If you are a Windows user, from October 2025 you will need to purchase a new device with Windows 11 preinstalled, if your old device cannot be upgraded from Windows 10 (see below for help)
If your device cannot be upgraded, chances are it had an older HDD (Hard-Disk-Drive) of around 500GB to 1TB.
Windows 10 has been around since 2015, so your old device could be up to 10 years old.
The older the device, the less likely you are to be using “Cloud-Storage” as your main form of data storage meaning that you may have up to 1TB of data (photos, music, documents, emails) on your current device.
Windows 11 Laptops and Desktops are now supplied with much quicker and more reliable, non-mechanical SSD storage (Solid-State-Drive).
However, as the majority of users now store their data in the cloud, so newer devices come with much less storage space (smaller SSD’s) …128GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB SSD
The cheaper end of the market has only 128GB of storage and could be only a fraction of what storage you already have.
Mid range computers have 512GB of storage and high-end or gaming computers up to 1TB of storage
However, the price differential between the 128GB and 1TB devices is huge.
128GB drives will work if you store everything in the cloud and have minimal programs.
Minimum specification for residential devices would be intel i3 processor, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD running Windows 11 Home and 1 Year Warranty ($1,200 – $2,000)
Minimum specification for business devices would be intel i5 processor, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD running Windows 11 Pro and 3 Year Warranty ($1,700 – $2,500)
So with this in mind you would be well advised to “archive” or “backup” your Windows 10 profile (includes all your data, photos and documents) to one of these external-disk-drives and then only copy back the minimum essentials to your new Windows 11 device.
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