New SSD, possibly new Windows, so many setup choices?!

[scaramanga182]

Hi all.

Just looking for some general advice as I've just bought a larger SSD and need to work out the best way to setup my PC.

Current setup is 7 pro installed on 60gb SSD with just Windows and core Office/Photoshop type programmes.

1tb hard drive partitioned into 2 with 50% for data and 50% for games/programmes.

And an old 250gb hard drive which is basically a backup of my important docs in case something goes wrong with the primary data partition.

New SSD is 256gb so considerably bigger so I can get all programmes on it and a fair few games.

First question is it worth upgrading to 8? (Especially whilst it's cheap!) If so this pretty much rules out my initial plan of creating a system image and putting that on the new SSD! I have a dual 24" monitor setup so am I able to switch between a double desktop or desktop and Metro layout? The Start screen doesn't bother me as long as I can get to the a duel desktop if needed.

I've seen on another thread that I should just be able to copy and paste my Steam folder from the games HDD onto the SSD, run Steam.exe and everything should work. I'm guessing this won't happen with other games and applications like Office, Photoshop, Fallout 3 etc?

If I do a fresh 8 install will it pickup my My Docs, Pics, Music and libraries that are currently on my data partition or will I have to configure this in Windows. It took me a while to get to grips with this in 7 and I ended up with all sorts of shortcuts to various folders and duplications before I worked out how to do it properly.

Cheers.

 

[Hudzy]

First question is it worth upgrading to 8? (Especially whilst it's cheap!)

I'd say it, while it's as cheap as it is.

I've seen on another thread that I should just be able to copy and paste my Steam folder from the games HDD onto the SSD, run Steam.exe and everything should work. I'm guessing this won't happen with other games and applications like Office, Photoshop, Fallout 3 etc?

I tend to keep the steamapps folder and reinstall Steam, paste the steamapps folder back in. Then everything's freshly installed without the need to redownload a TB of game data.

Most programs will need reinstalling.

If I do a fresh 8 install will it pickup my My Docs, Pics, Music and libraries that are currently on my data partition or will I have to configure this in Windows.

If you're doing a fresh install, then it won't pick up anything like that from another disk. You'll need to recreate any libraries.

Also if you've changed the location of your actual documents, music etc. user folders in Windows to another partition, you can have trouble accessing those folders through the new user in your new system, but I've found removing your account password beforehand solves that.