Changing HDD for SSD in laptop - effect on activation

kevvyb said:

Changign HDD for SSD in laptop - effect on activation

None at all.
At the relevant step of the install, you skip putting in a product key and it will re-activate automatically when you next go online without any action on your part.
Clean Install - TenForumsTutorials
In preparation for this, do consider Backup and Restore Device Drivers - TenForumsTutorials
as well as backing up your own files.

You mention "install" but you could also choose to make a system image then restore it to the next disk.
Assuming you make system images, that is.


All the best,
Denis

kevvyb said:

Hi I intend to swap the HDD in my HP 250 G4 for a Kingston SSD. How will this affect activation, if at all, and will I have to do anyting differently with that install?

Thanks in advance of any advice.

No, it will work flawlessly.
Either clone or image the HHD and restore the image to the SSD.

Ghot said:

No, it will work flawlessly.
Either clone or image the HHD and restore the image to the SSD.

Thanks Ghot.

After posting here, I noticed another thread of yours that seemed to indicate that you had already gone ahead and that everything went well.
So, everything's OK?
Did you clean install or restore an image?

Denis

kevvyb said:

In the past [many years ago] I tried 3rd party disk cloning software and when I needed it it let me down. So have kept away from it. But is there a good tool now?

Macrium Reflect and AOMEI Backupper - GUIDES | Windows 11 Forum

I've seen many comments about disk cloning going wrong.
Using the same utilities to make disk images instead is regarded as reliable. And images are more flexible; you can have as many images as you want on each of your backup disks but could only have one clone on each disk.


All the best,
Denis

kevvyb said:

Hi I intend to swap the HDD in my HP 250 G4 for a Kingston SSD. How will this affect activation, if at all, and will I have to do anyting differently with that install?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Your PC's digital licence is linked to the unique hardware ID of your PC and stored on the Microsoft activation servers. The hard drive plays no part in this hardware ID, so swapping it for a new one has no effect on activation.

Kari said:

The Windows 10 and 11 Digital License is based on HWID 3. As long as the Windows edition, motherboard and CPU remain the same, once the computer has been activated, all future clean installs with the same edition on that computer will activate automatically. Note that all HWIDs exclude storage media entirely. Thus, on a PC with Windows 10 or 11 activated, you can replace its storage (HDD / SSD) devices with one or more new ones and clean install Windows 10 or 11 on a new disk. Even so, the PC will activate automatically based on that machine’s existing digital license.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 Digital Licencing explained | Windows 11 Forum