Samsung evo850 OS clone

DJ85 · 14 Dec 2017 at 01:06

so I have a 1tb firecuda ssd Drive which holds my OS and everything else on my PC. I have ordered a Samsung evo850 250gb to load my OS on to.
Just waiting for it to arrive but I have read mixed comments about to being hard to only clone windows across. Especially if the hard drive is bigger than the one you are cloning to.
Anyone had any issues or ways around this are welcome?
I don’t mind clearing my 1tb HDD if that’s any help

Any suggestions?

bremen1874 · 14 Dec 2017 at 01:21

It isn't the size of the drives that matters, its the amount of data.

Did you split the existing drive into multiple partitions?

How much data is on each partition?

Minstadave · 14 Dec 2017 at 02:00

As above you need to shrink the OS partition so it’s smaller than the new SSD. You can do this in Windows built in disc manager tool but it’s not perfect and I’ve found it not able to shrink the partition enough. There are other third party tools that can do it online.

DJ85 · 14 Dec 2017 at 10:52

Unfortunately it hasn’t been partitioned,
Would it be better just to fresh start due to this?

bremen1874 · 14 Dec 2017 at 10:58

I probably would.

Could you free enough space on the existing drive to make a clone possible?

DJ85 · 14 Dec 2017 at 11:08

I have windows, and then about 800gb of steam games so I could easily just start a fresh would mean I get to clear out my game list as well. Just trying to find the easiest solution

bremen1874 · 14 Dec 2017 at 12:29

I guess you'd need to reinstall the games whatever you do?

DJ85 · 14 Dec 2017 at 12:36

Ok thanks I think I will just start a fresh then,
Is it recommended to partition my windows ssd if it’s only going to be used for storing my OS

bremen1874 · 14 Dec 2017 at 12:37

Not on a drive that small.

something daft already!! · 14 Dec 2017 at 12:42

I would do a clean install of Windows on the SSD and leave the HDD as it is. Make sure the SSD is the primary drive. You then have a backup OS should you need it on the HDD. Install steam but tell it to install to your existing install location on the HDD and it should stop you having to download all your games again. Then just move you user folder from the HDD to the SSD but maybe leave or map some folders to the HDD, such as pictures or video media.

That's what I do.

DJ85 · 14 Dec 2017 at 12:43

Ok thank you! Something to get cracking with

DJ85 · 14 Dec 2017 at 12:46

something daft already!! said:
I would do a clean install of Windows on the SSD and leave the HDD as it is. Make sure the SSD is the primary drive. You then have a backup OS should you need it on the HDD. Install steam but tell it to install to your existing install location on the HDD and it should stop you having to download all your games again. Then just move you user folder from the HDD to the SSD but maybe leave or map some folders to the HDD, such as pictures or video media.

That's what I do.

Thank you that might b a good idea to do that as there is about 800gb of games I’d have to download again