Do I require a new Activation Key

Bree · Oct 23, 2024

jaylob4 said:
Can I check what will be my old hardware is listed in my MS account?

Yes. Go to your Microsoft in your browser. Look under Devices. Find the old machine and click on 'See details'. If it shows the full OS details, including build number, as mine does below, the you should be able to use the Activation Troubleshooter on the new build.

jaylob4 · Oct 23, 2024

Bree said:
Yes. Go to your Microsoft in your browser. Look under Devices. Find the old machine and click on 'See details'. If it shows the full OS details, including build number, as mine does below, the you should be able to use the Activation Troubleshooter on the new build.

Thankyou, see my image below, I think all is in order.

jaylob4 · Oct 24, 2024

System image or Clone?

With all the above rebuild I'm about to undertake, time to make a decision.

I intend to use my existing SSD with OS and connect it to my new MB and sort out any activation issues and glitches, if any.

I have two SSD connected to existing MB, ( drive C ) with OS and desktop clutter, files, folders, programs that type of thing, the other ( drive E ) I use to back up what is on the C drive except for the OS.

Both SSDs are the same size in GB terms.

My thinking is to copy and paste all content on the E drive to a spare external SSD.

Then use E drive to store a System Image or Clone of the C drive as a just in case scenario.

But do I make a System Image or Clone of the C drive taking in to account my intention is to reinstall existing C drive with OS and contents to new MB?

Can I use E drive for either of the above methods while it is still internally connected to MB?

What do I do to prepare the E drive in readiness to make it a Clone or create a System Image, I can't format an SSD or shouldn't?

Making a System Image or Clone will it automatically wipe contents on my E drive and no need for me to do anything?

If I create a System Image do I need to make a seperate USB Boot?

See image of my existing drives in Disk Management.

jimbo45 · Oct 24, 2024

jaylob4 said:
System image or Clone?

With all the above rebuild I'm about to undertake, time to make a decision.

I intend to use my existing SSD with OS and connect it to my new MB and sort out any activation issues and glitches, if any.

I have two SSD connected to existing MB, ( drive C ) with OS and desktop clutter, files, folders, programs that type of thing, the other ( drive E ) I use to back up what is on the C drive except for the OS.

Both SSDs are the same size in GB terms.

My thinking is to copy and paste all content on the E drive to a spare external SSD.

Then use E drive to store a System Image or Clone of the C drive as a just in case scenario.

But do I make a System Image or Clone of the C drive taking in to account my intention is to reinstall existing C drive with OS and contents to new MB?

Can I use E drive for either of the above methods while it is still internally connected to MB?

What do I do to prepare the E drive in readiness to make it a Clone or create a System Image, I can't format an SSD or shouldn't?

Making a System Image or Clone will it automatically wipe contents on my E drive and no need for me to do anything?

If I create a System Image do I need to make a seperate USB Boot?

See image of my existing drives in Disk Management.

If it's a retail copy of Windows you should be able to use it on the new computer - even if activation is required -- it should activate - or if not you'll have to find out if there's any help lines available -- Customer service seems to be a fast disappearing commodity these days !!!.

If it's Windows that was installed with your device i.e usually an OEM copy - then no go (usually).

Sometimes though you can be lucky - a new Mobo doesn't always trigger a re-activation request. I'd suggest you IMAGE rather than clone the current system to your "E" disk.

Cheers
jimbo

spapakons · Oct 24, 2024

I would clone the Windows disk on the other and remove it from the computer. Then do the upgrade to motherboard, CPU and RAM and attempt to load Windows. If anything happens you have a clone ready to use plus that you can take any data you need from it in case you lose them from the original disk.

jaylob4 · Oct 24, 2024

jimbo45 said:
I'd suggest you IMAGE rather than clone the current system to your "E" disk.

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks, why one and not the other?

jaylob4 · Oct 24, 2024

spapakons said:
I would clone the Windows disk on the other and remove it from the computer. Then do the upgrade to motherboard, CPU and RAM and attempt to load Windows. If anything happens you have a clone ready to use plus that you can take any data you need from it in case you lose them from the original disk.

Do you mean remove E drive before cloning process or after cloning process.

In other words, cloning process, E drive still connect to MB and then remove it for upgrades?

jimbo45 · Oct 24, 2024

jaylob4 said:
Thanks, why one and not the other?

If you've got two identical UUID's for boot and partitions the bootloader might get confused as to what one to load - especially if the boot search is via "search by UUID") from the efi file and you don't really want to keep selecting the boot from the BIOS menu to get the right one.. An image usually will save faster and can be restored via stand alone media pretty quickly plus you can use the rest of the disk for data or whatever. A clone is an exact replica of the original - with an image you can restore to any size disk provided it's large enough - so you could restore to a smaller disk if wanted etc.

If the disk is REMOVED from the computer it really doesn't matter - cloning is fine - but remember after a few updates to your new system the cloned version will be massively out of date.

What you can do though is (again if removing the HDD / SSD) set after cloning the "PortableOperatingSystem" to "1" in the registry, and then you can boot the device as a "Windows2Go" system and update it regularly via WU. Then if you need to copy this back to the main PC just set the "PortableOperatingSystem" registry key back to '0' before the copy. Use a SATA->USB3/USBC etc adapter -- plenty around and cheap enough.

Cheers
jimbo

spapakons · Oct 24, 2024

Clone the Windows disk (C) to E. After the clone is complete, turn off the computer and remove the clone. Upgrade to the new hardware. Boot original Windows disk and see what happens. If anything goes wrong your files are all available in the clone, plus you can just swap the disks and use the clone, should something really goes bad and you cannot recover the original disk. This will save you the trouble to format and reinstall and is much faster than taking the time to choose what to backup. Also you don't risk forgetting to backup something you might need. In case you decide you have to clean install Windows 11 on the new hardware, all your files as available in the clone, just go ahead.

jaylob4 · Oct 24, 2024

spapakons said:
Clone the Windows disk (C) to E. After the clone is complete, turn off the computer and remove the clone. Upgrade to the new hardware. Boot original Windows disk and see what happens. If anything goes wrong your files are all available in the clone, plus you can just swap the disks and use the clone, should something really goes bad and you cannot recover the original disk. This will save you the trouble to format and reinstall and is much faster than taking the time to choose what to backup. Also you don't risk forgetting to backup something you might need. In case you decide you have to clean install Windows 11 on the new hardware, all your files as available in the clone, just go ahead.

Thanks that all makes sense.

Do I need to prepare E drive or just clone to it?

For ease what free Cloning Program would you suggest?

I read free Macrium is no longer or at least no longer supported.

There is free AIOME and EaseUS and imagine they do the same thing, hoping to find a Clone program that will nag me to make regular Cloning, its the one thing I am pretty amiss at undertaking.

spapakons · Oct 24, 2024

Download Sergei Strelec WinPE ISO. It is like a live Windows 10/11 USB that contains a lot of tools, including cloning tools (Acronis, Macrium and others), in the Backup section.
Use Rufus or other utility to create a bootable USB from the ISO and boot your computer with it. You will see a list including to boot into the Windows 10 or 11 environment with the tools or to run MemTest to check your RAM.

WinPE 10-8 Sergei Strelec English » Sergei Strelec

Bootable disk Windows 11 and 10 PE - for maintenance of computers, hard disks and partitions, backup and restore disks and partitions, computer diagnostics, data recovery, Windows installation. This is the WinPE x64 version only Made by request.

sergeistrelec.name

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Rufus: Create bootable USB drives the easy way

rufus.ie

Winuser · Oct 24, 2024

jaylob4 said:
Thanks, why one and not the other?

If your going to use the existing drive why do you want to clone the drive. For safety reasons you should already have a up to date system image. If not you should make one. I have swapped my system drives in the past and everything worked. The only thing Windows did and did on it's own, was install the needed drivers for the new computer. I didn't lose anything including activation. I can't say for sure it will work 100% for you, but it did for me. The way I see it is that at the worst you may have to download some drivers and/or reactivate Windows.

spapakons · Oct 24, 2024

Swapping drives to a new computer is possible since Windows 7. As soon as there are no major changes to the system (such as from Intel to AMD) that could cause a BSOD. Going from Pentium 4 to Intel Core-i3 worked. Windows 8, 10 and 11 are even less likely to give you a BSOD because they have drivers for most hardware and they adapt easily. BSOD are usually when a system (motherboard component) driver cannot be found.

PS: When I wanted to move the disk to another computer in Windows 98, I first copied the Windows 98 CD-ROM to a folder in the hard disk because without proper drivers, you couldn't even access the CD-ROM. I then loaded Device Manager and manually deleted all devices, yes all. I shutdown the computer and move the disk. Without any drivers Windows 98 acted like the first boot after installation and installed drivers. For those drivers that were missing (graphics, LAN, sound and others), I skipped and installed the manufacturer drivers later. Every time it asked to copy files from the Windows 98 CD-ROM (a lot), I browsed to the folder, until finally I could see the desktop and install the rest drivers. Thankfully I didn't need to delete all drivers in XP. I simply deleted the PCI root driver at the System section to cause Windows XP reinstall all devices.

jaylob4 · Oct 24, 2024

Winuser said:
If your going to use the existing drive why do you want to clone the drive. For safety reasons you should already have a up to date system image. If not you should make one. I have swapped my system drives in the past and everything worked. The only thing Windows did and did on it's own, was install the needed drivers for the new computer. I didn't lose anything including activation. I can't say for sure it will work 100% for you, but it did for me. The way I see it is that at the worst you may have to download some drivers and/or reactivate Windows.

Because ( and I'm not teaching anyone how to suck eggs as I can't ), I'm basically building a new PC, MB, CPU and so on.

I am reinstalling my existing SSD with Win 10 OS but in case something goes wrong/a glitch with the rebuild with activation, cloning will give me an identical copy of my existing SSD/OS.

A system Image more or less does the same thing but with a Clone I can simply install it and hopefully back up and running,--its a backup plan hopefully not to be used.

Once I have successfully rebuilt my PC and re-activated, ( if I have to ) my existing Win OS my intention is to upgrade to Win 11, that will be a clean install,, ( nothing kept ), I will then reinstall all my backed up files/folders/junk to Win 11 and make a clone of my new Win 11 OS installation.

I'm sure it reads and is convoluted and I'm making a meal of it but at least I'm packing a meal so to speak.

Winuser · Oct 24, 2024

jaylob4 said:
Because ( and I'm not teaching anyone how to suck eggs as I can't ), I'm basically building a new PC, MB, CPU and so on.

I am reinstalling my existing SSD with Win 10 OS but in case something goes wrong/a glitch with the rebuild with activation, cloning will give me an identical copy of my existing SSD/OS.

A system Image more or less does the same thing but with a Clone I can simply install it and hopefully back up and running,--its a backup plan hopefully not to be used.

Once I have successfully rebuilt my PC and re-activated, ( if I have to ) my existing Win OS my intention is to upgrade to Win 11, that will be a clean install,, ( nothing kept ), I will then reinstall all my backed up files/folders/junk to Win 11 and make a clone of my new Win 11 OS installation.

I'm sure it reads and is convoluted and I'm making a meal of it but at least I'm packing a meal so to speak.

Nothing wrong with being cautious. I will say that IMO, if you do run into any major problems and have to use the cloned drive you are going to run into the same problem and will probably have to do a clean install.

jaylob4 · Oct 24, 2024

Winuser said:
Nothing wrong with being cautious. I will say that IMO, if you do run into any major problems and have to use the cloned drive you are going to run into the same problem and will probably have to do a clean install.

Yes I had thought of that and you are right but at least I will have a cloned copy, cloning will only get you out of trouble quickly if you haven't changed much, ( hardware/ BSOD failure ), or an update/3rd party download has screwed with your OS, then a system image or clone comes in to its own if a restore doesn't work.

spapakons · Oct 24, 2024

Why you will clean install Windows 11? I would first try to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11. This will save you all the trouble trying to reinstall everything from scratch and backup/restore your files. A clean install never feels the same as your original system. Even if you reinstall all applications there will be some differences and it will take a while to get used to. Also you might not have all the installers to reinstall everything or some licence might not work anymore. Lots of issues and lot of time to complete. I would rather avoid a clean installation and try resolving minor issues after upgrading.

jaylob4 · Oct 24, 2024

spapakons said:
Why you will clean install Windows 11? I would first try to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11. This will save you all the trouble trying to reinstall everything from scratch and backup/restore your files. A clean install never feels the same as your original system. Even if you reinstall all applications there will be some differences and it will take a while to get used to. Also you might not have all the installers to reinstall everything or some licence might not work anymore. Lots of issues and lot of time to complete. I would rather avoid a clean installation and try resolving minor issues after upgrading.

Yes I do take your point, my reasoning, I suspect I have collected a fair amount of nasties including Keyloggers.

I am pretty good scanning for them, AV, Hitman PRO, Malwarebyte but I know I'm not getting them all.

I can't find a nuclear way of dealing with them on all my drives so a clean install with the OS is my only way I know.

The issue however, a clean install of the OS is fine but as soon as I upload/restore my files/folders, any nasties missed/not dealt with re-infect/replicate, ( many of the above free programs only scan your OS drive ), so really back to square one, there has to be a sure fire way of dealing with them, all drives, on a freebie basis?

OAT · Oct 24, 2024

jaylob4 said:
( many of the above free programs only scan your OS drive ), so really back to square one, there has to be a sure fire way of dealing with them, all drives, on a freebie basis?

Win11 built-in security lets you scan any drive & folder you want.
Just Select Custom under Scan.
The screenshot below demonstrates the scanning of Drive Z:

jaylob4 · Oct 24, 2024

OAT said:
Win11 built-in security lets you scan any drive & folder you want.
Just Select Custom under Scan.
The screenshot below demonstrates the scanning of Drive Z:

Thankyou Oat, how good is Win 11 built in security does it find/detect everything, so for example keyloggers?

Do I require a new Activation Key

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