Windows 11 Install On New SSD Help

Hi guys. I have a laptop with Windows 11 installed on it, with the OS installed on an 2TB SSD. My laptop has 2 SSD's currently: The 2TB SSD with OS installed on it, and a 4TB SSD. Today, I ordered another 4TB SSD and plan to install the W11 OS on that, and still keep the other 4TB SSD in laptop as well. My question is, how should I go about installing W11? Should I do a Windows 11 reset, before installing the new 4TB SSD, and then install W11 on that? Thoughts and help on this greatly appreciated :)

The easiest way would be to make a full OS image backup of your Windows installation and save it on the 4TB SSD.
Then replace the 2TB SSD with the new 4TB SSD, and use the backup software's bootable media to "restore" the previously made backup, to the new 4TB SSD.

Another option would be to just do a clean install of Windows11 on the new 4TB SSD.

With the backup/restore method, you will get to keep all your current programs and data.
With the clean install method, you will then need to re-install all your programs.

It looks like the laptop has two M.2 NVME slots. The quickest way would be to put the new 4TB drive in the second M.2 slot (temporarily removing the old 4TB drive, if that's an M.2 drive), and doing a direct clone of the 2TB drive onto the new 4TB one. Then swap the new 4TB drive for the 2TB one, and re-install the old 4TB drive in its slot (if it was M.2).

Agree with bobkn. Simple way is to use os migration feature in the free version of diskgenius. Or whatever software the manufacturer provides, samsung magician usually does a good job

Skeet1983 said:

and plan to install the W11 OS on that, and still keep the other 4TB SSD in laptop as well. My question is, how should I go about installing W11? Should I do a Windows 11 reset, before installing the new 4TB SSD, and then install W11 on that? Thoughts and help on this greatly appreciated :)

Click to expand...

Since you make no mention of wanting to transfer the OS from the 2 TB SSD to the new 4 TB SSD, I would just create a Windows 11 USB flash drive using Microsoft's own Media Creation Tool. After that, make a folder on that same USB flash drive called Drivers. Export the drivers from the current Windows 11 to the USB flash drive:

Replace the 2TB SSD with the 4TB SSD. Boot the computer from the Windows 11 USB flash drive and do the install of Windows 11 to the new SSD. If you need drivers, they will be in the drivers folder on the USB flash drive.

NavyLCDR said:

Since you make no mention of wanting to transfer the OS from the 2 TB SSD to the new 4 TB SSD, I would just create a Windows 11 USB flash drive using Microsoft's own Media Creation Tool. After that, make a folder on that same USB flash drive called Drivers. Export the drivers from the current Windows 11 to the USB flash drive:

Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to back up and restore all 3rd party device drivers on your Windows 10 and Windows 11 PC. If you clean install Windows, you will need to install drivers for each device in the system. Some of these device drivers may no longer be available from the manufacturer...

www.elevenforum.com

Replace the 2TB SSD with the 4TB SSD. Boot the computer from the Windows 11 USB flash drive and do the install of Windows 11 to the new SSD. If you need drivers, they will be in the drivers folder on the USB flash drive.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the help and info! When I get the new SSD, I plan on just doing a clean install of Windows 11. You mentioned that I might need Drivers? Do I need them for and during the W11 install process? I plan on getting drivers after install. Further thoughts and help appreciated :)

Skeet1983 said:

Thank you for the help and info! When I get the new SSD, I plan on just doing a clean install of Windows 11. You mentioned that I might need Drivers? Do I need them for and during the W11 install process? I plan on getting drivers after install. Further thoughts and help appreciated :)

Click to expand...

It's very easy to "export" your drivers.
That way, IF you need one during the install, or maybe a LAN or wifi driver right after the install, you'll have them already.

Skeet1983 said:

Thank you for the help and info! When I get the new SSD, I plan on just doing a clean install of Windows 11. You mentioned that I might need Drivers? Do I need them for and during the W11 install process? I plan on getting drivers after install. Further thoughts and help appreciated :)

Click to expand...

Many times a driver is needed for the network adapter to connect to the internet for the first time, and many computers require an IRST (Intel Rapid Storage Technology) driver to even see the disk during the installation process. To me it is just too simple to export the drivers to the same USB flash drive that the Windows 10/11 installation files are on if I am going to clean install to a computer that I am not sure will need stored drivers or not. Make the folder on the flash drive and it is one single command entered in a command prompt.

NavyLCDR said:

Many times a driver is needed for the network adapter to connect to the internet for the first time, and many computers require an IRST (Intel Rapid Storage Technology) driver to even see the disk during the installation process. To me it is just too simple to export the drivers to the same USB flash drive that the Windows 10/11 installation files are on if I am going to clean install to a computer that I am not sure will need stored drivers or not. Make the folder on the flash drive and it is one single command entered in a command prompt.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the help and info! When I go to create the Windows 11 Install USB, will it already have Windows 11 22H2 on it?

Skeet1983 said:

I ordered another 4TB SSD and plan to install the W11 OS on that, and still keep the other 4TB SSD in laptop as well. My question is, how should I go about installing W11? Should I do a Windows 11 reset, before installing the new 4TB SSD, and then install W11 on that? Thoughts and help on this greatly appreciated :)

Click to expand...

Another option, and the simplest, is a clone. Some SSD drives will ship with cloning software. Or if have a backup program, and it supports cloning, use that. You can clone a disk outside the machine, so no need to worry about installing the drive in the machine first. Simply clone the drive, check it, and install in the machine. I can't give specifics on the exact procedures as that depends on the software used. That said, you want to make an exact copy of the drive to include all partitions.

Here's an example of drive cloning using Aomei, but there of other software vendors as well; and as I said, the drive itself might ship with cloning software. Regardless, just follow the on-screen instructions and you should be fine. I've done clones a few times and they work.

Good luck

Ghot said:

The easiest way would be to make a full OS image backup of your Windows installation and save it on the 4TB SSD.
Then replace the 2TB SSD with the new 4TB SSD, and use the backup software's bootable media to "restore" the previously made backup, to the new 4TB SSD.

Another option would be to just do a clean install of Windows11 on the new 4TB SSD.

With the backup/restore method, you will get to keep all your current programs and data.
With the clean install method, you will then need to re-install all your programs.

Click to expand...

Hey. I am wanting to go the clean install route when I get the new 4TB SSD, which will be this coming Tuesday. I also want to keep my other 4TB SSD in the laptop, but plan to wipe that also and start everything fresh. How would I go about doing this? The end result I want is for my laptop to have Windows 11 installed on the new 4TB SSD, and have blank/empty other 4TB SSD, for a total of about 8TB. I primarily use laptop for gaming. I created the Windows 11 Install USB, and also backed up/copied the currently installed Drivers to same USB, which NavyLCDR suggested to do. Am I going about this the right way? Further thoughts and help appreciated :)

Skeet1983 said:

Hey. I am wanting to go the clean install route when I get the new 4TB SSD, which will be this coming Tuesday. I also want to keep my other 4TB SSD in the laptop, but plan to wipe that also and start everything fresh. How would I go about doing this? The end result I want is for my laptop to have Windows 11 installed on the new 4TB SSD, and have blank/empty other 4TB SSD, for a total of about 8TB. I primarily use laptop for gaming. I created the Windows 11 Install USB, and also backed up/copied the currently installed Drivers to same USB, which NavyLCDR suggested to do. Am I going about this the right way? Further thoughts and help appreciated :)

Click to expand...

Just put the new SSD in the laptop, and do a clean install as mentioned in post #5 in this topic.
Once you have Windows installed and set up... get Minitools Partition Wizard (free). You can use that to do whatever you'd like to the old 4TB. Quite a few of us use Minitools Partition Wizard.

Ghot said:

Just put the new SSD in the laptop, and do a clean install as mentioned in post #5 in this topic.
Once you have Windows installed and set up... get Minitools Partition Wizard (free). You can use that to do whatever you'd like to the old 4TB. Quite a few of us use Minitools Partition Wizard.

Clean Install Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to clean install Windows 11 at boot on your PC with or without an Internet connection and setup with a local account or Microsoft account. Windows 11 has all the power and security of Windows 10 with a redesigned and refreshed look. It also comes...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the help and info! When I got my laptop in 2021, it came pre-installed with Windows 10, but I upgraded to 11. Will I need a License key, or need to purchase a W11 License Key before proceeding with clean install?

Skeet1983 said:

Thanks for all the help and info! When I got my laptop in 2021, it came pre-installed with Windows 10, but I upgraded to 11. Will I need a License key, or need to purchase a W11 License Key before proceeding with clean install?

Click to expand...

No.

It will auto activate, when you get Windows installed.

Hi again guys. When I go to clean install Windows 11, is it ok to have both of the 4TB SSDs in my laptop? I remember reading somewhere that Windows gets confused where to boot from during/after install? Thoughts and help appreciated :)

Skeet1983 said:

Hi again guys. When I go to clean install Windows 11, is it ok to have both of the 4TB SSDs in my laptop? I remember reading somewhere that Windows gets confused where to boot from during/after install? Thoughts and help appreciated :)

Click to expand...

I have never disconnected any drives and have done dozens if not hundreds of installs.

NavyLCDR said:

I have never disconnected any drives and have done dozens if not hundreds of installs.

Click to expand...

Hey again, I successfully installed my new SSD, and reinstalled Windows 11! Yay! I have a new issue though: When I installed W11, it enabled OneDrive and started synching a bunch of stuff. I want to be able to use my laptop and have access to everything, not onedrive controlling stuff. I disabled syncing, but the path to my Documents directory, under my username, still has onedrive in it: "C:\Users\"Username"\OneDrive\Documents\". Is there a fix for this? I did switch to local account. Any help greatly appreciated :)