Solved! Old HDD as an external backup drive

[WorstCaseScenario]

Hi all,

so I just bought my first SSD drive and I plan to clone my system from old HDD to SSD. I will use SATA III to USB cable to do that.

First question would be, after I'm done cloning, can I use that SATA-USB cable to connect old HDD and use it as an external drive, or should I buy external drive case (enclosure), what is the difference between the cable and the case?

Second question would be, if I want to fresh install windows to that new SSD, is it enough to just unplug old HDD, plug in new SSD, put my USB Installation media in and I'm ready to install? Would windows recognize that new SSD or should I first somehow initialize it, or whatever...

Thanks a lot...

 

[mejustsayin]

you can use the cable for the old drive and use it as an extra storage drive with no problems. But IMO, you really need to give the drive extra protection with an enclosure.

As far as a fresh copy of the os on the new ssd drive, there really is nothing else you need to do. Just install the new ssd drive then plug in the usb and reboot. You might need to turn off secure boot in the bios in order to boot to the usb drive in order to install. It really would depend on the computer and where you got the copy of win10

 

[AlHuneke]

You may need your Windows key (a string of numbers and letters) to reinstall windows. While you still have the old HDD installed, run Belarc Advisor and capture your Windows key just in case.