Looking to upgrade

LarryF

I want to upgrade a custom built system from Win 7 to Win 10, and add a 2TB SSD.  That way, I can do a clean install of the Win 10 on the SSD and still have the Win 7 available via a dual boot.  The current system has 3x 2TB drives, Boot, backup and misc. files.  My plan is to get a 6TB drive, I then substitute the current back up drive with it, then back the Win 7 drive to the 6TB drive and copy the misc. files (about 1 TB) to it.  Then I can pull the misc. files drive and bring the computer in so you can mount the SSD where it was, and install the Win 10 OS.  Then I can Restore the files from the Win 7 OS to the Win 10 OS drive (will this work?).  Is this a good plan?

Motherboard: MSI Z97 GAMING 5 (MS-7917)

RAM 16.0 GB

TSTonyV

Hello @LarryF! Welcome to the Community. 

Your plan overall sounds pretty solid to me. My only question is what exactly you mean be restoring the Windows 7 files to the Windows 10 drive. Do you just mean the data you've been backing up, or do you also mean the programs and software? If it's just data, that would be pretty easy. You can just drag and drop or do a backup restore through Control Panel. If you want to transfer programs, that's not doable without special software or cloning the drive (which defeats the purpose of installing Windows 10).

LarryF

As for restoring the applications, I was afraid of that.  I hate that aspect of Windows.  Come to think of it, as long as the Win 7 drive is still there, I can just copy whatever files I need to the SSD from Win 10.  I'll drop by and pick up a 6TB HDD soon and get started.   Thanks Bunches!