best approach for new ssd?

[Windows Central Question]

So i purchased a new Samsung EVO 860 500GB SSD from Amazon, now i wonder should i clone my old 1TB hard drive to the new SSD or do a clean install of windows?

my data currently occupy 350GB of 1TB but its divided in 3 drives. So i m wondering what is the best approach? clone or clean install and later copy personal files to new drive.

also i have read that there should be some space left in SSD which somehow increases the performance of drive, is it true?

is there any thing i should know before making the jump?

 

[ven07]

In your case I would go for the clean install and copy over any personal files I need. Get a harddrive enclosure for the HDD and use it as an external harddive. That way you don't have to occupy 350GB of your new SSD.

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[Golfdriver97]

I would go for a clean install too. You'll probably get rid of programs and apps you aren't using and not realize it

 

[midnightfrolic]

clean install

 

[visionguy]

Hey guys, my sister mistakenly deleted 30gb file on my surface pro3 (Window 10) yesterday. I've tried several software out there {easeUS recovery software, recover my file} but couldn't recover..pls help guys. is very imnportant. looking forward for ur reply. thanks

 

[xandros9]

Hey guys, my sister mistakenly deleted 30gb file on my surface pro3 (Window 10) yesterday. I've tried several software out there {easeUS recovery software, recover my file} but couldn't recover..pls help guys. is very imnportant. looking forward for ur reply. thanks

I'd try Recuva if you haven't already but if that doesn't help, the data is not in the Recycle Bin and you don't have backups, I'm afraid you're out of options.

(and wow! My 16,000th post!)

 

[visionguy]

I didn't backup..bt would try recuva

 

[visionguy]

thanks

 

[ven07]

I'd try Recuva if you haven't already but if that doesn't help, the data is not in the Recycle Bin and you don't have backups, I'm afraid you're out of options.

(and wow! My 16,000th post!)

Congrats sir xd

 

[a5cent]

Depends on what you mean by asking "what's better". Technically, in terms of getting an install that is best suited to your hardware, has no leftover junk, and is most likely to work error free, a clean install is always best. Clones are a quick and dirty method to get something up and running quickly, but it's NEVER technically optimal. Windows installs on my system in less than 10 minutes. Installing all the other software I use takes around 30 minutes. That's never a reason to clone. Configuring all that software is what takes a lot of time. Avoiding the configuration cost is the main reason to clone.

 

[BanditoTR]

Nah you can clone it just fine. But I do recommend a reset. It will just reset all the configuration to your current hardware.

 

[AndyCalling]

If you ever want to use hardware encryption with Bitlocker, which many SSDs support, you'll need to enable that first on the drive using the drive's management utility (connect it as a secondary drive to your current system as this cannot be done with a boot drive already in place). Then, at the start of your clean install, do a Diskpart Clean on the drive before rebooting and installing proper. If you don't do this, you'll never be able to enable hardware encryption without a full wipe and install and if you never enabled the drive at the beginning you'll need to make a second boot environment on ie. a USB stick to do that. Far easier to do this now if you ever plan to go encrypted, even if you don't plan to do so straight away.

 

[MsftMan]

So i purchased a new Samsung EVO 860 500GB SSD from Amazon, now i wonder should i clone my old 1TB hard drive to the new SSD or do a clean install of windows?

my data currently occupy 350GB of 1TB but its divided in 3 drives. So i m wondering what is the best approach? clone or clean install and later copy personal files to new drive.

also i have read that there should be some space left in SSD which somehow increases the performance of drive, is it true?

is there any thing i should know before making the jump?

Well from my experience, I "Clean Installed," Windows 10 then a week later "Cloned." You can read about it here if interested: https://msftman.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/fear-not-windows-10-clean-install-not-scary-at-all

 

[mikiem2]

"... should i clone my old 1TB hard drive to the new SSD or do a clean install of windows? ... data currently occupy 350GB of 1TB but its divided in 3 drives."

You don't mention what OS you're using. If you're running win10 1803, there's hardly been a lot of time for it to get clogged up with garbage you don't want/need, so it's a matter of how much you've added to Windows, & how much time you've spent setting everything up the way you like, so whichever would take the least amount of time.

If you're running 7 or 8, then it's a matter of comparing the time to install fresh, then apply all the updates, then add software etc., vs. how much stuff you want to get rid of from that old install. Either way, if Windows is running fine now, it'll run fine after.

If you're running a desktop PC with room for both the old HDD & the SSD, I would just get Windows on the SSD first, & run it a couple few weeks to make sure it doesn't die on you because *stuff* happens -- if it does then you just boot to the old HDD. The free EasyBCD would be good to have handy to sort any boot issues. Myself, rather than a direct clone I usually perform disk/partition image backups, 1) because you should IMHO anyway, & 2) lets me set the partition size when I restore the backup to the new drive, rather than as a 2nd step.

"is there any thing i should know before making the jump?"

If you've got software that's activated or registered to the old HDD, it *might* deactivate on the new drive. Sometimes it's no big deal to reactivate, sometimes it can be a nightmare, so check that out 1st.

-----------

"Hey guys, my sister mistakenly deleted 30gb file on my surface pro3 (Window 10) yesterday. I've tried several software out there {easeUS recovery software, recover my file} but couldn't recover.."

I lost the contents of a drive not too long ago, & since it wasn't a Windows system drive, I could run several recovery apps, one after the other. I'm very sorry to say that EaseUS Data Recovery outperformed everything else, including Recuva.

FWIW, when/if you lose files you want/need back, it's important to not do any writing to that partition, or the stuff you want can be overwritten, making it lost forever. SO try to store stuff on another partition, if not another drive, vs. on the partition where Windows lives. And if you lose something on the system partition, cut power immediately to stop further disk writes, then either connect the drive to another machine, so you can run recovery software, or with something like the Surface, booting to a USB stick, do a disk/partition image backup to an external drive, making sure to select the option to copy everything, including free space. You can then restore that backup to a separate partition or drive, running recovery software on it there.

Needless to say if it's critical, back it up or copy it somewhere else so you don't have to hope recovery software will save you.

 

[a5cent]

Nah you can clone it just fine. But I do recommend a reset. It will just reset all the configuration to your current hardware.

This is a terrible idea (and not entirely correct).

Either clone, where the point is to not have to reconfigure anything, or do a clean install that gives you a clean and pristine starting point without baggage that was intended for an entirely different PC.

A reset typically installs an OEM modified and sometimes outdated version of windows which will require you to go through additional update steps. This can take longer than a clean install. A reset will also install drivers from your previous system that have nothing to do with your new hardware (although they will be disabled on first boot). It will nuke all your desktop apps (requires reinstallation and reconfiguration) but will reinstall store apps (again including OEM bloatware which may only make sense for your previous system). It will restore the Windows configuration information MS store's in the cloud, but nothing else.

This approach combines the drawbacks of a clean install (potentially lots of reconfiguration) with the drawbacks of a clone (bringing over a lot of bloatware and garbage that is unrelated to the system), and has the benefits of neither.

Resets are an OEM/device specific type of OS reinstallation. They have their uses, but I don't consider this one of them.

 

[tayyabhasan]

"... should i clone my old 1TB hard drive to the new SSD or do a clean install of windows? ... data currently occupy 350GB of 1TB but its divided in 3 drives."

You don't mention what OS you're using. If you're running win10 1803, there's hardly been a lot of time for it to get clogged up with garbage you don't want/need, so it's a matter of how much you've added to Windows, & how much time you've spent setting everything up the way you like, so whichever would take the least amount of time.

Yes i am on 1803 and re-installing software wont be a issue since most of them are cloud(internet) based and thats how they activate. I will replace the drive on my HP Envy Laptop.

Thank You everyone for the feed back since WC put this in chime in I decided to make an account and say thanks.

 

[tayyabhasan]

@AndyCalling
Thank you for the heads up, i do use Bitlocker encryption , will definitely save my time.

 

[Wevenhuis]

If possilbe, always clean install.