New Win 10 install (using WIn 7 key) what Hardrive? 3.5 or ssd

Corey · 03 Mar 2023

I have a old PC tower with these specs

Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB [Hard drive] (250.06 GB)

3.40 Ghz Intel Core i5-3570

8gb Ram

Board: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P8Z77-M Rev 1.xx

Graphics Intel(R) HD Graphics 5.2

Gaming graphics 1760 MB Total available graphics memory

Windows 7 Professional (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)

The SSD is almost full with 20gb spare.

I am wanting to create a Windows 10 upgrade USB using the Win 7 license and do a fresh install.

Q1
Should I re use that SSD for the install? or is it too small?
Q2
Would a cheap HD like the below be fine to install Windows 10 into if I just forget about the SSD all together and take it out?
It wont be too slow?

Amazon.com

Q3
Its an old work pc so my current login is via my company domain, I assume with a fresh Win 10 install on a hardrive I can just create a new user name with admin rights locally

dalchina · 03 Mar 2023

Hi,

I am wanting to create a Windows 10 upgrade USB using the Win 7 license

- you don't need the license when creating the installation medium (preferably using the MS media creation tool - Google/search/see tenforums tutorial..).

A 256GB SSD is quite large enough for most purposes.
I have several hundred programs installed on C: and that takes about 130Gb.

Of course if you're in to mammoth games or specialised larger programs.....that could be another matter.

Recommended plan: aim to keep personal data off C: for maintenance purposes (think.. a clean install will wipe all data on C:, and restoring a disk image of it means your data on C: becomes as old as the date you created the disk image.

So plan to put personal data on a separate disk or partition.

To use your Win 7 key when clean installing Win 10 this is the tutorial - from the huge searchable Tutorials section:
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First

As for a HDD.. the major difference is in the boot time.
e.g. 3.5 mins to lock screen with a HDD, maybe 8-12s with a SSD.

Cold boot times with a HDD can be reduced with Fast Startup, but in a few cases, that causes issues and can not be used.

If you install on an HDD, you can later clone to a SSD if you wish.

Consider beforehand whether your user acocunt will be local or a MS account.

There's a tutorial on installing Win 10 if you don't want a MS account. Note that not using a MS account means you don't have immediate access to the Store, for example.

Corey · 03 Mar 2023

Thankyou dalchina

Okay if a 250gb is enough for Windows only and some other programs should I

A) keep the 10 years old SSD (i think its that old, it may have swapped out a existing 3.5HD) and do a clean Win 10 install using the usb media and Win 7 key

or

B) buy a new SSD even at the same GB for piece of mind and extra speed over the older Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB ?
if so can you recommend a budget but acceptable SSD? and link

I didnt realise

As for a HDD.. the major difference is in the boot time.
e.g. 3.5 mins to lock screen with a HDD, maybe 8-12s with a SSD.

3.5mins is way too long to sit waiting these days :> So I think it should be a SSD, what do modern laptops run? I am guessing I can not go with NVME based SSDs (6 times faster again?) as the motherboard would be to old?

Consider beforehand whether your user account will be local or a MS account.

I have my MS Office programs still on cd disk, I am not interested in paying for MS accounts and Office 365, I d rather make do on this machine at least with MS Office I install once and thats it. I also dont intend to use one drive, so a local account should suffice? better privacy? what benefits are there to not being local?

dalchina · 03 Mar 2023

what benefits are there to not being local?

I mentioned the Store - see the text in the introduction in this tutorial - do feel free to search the Tutorials section... and elsewhere..
How to Tell if Local Account or Microsoft Account in Windows 10

If you clean install on the existing SSD-
- you lose your existing system (unless, as you should have, you have a full disk image).
- it's old... try Hard Disk Sentinel (SSDs too) for an assessment of the disk + remaining life immediately on its GUI.

Check compatibility of what you buy. I'd guess you'll be restricted to SATA.

Consider ensuring your BIOS is fully up to date. As it probably won't support UEFI, you'll get a legacy MBR installation.

Corey · 03 Mar 2023

Consider ensuring your BIOS is fully up to date. As it probably won't support UEFI, you'll get a legacy MBR installation.

I can do this now right? update the BIOS to P8Z77-M BIOS 2203 2016/02/19

P8Z77-M - Support

ahead of obtaining a new Sata SSD to install Win 10 on?

Paul Black · 03 Mar 2023

Hello @Corey,

dalchina said:

Consider ensuring your BIOS is fully up to date. As it probably won't support UEFI, you'll get a legacy MBR installation.

Corey said:

I can do this now right?

Yes, if there is a BIOS update available, it can be done at any time.

dalchina · 03 Mar 2023

Why not? All BIOS updates in principle carry a risk of course.. but you want to reduce the risk of incompatibility.

Megahertz · 03 Mar 2023

There are many advantages on having Windows and programs on a small SSD and using a HDD for data.
I have a 128G SSD for Windows and Linux and a 1T HDD for data. Work very well.

As you're going to do a clean install, during installation move the C:\Users (SSD) to D:\Users (HDD).
Use Kari tutorial to guide you
Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10
Relocate Users.zip

dalchina · 03 Mar 2023

Perosnally I wouldn't move that. Why? It's so tied up with the O/S. I wouldn't wish to split things across 2 disks and do something unnecessarily complicated.

Plus... if you rely on the normal Documents, Videos etc folders- well, they can get filled with folders created by programs you install.

So those are 'their' folders, not just yours.

Better to simply create your own folders on a separate partition or disk- nothing technical and totally unaffected by any O/S maintenance. And you can add those folders to a library (the default Documents etc are library folders) or create your own library.

I also wonder how, if you move the Users folder, you recover after a clean install. Not something I've looked into.

Each to their own, of course.

Megahertz · 03 Mar 2023

Reset BIOS or load defaults.
Set Disk mode to AHCI, not RAID
Select OS mode = UEFI or Select OS mode = other + UEFI (depends 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 F8(?) to launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name) if you want to install as UEFI-GPT or select USB (name) if you want to install as Legacy-MBR.
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.