migrating HDD to SSD

My daughter's boyfriend is getting a new laptop for Christmas from his parents. He discussed the specs with me while he was doing his research, and was happy with laptop he selected except that it had a HDD rather than an SSD.

My daughter is getting him an SSD for Christmas, and I guess I'll be on the hook to install it for him. I guess it won't be difficult to do a fresh install of Windows 10 from a USB stick because the digital rights for the laptop/motherboard should allow it to activate. However, I don't know what will already be install on the laptop HDD. I would prefer to just image the current HDD onto the SSD.

What is my easiest (and preferably cheap) option to transfer the HDD to the SSD? I have a USB 3.0 enclosure that I can use to hook the SSD up to the laptop to perform the transfer. What cheap software options are available to image the HDD?

Here are some free utilities:
clonezilla, macrum reflect, EaseUS Disk Copy

Also some ssds will include a free version of acronis.

use your enclosure and what ever comes with the ssd. that will be the cheapest and easiest way. did this for me ma a few weeks ago and Samsung magician worked perfect.

Yea its new laptop, clean install that thing. That will also clean out the bloat lol.

not to mention the time it takes to actually clone will likely be more than a clean Windows install. The ISO's are downloadable from MS. Use Rufus to make it (or MS's own tool)

Use your enclosure and macrium reflect. Probably wisest to make an image of the factory drive to be safe if you're going to do a fresh install. Most laptops don't come with install discs anymore.

Since you said easiest, I assume that also means less chance of dealing with issues down the road. I'd clone it so it includes any possible recovery/backup partitions made from the factory. It's also faster. Then you're giving him the laptop as he bought it, just speed enhanced.

Thanks for all of the advice. Yes, I definitely want to clone it so I get the recovery partition. I'll check SSD when it arrives to see if it has any cloning software with it (didn't think of that).

Windows will install its own recovery partition. OEMs just use the Windows one now and include their software as "drivers".. again not worth it. I clean every OEM machine I set people up with. Typically I even buy the SSD separate, not only do you get more capacity of the dollar but you get to pick a good reliable SSD. OEM you never know what you get.

You dont need the recovery partition if you can just load Win 10 straight onto it. it only contains all the extra bloat and junk the OEM puts on it. if you copy a HDD onto a SSD you can also have alignment issues, best to just do a clean load.

I (we) have done plenty of HDD to Ssd clones, zero problems with alignment issues. Using ghost or clonezilla or even theses little Startech cloning devices. Theses are on machines that see 8+ hours of use a day for 3 years minimum.

However, I still say clean install. It's super easy theses days.

clone utilities should take care of alignment but clean is best.

My last Samsung SSD included a HDD->SSD clone utility. Worked perfectly.