[SOLVED] Installing Windows 11 on new internal SSD

Community Support
1

We just received our two Framework 13 pre-built laptops.

We also purchased larger 1TB internal hard drives, and are looking to replace the existing 256 MB drives and re-install windows/drivers/etc.

Can you please advise on the best way to do this?

Options appear to be:

  1. Fresh install of windows as for the DIY version. In this case we would need the Windows product key which does not appear to be visible in the digital purchases area of our account (only the install instructions).

  2. Clone or image the existing drive onto the new one. If this is the best path, can you please recommend a migration tool for the Western Digital Drive we purchased? I see a post recommending the SK Hynix tool for those drives in the forum.

We have not begun to install applications yet, so either option seems workable.

Thanks for your help!

2

My preference would be to do a clean install of W11. You can create a boot USB image directly from Microsoft. Your license is tied to your Microsoft online account.

https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

If you want to do the image/clone method, the only applications I use are Macrium Reflect or Image for Windows. I know there’s many others out there but some applications do wonky things with the partitions, for example.

3

Thank you Scott!

We did the clean install and it worked perfectly.

And according to Framework support, since we purchased " pre-built laptops, meaning the Microsoft operating system license is tied to the mainboard and is not transferable. If you will need to to replace the SSDs, you may install Windows 11 using Microsoft’s Windows 11 Media Creation Tool."

We used the media creation tool and the license came over automatically from the mainboard.

After installing the driver bundle - all touchpad functions came back, and we’re set!

Thanks again!

4

is it safe to mark this thread as SOLVED?

5

Yes, please do, I couldn’t find a way to do that myself.