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#1
SSD upgrade, cloning W10, and recovery partition
I just bought a new SSD, San Disk ultra II 960GB. I want to install it in my Samsung Ativbook. The computer originally came with windows 8 but I did the free upgrade to 10. Ever since I upgraded, the computer is running much slower and takes a lot longer to boot. As a result, I bought a new drive to speed things up. I'm going to do a fresh install. One reason is that I read somewhere that a fresh install could help speed up my machine. The article stated that there was a difference between an upgrade vs. an install. Not sure if there is any truth to that. The second reason, is that I bought the laptop used and there is a file called MPStigstub that is in a strange folder in the C drive. When I do an antivirus scan it comes back with a warning about this file. I was already suspicious of it but with the warning, I now want to play it safe and start fresh. Apparently an Avira warning means the file can't be scanned because it's in use. I know that it's a Microsoft file but.... The third reason is that I accidentally clicked on a site that did a redirect. My computer crashed and now Avira is coming up with like 200 warnings but no detections.....
So my question is: what's the way to setup my new SSD. Is there a way to only clone the recovery part of my old drive? Also, the old recovery drive will just reinstall 8 correct and then I have to do the upgrade to 10 all over again? Is there a way for me to create my own W10 recovery partition and use the old Windows 8 activation code to install the new OS? Thanks in advance for your help.