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#1
Migration vs Clone to New PC
Hello Everyone,
For the last couple months I've been trying to fix file corruption issues that occurred from a failing local HDD. It's taken a huge amount of my time but the shorter story is I was finally able to clone the failing HDD, then replace it with a new one. Just a few system files seems to have gotten corrupted in my Win10 Pro v1511 OS and my system is working ok now, however it won't update to the latest security updates, won't complete a repair-install via .iso on DVD, won't upgrade to the Anniversary Update via download but I still plan to try via .iso on DVD.
I feel I will get more and more exposed if I don't get the security updates. My PC is otherwise fine but a bit dated, without WiFi or USB 3.0. I have a few questions regarding replacing it with a new PC (time is money).
1- Most of the programs on it now were migrated to it from a laptop about six years ago, by using PC Mover. PC Mover did a decent job but It did migrate some programs I didn't ask it to migrate and a few didn't work afterwards so I had to re-install them but they were just a few and overall PCMover saved me a lot of time. Is PCMver still the best migration software?
2- At that time there wasn't any good free cloning software. Even a paid one that I tried, BounceBack, was horrible. Today there are some good ones. As I understand it, to assure the best results for a cloned HDD for local use in the same PC, it was recommended that the same HDD brand, model and size should be used. This way any particular OEM settings for it working with the motherboard will be in place. Maybe nowadays any brand is fine as long as it's the same size or larger. What's the thinking on this now?
3- a) Regarding getting a new PC, is migrating my current system files to its HDD the same thing as cloning it to another drive and swapping it out?
b) I know for sure that the clone will include my corrupted system files issue. What about migration - will that also include the corrupted files issue or will it just migrate the installed software without the OS?
c) If the best option is migration to the new PC's HDD, won't I be paying for another Windows 10 Pro OS in it? If so, is it possible to buy a PC (desktop) with a clean HDD, then somehow get Microsoft give me a new OS to replace my current defective one to put on the new PC's HDD? Then I would migrate my programs to it. Is that the right way to go about this?
Thanks.