Google WiFi

[SaveByRichter35]

19 minutes ago, Znowleopard said:

Yes probably. Let me know how it goes!

Thanks, will do.

[SaveByRichter35]

@Puckstopper @Znowleopard since you guys have been so much help my latest debacle doesn't have to do with the Google Wifi but it still has to do with my revamp of my home network so I'll just post here instead of making a new thread.  In an effort to improve our laptops I purchased new RAM chips and new SSD for my wife and I.  I bought her 8GB of RAM and 16GB for myself.  Both max at 16GB, hers already has one 8GB in it, mine only had one 4GB chip.  Both SSDs are 500GB.  I was under the impression that I would be able to just backup both computers to their new SSDs and then just swap out the old HDD.  We just so happened to bring her computer to Best Buy yesterday because its been a dumpster fire for her since almost day one.  Well the Geek Squad person said it doesn't work that way, we would have to buy new Windows OSs for the new drives.  Is this true or is she just trying to sell us on two new Windows OS?  Hers is 10 mine is 7 I think, if any of that matters.

I refuse to buy her another new computer.  She has done through 4 laptops in the 11 years I have known her.  Mine was in perfectly working condition until her 3rd took a shit and she used mine for a few months until we finally bought her 4th.  I have no idea wtf she does with these things, she only uses it for work stuff and some online shopping.  Mine has seen way worse websites and never had a problem if you catch my drift haha.

[Puckstopper]

You DEFINITELY don't need to buy new software licenses, that's just typical Geek Squad BS.   Never let those hacks touch your computer.  They are only trained to solve basic issues, and then their solution for everything else is "we need to reinstall Windows and you're going to lose all your data".  Usually accompanied by an attempt to (drum roll please)  ............. sell you a new copy of Windows!  So your experience is totally par for the course.  Find a good, local mom and pop computer shop and you'll get a vastly different answer most of the time.

As far as transferring your OS to the new SDD, it can either be a simple process if the old HDD is the same size or smaller, or quite a bit of work if the old HDD is larger.   Good info here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/move-windows-10-from-installed-hdd-to-installed/1a2082d2-aa23-44fe-87a7-77b4e53aa901

If her computer is acting up badly I'd probably just do a fresh install of Win10 on it.  You should be able to download it for free from MS by providing the product key.  Here's how to find that:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10749/windows-10-find-product-key 

A fresh install would get rid of any gremlins she's got on the machine.  Buy an enclosure for the old HDD to use it as backup storage and to transfer files.   If you install the SDD and set up Win10 on her machine first you can then hook the HDD up to the fresh machine and run a virus scan on it to be 100% sure you've gotten rid of any nasties before transferring files back to her machine.  You may even find that an occasional fresh install of Win10 is enough to avoid buying her a new laptop quite so often.  The newest machine my wife and I own is 6 years old (not counting work laptops of course) and it does just fine for everyday tasks.  You definitely shouldn't have to upgrade hardware as often as she is unless the CPU itself was old/under-powered at the time of purchase. 

Good luck with this one.  I know it can seem overwhelming, but with a little patience and some time on Google you'll save yourself a bundle over paying someone to do it for you.

[SaveByRichter35]

26 minutes ago, Puckstopper said:

You DEFINITELY don't need to buy new software licenses, that's just typical Geek Squad BS.   Never let those hacks touch your computer.  They are only trained to solve basic issues, and then their solution for everything else is "we need to reinstall Windows and you're going to lose all your data".  Usually accompanied by an attempt to (drum roll please)  ............. sell you a new copy of Windows!  So your experience is totally par for the course.  Find a good, local mom and pop computer shop and you'll get a vastly different answer most of the time.

As far as transferring your OS to the new SDD, it can either be a simple process if the old HDD is the same size or smaller, or quite a bit of work if the old HDD is larger.   Good info here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/move-windows-10-from-installed-hdd-to-installed/1a2082d2-aa23-44fe-87a7-77b4e53aa901

If her computer is acting up badly I'd probably just do a fresh install of Win10 on it.  You should be able to download it for free from MS by providing the product key.  Here's how to find that:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10749/windows-10-find-product-key 

A fresh install would get rid of any gremlins she's got on the machine.  Buy an enclosure for the old HDD to use it as backup storage and to transfer files.   If you install the SDD and set up Win10 on her machine first you can then hook the HDD up to the fresh machine and run a virus scan on it to be 100% sure you've gotten rid of any nasties before transferring files back to her machine.  You may even find that an occasional fresh install of Win10 is enough to avoid buying her a new laptop quite so often.  The newest machine my wife and I own is 6 years old (not counting work laptops of course) and it does just fine for everyday tasks.  You definitely shouldn't have to upgrade hardware as often as she is unless the CPU itself was old/under-powered at the time of purchase. 

Good luck with this one.  I know it can seem overwhelming, but with a little patience and some time on Google you'll save yourself a bundle over paying someone to do it for you.

Hahaha thanks.  I didn't think I would need to buy new stuff, I was skeptical when she said it but I wasn't 100% sure.  I only brought it there because we bought it there and I didn't remember if we bought Geek Squad coverage with the computer.  Anyways, thanks again for the info.  I have 5 more hours here at work to do all this reading so I will definitely get to it.  I am by no means a computer whiz, obviously, but I know a little bit about a bunch of stuff.  I *should* be able to figure it out....hopefully haha.  I do have a few other questions but I will wait and see if I can find the answer in the provided links.

Thanks again!

[Znowleopard]

Like @Puckstopper said ABsolutly no need to buy a new copy of windows, hopfully your ssds came with a sata to usb cable or your laptops have two spaces for hdd/ssd. if you bought Samsung ssds then they have some good software for transferring all your data over. If not then ive heard good things about macrium reflect but never used it my self.

[SaveByRichter35]

23 minutes ago, Znowleopard said:

Like @Puckstopper said ABsolutly no need to buy a new copy of windows, hopfully your ssds came with a sata to usb cable or your laptops have two spaces for hdd/ssd. if you bought Samsung ssds then they have some good software for transferring all your data over. If not then ive heard good things about macrium reflect but never used it my self.

I bought 2 Crucial MX500 SSDs.

[SaveByRichter35]

3 hours ago, Puckstopper said:

You DEFINITELY don't need to buy new software licenses, that's just typical Geek Squad BS.   Never let those hacks touch your computer.  They are only trained to solve basic issues, and then their solution for everything else is "we need to reinstall Windows and you're going to lose all your data".  Usually accompanied by an attempt to (drum roll please)  ............. sell you a new copy of Windows!  So your experience is totally par for the course.  Find a good, local mom and pop computer shop and you'll get a vastly different answer most of the time.

As far as transferring your OS to the new SDD, it can either be a simple process if the old HDD is the same size or smaller, or quite a bit of work if the old HDD is larger.   Good info here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/move-windows-10-from-installed-hdd-to-installed/1a2082d2-aa23-44fe-87a7-77b4e53aa901

If her computer is acting up badly I'd probably just do a fresh install of Win10 on it.  You should be able to download it for free from MS by providing the product key.  Here's how to find that:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10749/windows-10-find-product-key 

A fresh install would get rid of any gremlins she's got on the machine.  Buy an enclosure for the old HDD to use it as backup storage and to transfer files.   If you install the SDD and set up Win10 on her machine first you can then hook the HDD up to the fresh machine and run a virus scan on it to be 100% sure you've gotten rid of any nasties before transferring files back to her machine.  You may even find that an occasional fresh install of Win10 is enough to avoid buying her a new laptop quite so often.  The newest machine my wife and I own is 6 years old (not counting work laptops of course) and it does just fine for everyday tasks.  You definitely shouldn't have to upgrade hardware as often as she is unless the CPU itself was old/under-powered at the time of purchase. 

Good luck with this one.  I know it can seem overwhelming, but with a little patience and some time on Google you'll save yourself a bundle over paying someone to do it for you.

So according to the first link I will have to clone my wife's computer.  Reason is because her computer came with a 1TB HDD but I am going to replace it with a 500GB SSD.  A downgrade in size, yes, but my reasoning was because there is still a ton of free space on the drive.  That coupled with the fact that our primary source for storage is going to be the external plugged into the router.  Not to mention it was about half the price of the 1TB SSD.  Some of this stuff is definitely foreign to me but I look forward to the challenge of figuring this stuff out haha.

[ZeroGravitas]

17 minutes ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

I bought 2 Crucial MX500 SSDs.

You should be able to use Acronis, which is pretty easy to use - https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/storage-ssd-getting-started

The process should be a cinch.... if the SSDs are equal to or greater in size than the existing HDD in your laptop(s).

Though like @Puckstoppersays, maybe you want to start fresh for your wife's laptop.

[SaveByRichter35]

4 minutes ago, ZeroGravitas said:

You should be able to use Acronis, which is pretty easy to use - https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/storage-ssd-getting-started

The process should be a cinch.... if the SSDs are equal to or greater in size than the existing HDD in your laptop(s).

Though like @Puckstoppersays, maybe you want to start fresh for your wife's laptop.

I'd actually like to start fresh on both of them.  I am hoping if I can copy my wife's Windows 10 from her old HDD to her new SSD that I will be able to do the same for my SSD.  I am currently reading the process of cloning the OS to a new drive.  We both have 64bit Windows now(hers 10 mine is 7 or 8, can't remember off the top of my head) so since my computer is several years older I have to see if mine is capable of handling W10.

[ZeroGravitas]

1 minute ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

I'd actually like to start fresh on both of them.  I am hoping if I can copy my wife's Windows 10 from her old HDD to her new SSD that I will be able to do the same for my SSD.  I am currently reading the process of cloning the OS to a new drive.  We both have 64bit Windows now(hers 10 mine is 7 or 8, can't remember off the top of my head) so since my computer is several years older I have to see if mine is capable of handling W10. 

Cloning isn't the same as starting fresh.

Truly starting fresh would be install a brand new copy of Windows on to the SSD and starting from nothing but that. That would be downloading and re-installing all your programs, etc.

Cloning copies everything over - Windows itself, plus all your applications, shortcuts, browser favorites, wallpaper, music, photos, etc. Literally everything - assuming your SSD had the space for it. Cloning also would bring over malware and viruses, if any exist on the old HDD. When the clone is successful, you'd just turn your computer on and everything is exactly as it was - except you're now using the (much) faster SSD instead of the old mechanical HDD.

[SaveByRichter35]

6 minutes ago, ZeroGravitas said:

Cloning isn't the same as starting fresh.

Truly starting fresh would be install a brand new copy of Windows on to the SSD and starting from nothing but that. That would be downloading and re-installing all your programs, etc.

Cloning copies everything over - Windows itself, plus all your applications, shortcuts, browser favorites, wallpaper, music, photos, etc. Literally everything - assuming your SSD had the space for it. Cloning also would bring over malware and viruses, if any exist on the old HDD. When the clone is successful, you'd just turn your computer on and everything is exactly as it was - except you're now using the (much) faster SSD instead of the old mechanical HDD.

Maybe I used the wrong terminology.  I meant if I can use her Windows 10 on her new SSD I was curious if I could do the same for my SSD and essentially make my computer W10 as well.  You guys mentioned I wouldn't need to buy new software licenses for W10 so I figured if I can use it once on hers why not another time on mine? lol.  Like I said, I am not well versed with this stuff.  Learning as I am reading.  Unfortunately the more I read the more it looks like it won't be worth the headache for me to upgrade my machine to W10.