Updating Laptop with new SSD and system restore

[SubhroPaul]

Hi Support,

Let me tell you first i am new to this and I am planning to upgrade my HP envy laptop with a M.2 SSD. Reason behind that is, my laptop is performing slow even after I did a fresh installation of windows OS and all windows updates. Currently my laptop has 1TB HDD which came as per company configuration. As far as the product manual I have gone through and checked some blogs, I understand that my laptop already has an empty M.2 type SSD slot available where i can push a new SSD. By doing so other persons got mind blowing results. I have some specific question regarding upgrading the laptop disk. 

1. Initially in 2017, when i brought the laptop it came with 2 partitions. "C" drive where windows 10 is installed and "E" drive with recovery partition. I created a new partition "D" using windows 10 default partition manager. Last time about 8 months back due to slowness i did a fresh installation of windows OS by formatting my laptop and re-installed OS from 'HP provided recovery partition". If I recall correctly it never asked me option to install OS  in "C" or "D". It directly installed to "C". So, the question is if i add a new SSD that will be allocated to some drive like "F" or "G" etc. Will I be able to install windows OS to the SSD. From some blogs i found that is possible but i don't know the process.

2. It is not very much necessary but i just want to assign "C" drive letter to the SSD and install OS there like we generally have OS installed in "C" drive . So, what will be the step by step process on that case. As an example, 1) Add the SSD into the Laptop, 2) Reboot Laptop using old OS installation from HDD, 3) Open windows default partition manager and assign desired drive letters to all the available partitions, like changing HDD's "C" drive to some thing else and assign "C" drive to new SSD, 4) Start fresh OS installation, etc. What would be the steps?

3. From HP support site i understood from 2018 HP don't recommend to do fresh installation from Windows 10 OS from "HP provided recovery partition". Instead use "HP Cloud Recovery Tool" by creating a bootable device or there are multiple options what ever i want to select as per the link : https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Knowledge-Base/Recovery-in-Windows-10/ta-p/7061284 . Now my question is if i do so, during the installation, will it ask me to enter product serial no. or product id to validate the genuine installation. Or any other information which i should keep with me before proceeding installation. 8 moths back when i did the fresh installation, it did not asked me any thing like that. I am asking this because I just want make my self ready with all this information.

4. My last question. Though the link I provided in the 3rd question answers most of the information but it is little confusing to me. What is the best to fresh re-installation of OS. I would prefer "HP Cloud Recovery Tool" over anything else because it is provided from HP and i am fan of HP. Will restoring/resetting OS using "HP Cloud Recovery Tool" put me to the same point with default installation of the default softwares like "HP provided recovery partition" did last time?

Some notes, I am planning to take backup of all my data to a external HDD and delete all data, softwares installed by me,  every thing from my laptop before creating any bootable device or restore point. Also, i don't want to remove current 1TB HDD, instead i want to use that to backup my data in future after adding the SSD.

Thank you.

With Best Regards,

Subhro Paul

[banhien · Accepted solution]

@SubhroPaul 

I normally the following quick way for friends

(a) Clone existing HDD to SSD (M.2 or normal 2.5" SSD),

(b) Totally remove old HDD and install new M.2 or 2.5" SSD,

(c) Let system run few days on new disk drive (it will carry C: and others from old HDD),

(d) When happy with the result, clear the old HDD and put it back or keep it as an external HDD.

Regards.

[SubhroPaul]

Thanks Banhien for your suggestion. Some how i figured out "Microsoft Windows 10 Media Creation Tool" is good option for what ever i wanted achieve. So, it went well an i have my new SSD as primary.

But just want know how can i have HPs default apps installed. There used to be some apps from HP when it originally came. 

Thanks,

Subhro Paul