 6-license version of MS365 and all licenses are being used.

I want to swap out my HDD for an SSD. I will be swapping SSD and HDD back and forth as I build up the new SSD with all my software, so that I can retain functionality while the SSD is being configured. But I am wondering if I can install MS365 on the new SSD without removing it from old HDD.

It's not only about licenses, though, you're also allowed multiple devices with MSO. It should not be a problem at all.

KenY7744 · Mar 12, 2022

CornishRattler said:
Pretty sure you can be signed into 6 at the same time, I could be wrong though. So if you weren't using the HDD and SSD at the same time the amount of signed in devices would still only be 6

Thanks. I will try that idea out.

KenY7744 · Mar 12, 2022

johnlgalt said:
It's not only about licenses, though, you're also allowed multiple devices with MSO. It should not be a problem at all.

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

cereberus · Mar 12, 2022

KenY7744 said:
I have an old HDD in my Win10 PC with an instance of Microsoft 365 installed. I have the 6-license version of MS365 and all licenses are being used.

I want to swap out my HDD for an SSD. I will be swapping SSD and HDD back and forth as I build up the new SSD with all my software, so that I can retain functionality while the SSD is being configured. But I am wondering if I can install MS365 on the new SSD without removing it from old HDD.

When you say 6 licence version, do you mean the Family version for 6 users or the Personal version for 1 user. Each person can install on up to 5 devices, so family could be on 6x5=30 devices!

Actually you can install as a single user on as many devices as you like but only 5 can be registered on MS account at any one time.

ish4d0w · Mar 12, 2022

Sure thing it can!
If you run out of available installations, you can always just remove (remotely) one from portal.office.com

If you install on the SAME machine, it might not even count as an additional installation. But you must not boot into the old OS on the HDD.

I want to swap out my HDD for an SSD. I will be swapping SSD and HDD back and forth as I build up the new SSD with all my software, so that I can retain functionality while the SSD is being configured. But I am wondering if I can install MS365 on the new SSD without removing it from old HDD.

Why not just clone it?
There are great software solutions for it, including Macrium Reflect (free), AOMEI Backupper, and if you don't want a third-party one, then even Microsoft's built-in DISM utility can do it.

Winuser · Mar 12, 2022

Have you thought about making an image of the HDD and restoring it to the SSD?

Kari · Mar 12, 2022

KenY7744 said:
I have an old HDD in my Win10 PC with an instance of Microsoft 365 installed. I have the 6-license version of MS365 and all licenses are being used.

I want to swap out my HDD for an SSD. I will be swapping SSD and HDD back and forth as I build up the new SSD with all my software, so that I can retain functionality while the SSD is being configured. But I am wondering if I can install MS365 on the new SSD without removing it from old HDD.

Absolutely no problems. Just sign in with your MS 365 / Office 365 email address.

Extract from a sticky thread on our sister site Ten Forums:

Microsoft 365 Family

Six users, subscriber with a Microsoft Account can share Office 365 with five additional users

Each user can install Office on unlimited number of computers (PC and Mac)

Each user can have maximum 5 computers online at the same time

Installs can be managed, Office removed from specific computers on Microsoft Account management page

Full article:

Office 365 subscriptions - On how many devices can Office be installed - Windows 10 Help Forums

A question often asked is "I have an Office 365 subscription, on how many computers can I install Office desktop apps?". The answer is, it depends on the subscription plan. O365 Personal and O365 Home subscribers can install Office desktop appli

www.tenforums.com

CornishRattler said:
Pretty sure you can be signed into 6 at the same time, I could be wrong though. So if you weren't using the HDD and SSD at the same time the amount of signed in devices would still only be 6

Six licenses means OP is talking about MS / Office 365 Home. OP can install Office on unlimited amount of devices.

johnlgalt said:
It's not only about licenses, though, you're also allowed multiple devices with MSO. It should not be a problem at all.

Exactly! No problems at all.

Kari

glasskuter · Mar 12, 2022

You are doing it the hard way by switching back and forth between disks. Even if your new SSD is smaller than your old HDD, you can still clone it using Macrium Reflect. On your old HDD install Macrium. Make your recovery boot media. Boot from the recovery media. Select your source disk (your HDD) and click "Clone this disk". In the first step of the wizard where you specify the source and destination, select your smaller SSD as the destination. Then start dragging your partitions down from the source to destination one at a time, working left to right, but when you get to a partition you want to shrink, drag it down to the destination, click it down there, and select "Cloned partition properties". Change its size on the destination as desired, then proceed with any remaining partitions.

Then, if desire to, reformat and repartition your old HDD and use it for storage, or as I do, I partitioned my old HDD with one partition for storage and a second partition where I store my regular Macrium backups of my OS SSD drive.

KenY7744 · Mar 12, 2022

ish4d0w said:
Why not just clone it?
There are great software solutions for it, including Macrium Reflect (free), AOMEI Backupper, and if you don't want a third-party one, then even Microsoft's built-in DISM utility can do it.

Thanks for your suggestion, but I don't want to clone the HDD because of some issues I can't resolve. Rather than spend endless hours trying to figure out what is causing the issues, I would like to start over with a fresh clean install of Win10. The main reason for putting in the SSD is not just speed, it's to start with a pristine Windows install.

KenY7744 · Mar 12, 2022

glasskuter said:
You are doing it the hard way by switching back and forth between disks. Even if your new SSD is smaller than your old HDD, you can still clone it using Macrium Reflect. On your old HDD install Macrium. Make your recovery boot media. Boot from the recovery media. Select your source disk (your HDD) and click "Clone this disk". In the first step of the wizard where you specify the source and destination, select your smaller SSD as the destination. Then start dragging your partitions down from the source to destination one at a time, working left to right, but when you get to a partition you want to shrink, drag it down to the destination, click it down there, and select "Cloned partition properties". Change its size on the destination as desired, then proceed with any remaining partitions.

Then, if desire to, reformat and repartition your old HDD and use it for storage, or as I do, I partitioned my old HDD with one partition for storage and a second partition where I store my regular Macrium backups of my OS SSD drive.

Thanks for your suggestion, but I'd rather not clone the HDD because there are issues on it that I don't want to spend lots of time trying to track down. It's easier and quicker to just do a clean install of Win10 and then install apps as I need them. I have Acronis Cyber Protect which has a cloning utility, but cloning is not the way I want to proceed here.

KenY7744 · Mar 12, 2022

Kari said:
Six licenses means OP is talking about MS / Office 365. OP can install Office on unlimited amount of devices.

Exactly! No problems at all.

Kari

Thanks Kari. You have answered my question. So I don't need to use up 3 licenses to have MS365 on my desktop, laptop and Surface Pro4. I guess that explains why all three devices access the same 1Tb OneDrive.

I suppose that I could use another of the 6 licenses using a different email address/MS Account and get an additional 1Tb of cloud storage.

KenY7744 · Mar 12, 2022

Winuser said:
Have you thought about making an image of the HDD and restoring it to the SSD?

Thanks for your suggestion, Winuser.

Due to problems on the HDD that I don't want to spend hours trying to track down, putting a fresh clean install on the SSD is the way to go. I don't want to duplicate the problems on the new SSD.

TraderGary · Mar 12, 2022

As a longtime MSOffice and Microsoft 365 user, I jumped into reading the thread only to find that ElevenForum members had the answers.

Ken Y7744, I agree with your philosophy of preferring a clean install over duplicating problems with imaging. I'm just a small individual user and I can easily keep all my data in my 1TB of Microsoft OneDrive. I can have a new clean install with all my data up and running very quickly. I also do a Microsoft File History local backup every night before shutting down.

Kari · Mar 12, 2022

KenY7744 said:
Thanks Kari. You have answered my question. So I don't need to use up 3 licenses to have MS365 on my desktop, laptop and Surface Pro4. I guess that explains why all three devices access the same 1Tb OneDrive.

I suppose that I could use another of the 6 licenses using a different email address/MS Account and get an additional 1Tb of cloud storage.

There is absolutely no need to use aditional licenses / MS email addresses for your own MS / Office 365 installations. As mentioned, you can install your MS / Office 365 on an unlimited number of computers (yes, literally: unlimited number!).

Only limitation: maximum of five of those computers can be online / signed in to Office at any given time. If you need to use Office on sixth computer and are already online on allowed five computers, sign out from one of those before signing in on the sixth one.

You can give your additional five licenses to friends or family members, again each of them allowed to install on unlimited number of devices.

Sharing a license:

MS 365 Family - Share a license

Kari