Published
Swapping an old hard drive or a small, worn SSD for a new SSD is one of the most effective upgrades you can give a laptop or desktop. Once the new drive is in, there are two ways to get your computer working on it: clone the old drive, so the new one is an exact copy, or do a clean install of Windows and move your files across. Both work. The right choice depends on how healthy your current setup is and how much time you want to spend afterwards.
Cloning: an exact copy of the old drive
Cloning copies everything on the old drive, sector by sector or partition by partition, onto the new one: Windows, your programs, settings, files and the hidden recovery and boot partitions. When you start the computer from the new drive, it looks and behaves exactly as before, just faster.
Cloning is a good choice when:
- Windows is working well and you are happy with it;
- you have programs that are awkward to reinstall, such as old software, licensed business applications or tools whose installers you no longer have;
- you want to be back at work quickly, with nothing to set up again.
The drawbacks: a clone copies problems as faithfully as it copies everything else. Years of leftover software, a sluggish start-up or malware all come across too. And if the old drive is failing, cloning can fail part-way or copy damaged files without warning.
Clean install: a fresh start
A clean install means putting a new copy of Windows on the new SSD, installing the drivers and the programs you actually use, then copying your files across from the old drive or a backup.
A clean install is a good choice when:
- the computer was slow, unstable or full of software you no longer need;
- you suspect a virus or other malware;
- the old drive is showing signs of failure, so you want to rescue your files rather than copy the whole system;
- you are moving to a different type of drive or a newer version of Windows at the same time.
The drawbacks: it takes longer. Programs need reinstalling and signing in again, settings need redoing, and you need to make sure every file has been copied before the old drive is wiped or reused. Windows itself is usually no problem: on most computers that came with Windows 10 or 11, the digital licence is tied to the hardware and activates again automatically after a clean install.
Things to check before you start, whichever you choose
- Back up first. Whatever happens during an upgrade, a separate copy of your files means nothing is lost.
- Find your BitLocker recovery key. If the drive is encrypted, cloning or moving it can trigger a request for the 48-digit recovery key. Make sure you can get to it (it is often stored in your Microsoft account) before you begin.
- Get the right drive. Laptops and desktops take different kinds of SSD: 2.5-inch SATA drives, M.2 SATA drives and M.2 NVMe drives look similar but are not interchangeable. Check what your machine supports before buying.
- Size matters for cloning. The new drive needs to be at least as large as the data on the old one, and the partitions may need resizing to use the extra space.
- Older computers and boot mode. Machines set up years ago sometimes use an older boot method (legacy BIOS with an MBR disk). A straight clone of these onto a modern NVMe drive may not start without extra steps; a clean install sets things up properly from scratch.
Our advice
If Windows is healthy and you rely on software that is hard to reinstall, clone. If the computer felt slow or unreliable before the upgrade, or the old drive is failing, a clean install gets far more out of the new SSD. Either way, keep the old drive untouched until you have checked that everything you need is on the new one.
Want us to do it?
We fit SSDs and memory in laptops, desktops and Macs every day, clone or clean-install as you prefer, and check that everything works before the computer comes back. A tracked courier can collect it from any UK postcode. See repairs and upgrades, check a price with our price calculator, or find your machine in our model list. If the old drive has already failed, see data recovery. Questions? Call 020 7237 4908, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm.