SSD purchase

nutsnut · 20 Jun 2009 at 12:53

I'm planning on buying either a 64g or 128g SSD drive to use for my OS and a few games and frequently used applications.

I currently have a single 1 TB seasonic drive, that unfortunately I didn't partition when installing my OS, so my data and OS are all on one partition.

MY question is, Can I install my OS on the SSD, or copy the install from my current HD?

What I want to avoid is having to back up my old HDD and do a fresh install.

owenbglos · 20 Jun 2009 at 13:14

u could use acronis to clone the installation it may work depending on what version of windows u are using buddy

nutsnut · 20 Jun 2009 at 14:14

Current on Vista Ultimate 64 bit,

I'm feeling I'll need to do a clean install so already started backing up my steam catalog.

5er driver · 20 Jun 2009 at 18:42

You can, and I would, do a clean install of the OS on the SSD. I dual boot with Vista 64, one boot is on a VelociRaptor, the other boot is on a Vertex 60GB SSD. I want the dual boot capability for a while until I'm convinced of the SSD's stability before I uninstall the OS off the HDD.

nutsnut · 20 Jun 2009 at 20:12

How do you uninstall the OS of the old HDD? Do you mean back up, format, restore files?

5er driver · 21 Jun 2009 at 08:37

You can format the partition of the HDD where the OS resides. If you have other applications and data on that same partition you'll need to back them up and reapply them after formating. There may be an easier way to do this but that's what I would do.

PhilGQ · 21 Jun 2009 at 11:29

Why not just unplug your current drive, Install Windows and your apps on the SSD, then plug in the old drive, check that the bios boots from the SSD and your done. All your files will still be there on the old drives but your system disk will be the SSD.

You could probably then delete the windows/program files directory for the old disk but unless you need the space, just leave them, that way if the SSD goes down you can just change the boot order again in the bios and still get into your old Windows installation.

hawker1986 · 21 Jun 2009 at 11:53

If youve got an external drive then backup all your files and do a clean install of the OS on the SSD, tweak it etc and then format your HDD and move your backed up files back onto it seems the most sensible method to me. A clean install is always worth while IMO and esp when your moving to SSD.

Hawker

nutsnut · 21 Jun 2009 at 12:44

Yeah, I back it up last night, took the sensible option