Banging a SSD in - few nooby questions...

spireite_uk · 21 Mar 2014 at 21:31

I have a single drive at the moment with everything on (Windows and storage). It's a 1TB that's practically full, and I really don't want to have to wipe it. It was probably a bit shortsighted of me to set up that way, but there it is!

I'm upgrading to a SSD and plan on sticking Windows + other bits and bobs on it. I guess doing this will create a dual-boot, and I will have to choose the SSD boot every time, is that right? Is there any way around that?

I'll see the main drive OK without having to format it, right? Will everything on my storage drive (Steam etc) be accessible and work OK when booting from a new Windows install?

With moving stuff to the SSD, such as games etc, can I literally just cut/paste the install folder to the SSD and it will run? Or will I need to uninstall/reinstall to the SSD to get all the registry working fine etc?

Thanks fellas

Ian Evey · 22 Mar 2014 at 19:22

It really is difficult to say everything will work fine on the old drive, But i have steam from about 4 years ago on my old drive and all i had to do was reinstall steam in the same place ( folder ) than where the old steam was and all my games where available straight away.

Some things will need reinstalling and some things will work just fine, Mainly games and apps profiles are stored under c:/windows/User/

So after A reinstall of something that did not work before you could always copy and paste that folder to have your save games and profiles etc.

In your bios as long as you make the ssd the primary boot device you dont need to dual boot at all ( unless you want to ) as the now older drive can be the storage drive ( lets call it the D:/ drive ).

wazza300 · 22 Mar 2014 at 19:48

you can do new install on the ssd and set it as first boot device in bios,you can still access the other drive if need be and boot from it

but ideally its best to backup what you need off it and format it use as storage drive

spireite_uk · 23 Mar 2014 at 00:58

Thanks guys, very helpful.

I guess it's just going to be a 'suck it and see' situation. I'll see how I get on with stuff working, and if it's too much of a pain, just format it.

Cheers!

On Holiday · 23 Mar 2014 at 01:00

This is how I'd do it..

1 - Unplug or disable the current HDD in BIOS.
2 - Plug in SSD and install Windows.
3 - Plug in/enable HDD
4 - Delete the HDD boot in msconfig

Voila

I would start re-installing software onto the SSD and use the HDD as storage though.