Upgrade hard drive in windows 10

I'm Greg, a volunteer installation specialist and 8 year Windows MVP, here to help you.

Select the hard drive you want to replace yours and swap it in. You can probably find a video online for how to do this for your exact model PC.

I'd replace it with an SSD which is the best Upgrade one can have - lightning fast, faster than a new higher-end PC without one, especially if you do the gold standard Clean Install in this link which compiles the best possible install of Windows which will stay that way as long as you stick with the tools and methods given, has zero reported problems, and is better than any amount of money could buy: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

This will help physically removing the old and installing the new.

How to replace or upgrade Hard Drive Dell Optiplex Desktop

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Dell+Optip...

If you want to create a System Image and put that on the new drive (before you uninstall the old one) use Macrium Reflect - Free.

How to Create a Full-Disk Backup of Your PC with Macrium Reflect

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7363/macrium-re...

Or if you just want to Clean Install Windows on the new drive. A Clean Install would be activated with the Digital Entitlement. Put the new drive in place of the old drive. Do not hook the old drive up until after Windows 10 has been properly installed on the new drive.

How to Prepare Bootable Install Media for Windows 10 - DVD, USB or SD Card

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

Start fresh with a clean installation of Windows 10

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

Clean Install Windows 10

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

If needed:

Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/...

Please let us know the results and if you need further assistance.

Step 1: purchase your new hard drive first and make sure it is equal to or greater in size than the one you are replacing.

Step 2: purchase an external drive.

Step 3: Backup the current Windows 10 installation:

How to: Create a system image in Windows 10

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

Step 4: shutdown the computer, install the new hard disk:

How To Install a Desktop Hard Drive - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2kcJH8ASN8

Step 5: Restore the system image:

How to restore a Windows 10 system image to an existing or larger storage device

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

Dell Optiplex 5050

Hi hdbB, I am Rob a volunteer and a 10 time and dual award MVP specializing in Windows troubleshooting and Bluescreen analysis.

You said both update and replace the hard drive.

Do you mean you want to put a new hard drive in the computer? If so then do you want to transfer all you have on the existing drive to the new one or would prefer to do a Clean Install on the new drive (start with a clean slate)?

What is the make and model of your computer?

Please let us know the results and if you need further assistance.