Question Migrating from HDD to SSD

[Vegasus]

I want to add an SSD to a Windows 10 desktop PC I've been using for about 3 years. I'm wondering if I should reinstall everything from scratch on the SSD or if it would suffice to use a cloning app like Macrium or Magician to migrate everything.

It has a 1 TB HDD which is 306 GB full. Much of that is Steam games. I'm considering putting in a 500 GB SATA SSD. I don't believe this PC can take NVMe sticks, although the Wifi modem is in a mini PCI-e slot. Windows Computer Management says the HDD's main partition can be shrunk to no smaller than 530 GB. Since 306 GB is small enough to fit on the SSD, are cloning apps smart enough to make the partition on the SSD small enough to fit while holding everything from the HDD?

Are there any other considerations for doing a clone migration? Any settings that need changing or anything that won't work optimally?

I haven't reinstalled Windows 10 before. If that's the best way for me to go, how should I prepare?

 

[Vegasus]

The PC is an Asus M32CD-US003T with an Intel H110 chipset. Asus's spec sheet says the max size for an SSD is 256 GB, but I think this refers to what they include with some models, not the max it can take, right?

 

[seagate_surfer]

The path of least resistance is to fresh install Windows, sometimes it just helps the new SSD perform a little more snappy too. Back your data up before doing anything regardless of which route you choose.

May also be a good idea to copy down your Windows key before beginning as well just to be on the safe side.

You'll also want to disconnect the hard drive while Windows is being installed on the SSD so that none of the operating system files errantly wind up on the HDD too.