Installing a new hard drive

[rwalton31]

I posted a question about installing a solid state drive in my desktop. I have all that down pat. As for installing the  operating  system on the new drive, I know about the adapter cable to hook the hew drive up thru the USB port to clone the operating system onto the new drive. My question is since this desktop is less than a year old and I'm having no problem with the desktop should I just go with that? In the event I picked up some malware or some files got corrupted in that year, is doing a clean install maybe a better alternative. Or am I just being paranoid and should save the recovery media until it is actually needed. Looking for some input on this and once again thank you for the professional insight you have.

[mdklassen]

>  My question is since this desktop is less than a year old and I'm having no problem with the desktop should I just go with that?

Replacing a "spinning" disk-drive by a SSD will improve the performance of Windows.

For you, is it worth spending $100, amortized over 4 or 5 years -- the minimum expected life of your computer -- to have better performance over that time?

> In the event I picked up some malware or some files got corrupted in that year, is doing a clean install maybe a better alternative.

Read: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc700813.aspx

"Help: I Got Hacked. Now What Do I Do? "

written by Jesper M. Johansson, Ph.D., CISSP, MCSE, MCP+I, [at the time of writing the article] Security Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Obviously, an authority.

He states that the ONLY way to recover from malware is to reinstall.

Windows has the 'SFC' -- "system file checker" utility -- that should detect any corrupted system files that are essential to the running of Windows.

> Or am I just being paranoid and should save the recovery media until it is actually needed.

If you are paranoid, you should "test" your recovery media, to prove that it will work if/when it becomes essential that it does work.

Also, after the SSD goes into "production", save that "spinning" disk-drive.

Once a month, "clone" from the SSD onto that "spinning" disk-drive, to create a complete, bootable, "recovery" option for you.

Probably, the best date to select is the day before the second Tuesday of each month, because Microsoft issues security-updates at 10 AM Pacific on the second Tuesday of each month.  So, if those updates cause problems, you have a "very-recent" backup of your entire system.

You don't have to be paranoid to have a plan for "system recovery".

[iomare]

Hi,

Migrating an image to the new drive will be just fine if your system is good. 

Personally I like to perform a clean install and usually I delete all partitions and install the fresh OS downloaded from Microsoft. This can be done by downloading the media creator tool, running and creating a bootable pendrive with the OS on it. Now it will even include the creator update.

After installation Windows will automatically install all or most of drivers and any missing drivers or software can be found on HP site. 

I create Microsoft recovery disks and create a backup image once all is installed if I need it in the future. 

I always find that a clean install gives the least amount of problems.

Hope it helps,

David

[rwalton31]

I have the bootable recovery media I made when i bought the PC. Can you make more than one and would you recommend creating a new one and keeping the other one for backup?

[mdklassen]

> Can you make more than one and would you recommend creating a new one and keeping the other one for backup?

Yes, the days of software that allowed only "one" copy to be made have gone.

I can imagine two methods of creating another set:

* running the software again,

* using independent CD/DVD-burning software to copy the existing set.

Yes, if you lean to the "paranoid", then store the backup copy in some remote location, and use cloud-based services to backup all your personal files.   One never knows when "space junk" will fall out of the sky, and destroy your computer. 

[iomare · Accepted solution]

You can create a backup image of your whole system with many freeware software and even windows 10 gives you the possibility to create a backup image.

A program such as Macrium which has a free version and is easy to use works well for creating system images and cloning a hard drive. You could save one of these images to an external drive or even the cloud so as to have a good state system when necessary.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Hope it helps,

David