Keeping programs after installing a new drive

Code13 · 12 Jan 2011 at 13:59

Hi folks. I just bought a nice new SSD for my Desktop. I'm going to install my OS to it, but I was wondering something. Will I have to re-install all my programs for them to work?

I will keep my old HDD connected, but it will boot from the new SSD.

My question is how do I access and run the programs and games on my old drive as normal?

I've never had a computer with more than one drive so this is new to me.

Thanks for your help.

UnworthyBean · 12 Jan 2011 at 14:10

Most games and apps these days wont run properly if you move them over to a new drive, So its best to just reinstall them.

Code13 · 12 Jan 2011 at 14:16

UnworthyBean said:
Most games and apps these days wont run properly if you move them over to a new drive, So its best to just reinstall them.

This is going to take forever isn't it...

Well thanks. So if I re-install them onto the old drive will they show up in the "Start" menu, or will that only work on programs installed on the "C:" drive (the SSD)?

Ziggy4 · 12 Jan 2011 at 14:50

You could always clone the old drive onto the SSD. Makes sense to have your programs on SSD anyway so that they benefit from the perfomance gain and keep your old drive installed as a storage / backup drive or for games.

Code13 · 12 Jan 2011 at 15:23

Ziggy4 said:
You could always clone the old drive onto the SSD. Makes sense to have your programs on SSD anyway so that they benefit from the perfomance gain and keep your old drive installed as a storage / backup drive or for games.

I'd actually see more point in putting my games on the SSD as they are likely to see better performance.

The SSD isn't that big (60Gb) and about 20 will be taken up by the OS. I'd rather just have select programs on the SSD. To be honest I probably have programs that I never use on my old drive.

.Ox. · 12 Jan 2011 at 15:24

Code13 said:
This is going to take forever isn't it...

Well for a start you will be installing the programs onto an SSD so that shouldn't take as long right?

It will be worth the wait

Ziggy4 · 13 Jan 2011 at 00:27

I'd actually see more point in putting my games on the SSD as they are likely to see better performance.

If you'll have the capacity to spare then sure by all means but don't get your hopes up that games will run significantly better on SSD. It just isn't the case. My own games reside on an second SSD but only because it's a (relatively) large capacity drive. I can't discern any improvement on load times compared to running them off a VelociRaptor previously, and in-game performance is not affected at all. On the other hand applications that are normally sluggish on HDD such as Photoshop absolutely fly on SSD.