If you use the Media Creation Tool, https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows11, it should be downloading the "latest" version which should only be 1 month behind in patching at most.
Easiest way to move OS to new drive or fresh install
- Thread starter Shadowmeph
- Start date
If you desperately want to keep everything exactly as it is, then the Maiwo drive cloners work amazing. Pop both drives in and complete a block level clone with one button. I use one at work and it works incredibly well. (Remember to disable bitlocker) Although my primary use case is upgrading a drive in the exact same hardware environment.
If you've purchased a new board/CPU, then (depending on the generation jump) a fresh Windows installation is not a bad idea. It's a bit of a pain to get everything reinstalled and back the way you like it, but you can also use a tool like TransWiz to make the job easier. That said, it's often simpler to do things manually. If you throw the old drive in a secondary m.2 socket on the motherboard, transferring files around after your installation and software work is done, is EZPZ.
Obviously, you definitely DO want to update the BIOS on the new hardware for a multitude of reasons. Not sure why anyone would suggest anything different.
If you've purchased a new board/CPU, then (depending on the generation jump) a fresh Windows installation is not a bad idea. It's a bit of a pain to get everything reinstalled and back the way you like it, but you can also use a tool like TransWiz to make the job easier. That said, it's often simpler to do things manually. If you throw the old drive in a secondary m.2 socket on the motherboard, transferring files around after your installation and software work is done, is EZPZ.
Obviously, you definitely DO want to update the BIOS on the new hardware for a multitude of reasons. Not sure why anyone would suggest anything different.
I am going from a 7800x3d on a msi pro b650m-a wifi pro to a AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D on a MSI MAG MAG X870E TOMAHAWK WIFI AM5 AMD X870E
You're actually probably fine to drive copy and update drivers. You're only moving one generation, and you're staying with the same board manufacturer. You'll need a complete clean and reinstall of drivers since you're going to the 870E instead of the B850, but not a huge deal. An updated install is never a bad thing, but likely not necessary in this case.
*EDIT* You'll need to reactivate Windows against your new hardware as well. But that's to be expected.
I have cloned many OS drives in the last 5 years. If it's Win10/11, it has never given me any problems, even when changing most major parts. The only thing I have had to do is uninstall/install drivers and maybe activate the OS again. Very rarely, I used the wrong clone settings and had to redo the clone.
This has become so normal in my PC routine that I keep a cloned copy of my HTPC OS drive sitting on top of that PC I update the cloned drive every 1-2 weeks. I don't think there is a wrong way to do what you want to do. A fresh install will take longer, but even that only takes a couple of hrs.
I purchased Aomei partition Assistant as it has many great tools, you can get the trial version from them for free I am pretty sure, the copy OS will be blanked out but if you just use the clone whole drive you shouldn't have any problems, its the setting I use all the time, also when coming from a SSD drive you shouldnt have to use the 4k alignment as long as the drives where formatted with it in the first place.
Like others have mentioned, I would update the BIOS.
PS, the good thing about it is if you screw up the clone settings, since you're new to cloning, you can always try again.
edit, just want to point out the OS on my HTPC has never been reinstalled since 2015-2016 when Win10 came out, it has only been cloned onto several newer/different NVME drives and gone through 3 different sets of CPU/MB/RAM/GPU since its first install, I wanted to see if it could be done and its 2025 the only real problems I ever ran into were NVME drives giving up the ghost, which I was still able to get them running long enough to do a OS clone, I am surprised it worked out this long. This is the same OS that I upgraded to Win10 IoT LTSC, so I don't know if that would be similar to a fresh install?? if so that was only done last 2 months
This has become so normal in my PC routine that I keep a cloned copy of my HTPC OS drive sitting on top of that PC I update the cloned drive every 1-2 weeks. I don't think there is a wrong way to do what you want to do. A fresh install will take longer, but even that only takes a couple of hrs.
I purchased Aomei partition Assistant as it has many great tools, you can get the trial version from them for free I am pretty sure, the copy OS will be blanked out but if you just use the clone whole drive you shouldn't have any problems, its the setting I use all the time, also when coming from a SSD drive you shouldnt have to use the 4k alignment as long as the drives where formatted with it in the first place.
Like others have mentioned, I would update the BIOS.
PS, the good thing about it is if you screw up the clone settings, since you're new to cloning, you can always try again.
edit, just want to point out the OS on my HTPC has never been reinstalled since 2015-2016 when Win10 came out, it has only been cloned onto several newer/different NVME drives and gone through 3 different sets of CPU/MB/RAM/GPU since its first install, I wanted to see if it could be done and its 2025 the only real problems I ever ran into were NVME drives giving up the ghost, which I was still able to get them running long enough to do a OS clone, I am surprised it worked out this long. This is the same OS that I upgraded to Win10 IoT LTSC, so I don't know if that would be similar to a fresh install?? if so that was only done last 2 months
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I was going to clone the OS to the new drive while I waited and discovered that the new drive is toast so I need to buy a new new drive lol
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