Dell Inspiron 13 7373 2-in-1 - NVMe SSD upgrade

Windows 10 Storage shortage

C drive (NVMe SSD) initially about 15/225GB free;  insufficient for Windows 11 migration

About 95GB free, after removing e.g.

• all AVG and McAfee anti-whatever, Smartbyte, Driver Updater, Dell "support" packages
• Keeping SSD < 70% full extends their life.

more stuff to potentially remove, based on usage:

• DropBox, Google Drive, Keeper, Xbox, 3D graphics, Phone Link, Skype, Zoom

Bang per buck:  WinDirStat graphically shows storage consumption:

Anti-malware

Antivirus software looks like a virus to other antivirus software

• years ago, M$ Defender was not very good;  now, others waste resources
• commercial software obfuscation to resist cracking can be exploited;
  much commercial software employs OEM obfuscation/installation utilities, which are targeted by hackers.

Modern malware is increasingly a web browser issue

Malwarebytes Browser Guard seems a worthwhile browser extension to block malicious websites

DuckDuckGo's Chrome Extension seems benign and low overhead..

• my Chrome browser extensions: 

Alleged advantages of paid over freeware utilities are mostly illusive.

CCleaner FREE can be configured for low overhead:

• uncheck all but Add "Open CCleaner..." option to Recycle context menu in Options -> Basic settings
• configure Cookies for minimal Cookies to keep
• Disable Smart Cleaning
• uncheck Updates options;  occasionally click Check for updates at lower right corner
• Advanced options: 
• uncheck all Privacy boxes

CCleaner Tools->Uninstall offers to remove some software that Windows Settings->Apps does not

CCleaner Tools->Startup IMO simplifies controlling background "services" overhead

Others discount Registry Scan;  I disagree..

SSD clone

Disassembly, SSD swap, reassembly

9 Jun 2023:  1TB NVMe delivered

A fair amount of dust and cat hair in and around the fan:

Macrium Reflect

• select Destination drive
• Offers to fill the destination drive by adjusting partitions:
  
• THEN, select Next:
  
• Actual copying proceeds quickly, but data verification took nearly an hour for 190GB.
• Windows would not fully boot from cloned SSD.  possible reasons:

  
  Win10 Dell laptops encrypted with Bitlocker

  According to this discussion,
  an image backup made while source is in an unlocked state will work just like an unencrypted drive.

  The original Dell SSD Windows 10 was configured for "Fast Startup"

  Files required for booting were not necessarily fully written and closed.

  Cloning a drive while Windows is running from it is problematic

  It has worked for others, using Macrium Reflect...

  11 Jun 2023
  

  Another Macrium Reflect attempt

  This time, with:
  • still cloning hard drive on which Windows in running
  • Windows Fast Startup disabled
  • Macrium Reflect Rapid delta clone unchecked.
    
    
  • Time to clone was appreciably less.
    

  Nearly identical results

  • spinning circle of dots, indicating Windows attempting to boot..
  • eventually restarts
  • enters Dell SUPPORT diagnostics
  • Repair attempt failures reported;  restarts
  • Another option after repair "failure":  Exit and continue to Windows 10
  • ...   worked!!?!
    
  • WinDirStats shows approximately the same usage for that 174/940GB:
    
    Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.

    Windows 11 migration

    Uneventful;  Windows.old folder created:
    

    CCleaner

    I run this daily if not more often.

    right-click Recycle Bin

    Select Open CCleaner..
    

    
    Click Run Cleaner at lower right, then Continue:
    

    
    Click Yes for CCleaner to close Edge Chromium and Google Chrome.
    

    One reason to run CCleaner is that Edge Chromium continues running after its windows are closed,
    monitoring e.g. Google Chrome activity and presumably reporting back to M$...
    Here, no browser activity occurred after Edge Chromium launch until CCleaner killed it.
    There was no activity for Edge to cache;  Edge seemingly copied current Chrome activities.
    On a typical day, a half gigabyte of history files and thousands of cookies may be cached: