Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Pro

Rob1953 · 10 Oct 2020

Currently I have a desktop PC running Windows 10 Home Version 2004 (OS Build 19041.508). This OS and other programs are on an SSD.

I have sourced another PC as a replacement as the existing one is quite noisy and over 10 years old. The new PC has Windows 10 Pro installed on its HDD.

Ideally I want to put the existing SSD in the new PC but would like to have the Pro edition of Windows rather than the existing Home edition.

After removing the SSD from my existing PC and installing this in the replacement and selecting the SSD as the boot disk in BIOS will the PC then start with the Pro or Home edition?

Any advice or walkthrough procedure would be appreciated.

dalchina · 10 Oct 2020

1 basic initial question- is your old PC MBR-based? I expect it will be, being relatively old.

The new one will be UEFI based. I would guess it's unlikely it supports legacy BIOS.

Therefore attempting what you are seeking to do presents at least 3 issues:
a. adapting a MBR-based installation to a UEFI environment.
b. the Windows installation has to successfully adapt its drivers to the new environment
c. a means of upgrading from Home to Pro.

For consideration:
How To Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Pro using an OEM key – SoftwareStore
(I assume your new PC comes with an OEM key- please advise).
Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk in Windows 10

As to exactly how you might achieve that I leave to someone who's worked through anything similar, as there are several issues.

Very very strongly advised: before attempting any major changes (and this is major) create a full disk image of your existing SSD before doing this, saving the image files on separate storage.

Hopefully you are already using disk imaging: e.g. Macrium Reflect (free-paid) + external storage for image files.

Rob1953 · 10 Oct 2020

Thanks Dalchina,

Yes the existing machine does have MBR.
I’m creating a disk image of the SSD.
I haven’t received the newer PC yet, I understand it has WIN10 Pro installed on the HDD with a digital licence.

Megahertz · 10 Oct 2020

Is the actual computer from same family than the new (Intel or AMD)?
If one is Intel and the other is AMD I would not move the old drive to the new computer.

This is what I would do.
- On the old computer, create a disk image and save it to an external disk.
- Create a Rescue Drive
- Boot from the Rescue Drive and convert the SSD from Legacy-MBR to EFI-GPT using MBR2GPT.exe. Use Brink tutorial Convert Windows 10 from Legacy BIOS to UEFI without Data Loss. When done, shutdown.
- Remove the SSD from the old computer and install on the new one. As the SSD now is EFI-GPT it will boot in the new computer but will not boot on the old.
- Once running on the new computer, update it to Pro. It will activate as the new computer has a pro license.

dalchina · 10 Oct 2020

One other check - is the old PC 32 or 64 bits?

The most likely importance of this would be driver compatibility on the new PC.

Rob1953 · 10 Oct 2020

Megahertz said:

Is the actual computer from same family than the new (Intel or AMD)?
If one is Intel and the other is AMD I would not move the old drive to the new computer.
This is what I would do.
- On the old computer, create a disk image and save it to an external disk.
- Create a Rescue Drive
- Boot from the Rescue Drive and convert the SSD from Legacy-MBR to EFI-GPT using MBR2GPT.exe. Use Brink tutorial Convert Windows 10 from Legacy BIOS to UEFI without Data Loss. When done, shutdown.
- Remove the SSD from the old computer and install on the new one. As the SSD now is EFI-GPT it will boot in the new computer but will not boot on the old.
- Once running on the new computer, update it to Pro. It will activate as the new computer has a pro license.

Thanks, the current PC has an AMD processor and the new one has Intel. Does that mean the procedure above is not possible?

- - - Updated - - -

dalchina said:

One other check - is the old PC 32 or 64 bits?

The most likely importance of this would be driver compatibilty on the new PC.

Both 64 bit

NavyLCDR · 10 Oct 2020

I've moved Windows 10 installations between AMD and Intel before with no issues. There are typically two roadblocks that may have to be fixed when moving Windows:
1. UEFI v. legacy BIOS

2. Disk controller mode, IE: IDE v.AHCI v. RAID

Megahertz · 10 Oct 2020

Rob1953 said:

Thanks, the current PC has an AMD processor and the new one has Intel. Does that mean the procedure above is not possible?
- - - Updated - - -
Both 64 bit

No, but the hardware is so different that it will have to change almost all drivers.

In my opinion, you should attach the old SSD to new computer and copy your data to the new computer.
Doesn't the new computer has a M.2 MVMe drive?

Rob1953 · 11 Oct 2020

NavyLCDR said:

I've moved Windows 10 installations between AMD and Intel before with no issues. There are typically two roadblocks that may have to be fixed when moving Windows:
1. UEFI v. legacy BIOS

2. Disk controller mode, IE: IDE v.AHCI v. RAID

Thanks,

So the procedure to follow would be as described in the first post by Megahertz?

I don’t know what a M.2 MVMe drive is?

Another consideration is the HDD in the old computer that has data on it. This is also MBR, does it also need converting to use on the new PC?

Megahertz · 11 Oct 2020

Rob1953 said:

Thanks,
So the procedure to follow would be as described in the first post by Megahertz?
I don’t know what a M.2 MVMe drive is?
Another consideration is the HDD in the old computer that has data on it. This is also MBR, does it also need converting to use on the new PC?

Please give us the new computer specs (brand model etc) so we can give you more accurate information.

- M.2 MVMe drive is a kind of SSD that doesn't connects to the MB by SATA cable but by a M.2 connector directly to PCIe lanes. It can be 5 times faster than a SATA SSD. In this case, don't move the old computer SSD to the new one.

The MBR HDD is for data only, no need to be converted to GPT, only if it is bigger than 2T. You can convert to GPT but not using MBR2GPT.exe. In this case use Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk in Windows 10, option one or two.