Windows 10 upgraded from Seven, can't change install location

I would like to transfer/ or reinstall my Windows 10 (upgraded from a Windows 7) on another drive. Currently it's installed on a 500 GB hard-drive, but I bought a 500 GB SSD and I connected it to my computer.

I downloaded the Windows 10 ISO setup file from Microsoft site, tried to launch it but it will not ask me a drive or partition on which I would like to install it.

How can I put or reinstall it on my SSD, while keeping my official version registered ?

Thanks a lot for hints or solution !

Alex

Posted 2015-12-30T10:33:31.157

Reputation: 103

The simplest solution to determine the reason you cannot select a difference storage device at this point, is to disconnect your current HDD, then attempt to install Windows. If you still cannot select the SSD, update your question, so that problem can be solved. – Ramhound – 2015-12-30T13:29:23.910

Answers

Simply perform a regular clean installation. That means you’ll have to boot using your installation medium. Launching Setup in Windows is not enough.

During Setup, skip entering the Product Key. The existing activation will be restored automatically on the same PC.

It might be desirable to disconnect other drives when installing so the Windows Boot Manager ends up on the SSD.

Daniel B

Posted 2015-12-30T10:33:31.157

Reputation: 40 502

I tried to boot on the iso, by changing boot order into bios, he tries on my SSD but directly switch on the HDD. I don't know if the computer can boot from an install wizard stored on a harddrive. I will try to create a bootable USB key, and disconnect the HDD. – Alex – 2015-12-30T12:50:04.470

A possible solution:

1. get some imaging software with boot from usb/cd option
2. create bootable usb/cd
3. change boot order (usb, cd, ssd, hdd)
4. boot from imaging software
5. with it create copy from HDD to SSD (be careful not to copy from empty to full disk, ALWAYS have a backup!!!)
6. change boot order to use SSD first (or maybe disconnect HDD), remove bootable usb/cd
7. make sure everything is okay, boot from SSD, win10 working and activated
8. be really sure everything works
9. reuse (format?) HDD

Sometimes boot issues can happen when trying to boot from imaged disk, you will have to deal with them, thus the make sure everything works twice (at least). I used this method successfully on Windows 8.1, should work on Windows 10 also.

If you have no experience with imaging software, a good idea would be to test it and get enough experience to be comfortable with it - imaging will DESTROY existing data on destination!!!

Zina

Posted 2015-12-30T10:33:31.157

Reputation: 1 855

ok thanks for your help, i'll test it when I'll go home and get back to you ! – Alex – 2015-12-30T11:17:56.740

I would use a drive clone software to get an 1:1 copy of your windwos 10 which is installed on the 500 GB harddrive to the SSD.

Clonezilla, Acronis True Image HD and GParted Live are good tools for that.

Google gives you an extensive collection of instructions how to do that!

Stackcraft_noob

Posted 2015-12-30T10:33:31.157

Reputation: 1 466

thanks I keep in mind this alternative if I can't figure it out. I want to make a fresh clean install, and I m raging against myself to not have thought to disconnect my HDD where the current install was located.... – Alex – 2015-12-30T12:51:07.547

@Alex - You shouldn't have to disconnect the HDD in order to install Windows on the SSD. Simply disconnecting the HDD most likely won't be enough, there is more to your problem, then the installation process not being straight forward (it actually is very straight forward) and provides several ways to customized it if you know what you are doing. – Ramhound – 2015-12-30T13:37:38.917

@Ramhound I explored all the possibilities of the setup wizard, but none of them allow me to access the usual Windows formatter tool ... it is very trivial I only have 3 choices : keep all files and config, keep files but reset config, or reset all data from the HDD. I have choosen the third (clean install), my C: drive was nicely reset with a new Windows install, but it didn't gave me the choice of the location ... – Alex – 2015-12-30T13:43:45.573

Are booting to the installation disk? You cannot change the partition where Windows will be installed if you are starting the installation process from within Windows. – Ramhound – 2015-12-30T17:06:39.867