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Comments on Ought I clone my C Windows drive, from my old SSD to new SSD in new computer?

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Ought I clone my C Windows drive, from my old SSD to new SSD in new computer?

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To save time, rather than installing Windows and programs afresh, I fancy cloning my old C SSD, on to my new SSD in my new computer. But I am getting mixed messages on cloning! Who's correct?

When you have got a new SSD, you might feel confused about the way to configure an operating system for the new disk. Usually, you have three options:

  • Perform a clean install
  • Copy system disk to the SSD
  • Migrate operating system to the new disk

Against Cloning

On November 14 2013, Lincoln Spector of PCWorld "strongly recommend[ed] against cloning the drive on an old PC to a new one. You bring all of your old problems to a new machine. What’s more, you create more problems, because every Windows installation is adapted to the particular hardware it was installed on. Finally, you’ll have the same Windows license running on two computers (Microsoft doesn’t like that) while not using the license you paid for when you bought the new PC."

For Cloning

But, we don’t need to do it manually; we can use Macrium Reflect to migrate the entire Microsoft operating system (MOS) from the old PC to the new PC.

You could reinstall Windows from scratch, and in some situations, that may be preferable—but with the right tools, you can get up and running much quicker by copying your entire drive over to the new SSD.

On April 30 2020, gronostaj commented

This information is outdated. Windows has been dealing with hardware changes pretty well since Windows 7 and improved with each release.

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Your question does not contain enough information to make a recommendation. How messed up is your cur... (2 comments)
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Over time, the Windows folder keeps gathering crap and grow. Therefore, a fresh installation of Windows is bliss - it is the only 100% working way to get rid of all waste files that it picks up over the years. This is one of the reasons why it is recommended to install Windows on a HD of its own and everything important on another HD - so that you might nuke Windows and make a clean install in case it goes bananas.

Also all drivers installed will be irrelevant to the new computer but may cause conflicts. You don't want the drivers to be copied. And probably not other installed programs either.

So I strongly recommend to install it from scratch to save hard drive space and avoid unexpected conflicts and problems with drivers and installed programs.

Also you only need to install Windows manually if you are building the computer yourself from scratch. Pre-assembled computers come with Windows pre-installed these days and there aren't many reasons to "build" computers yourself nowadays, except as a hobby or for learning purposes.

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General comments (1 comment)
General comments
Karl Knechtel‭ wrote about 1 year ago

The question seems to be asking about cloning a drive, not just the Windows installation. A "C Windows drive", alternately described as a "C SSD", most likely also includes at least the Program Files folder, and likely the Desktop and other "standard" folders (I'm guessing from OP's apparent level of computer literacy that there is only one user account). As for building new computers, it can potentially save money - not so much on installation costs, but by customizing how much capability you're buying rather than having to jump up an entire "tier" in some other person's model of sensible computer configurations.