How to Upgrade From Win10 Home to Win10 Pro, But On a New Hard Drive?

AxionJaxion said:

Once I re-install Windows 10 on the new SSD, will I also have to manually re-install all the drivers as well?
I haven't re-formatted a PC since Windows 7, and I had to hunt down like ten or more different drivers back then. It was a pain. Wondering if it's still the same thing with 10?
Using a manufactured computer like HP is easy because the drivers are all there. I just don't like the bloatware.

Export the drivers from the existing installation first, then you know you will have them:
Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10

Megahertz said:

disable secure boot

I wonder if it is time we stopped recommending disabling secure boot because secure boot is required to be on to install Windows 11 (via normal methods). I know we are not installing Windows 11 here, but I wonder if it would be a good idea to get people used to leaving it on. Having secure boot on will not interfere with Windows setup as long as the USB flash drive is created via proper methods. Just a thought - as users transition to Windows 11, secure boot disabled will become a problem and maybe we can head that off a little bit.

dalchina said:

Thank you for your reply.

Windows should provide all the drivers.

Exceptions might be extremely old PCs..., PCs with special keys or illuminated keyboards- in some cases you may need to download particular utilities or drivers from your manufacturer's driver download page for your particular model.

(Almost no posters think to post the URL for that, alas).

BIOS/UEFI updates are handled by your manufacturer- method varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.

In a few cases, older PCs not supported for Win 10 may have a feature no longer supported by a compatible driver. E.g. a Lenovo laptop before this one has a fingerprint reader- but this is unusable with Win 10.

Great. My computer is only 1 year old so everything should be ok.
If not I will check the manufacturer websites for any other drivers needed.

Thank you again for all your help. Dalchina and everybody.

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NavyLCDR said:

Export the drivers from the existing installation first, then you know you will have them:
Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10

Ah, this is great advice. Thank you NavyLCDR. I did not know this was possible.
I will try this on my Windows 7 laptop - I've been wanting to reinstall Win 7 Pro on that one for ages, but was afraid I'd never find the right drivers again.

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Megahertz said:

Let MCT create the Win 10 USB installation drive.
As Navy has recommended, export the drivers from the existing installation first. Save on the 1 T drive.
Don't forget to detach (SATA or power cable) from the current 1 T drive before you begin to install on the 512G SSD or you will end with the OS in the SSD and the boot manager on the 1 T drive.

On BIOS disable fast boot and secure boot (you can turn it on after installation)

Windows can be installed in two ways: Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT
To install as Legacy-MBR you must boot the installation drive as Legacy
To install as UEFI-GPT you must boot the installation drive as UEFI.

If you have a UEFI BIOS, you should install as UEFI-GPT
Detach any other drives (SATA or Power cable) from the MB.

During POST, press F9(?) to launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name).
Go to install and delete ALL partitions on the main drive till you have one and only one unallocated space and then proceed.
If you don't want to use MS account, don't enable updates or connect to the internet during installation.

It will probably skip to ask what version you want to install and install Win 10 home. Then use the tutorial to convert to Win 10 pro.

After everything is running you may attach the 1 T drive.
Open device manager and see if there is any yellow alerts of missing drivers. If it does, search for them on the backup you created from the old installation.

Thank you Megahertz. Very helpful advice for me.

I came to tenforums to ask for help because I truly think the best in the world are here.

I will try this on my Windows 7 laptop - I've been wanting to reinstall Win 7 Pro on that one for ages, but was afraid I'd never find the right drivers again.

win7 dism does not have the export driver function as far as I can remember

You can do it with dism++

click the os in the top pane to highlight it in blue then click Drivers in the left pane



tick the drivers you want , then click export. You must have a folder to export them into, an existing folder or create a new one.



and backup activation SEE HERE