I'm thinking about getting an SSD for my PC. I want to move windows onto that and maybe some of the games that I play more often there and keep everything else on my other HD. Is it easier or possible to just install windows again on the SSD and just have it boot up from that drive? Would there be problems with having windows on two different drives on the same PC? Should I delete windows from the old drive? how easy is that to do?
Basically any tips you guys have in letting me know how to switch my PC over to my SSD as easy and painless as possible without losing anything would be a great help. Thanks.
Moving to an SSD
Not really.Stranger wrote:So any files that are on my original drive will still work as normal even though they are stored in the Windows folders on another HD? for example, I wanna play Borderlands 2 and its still on my old HD, will that still boot up and play as normal?
Unless it is installed through Steam. You would have to install the client new, and then either tell it where to point for your games, or reinstall the game (I cant remember, but I did this once).
How much data (GB) is on your current HD? What size SSD are you looking to move to?
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I have reinstalled BL on fresh Windows loads, and my characters and waypoints and stuff were still there and unlocked, no special backups needed. Must be a Steam thing.TheCatt wrote:Not really.Stranger wrote:So any files that are on my original drive will still work as normal even though they are stored in the Windows folders on another HD? for example, I wanna play Borderlands 2 and its still on my old HD, will that still boot up and play as normal?
Unless it is installed through Steam. You would have to install the client new, and then either tell it where to point for your games, or reinstall the game (I cant remember, but I did this once).
How much data (GB) is on your current HD? What size SSD are you looking to move to?
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Keep the 1TB for your music and gay porn collection and stuff.Stranger wrote:current HD is 1TB, and wasn't sure about the SSD size possibly the 128GB, but if I have to install a bunch of other stuff on it like Steam etc.. then I'd probably go with a 256GB.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Right, but you had to reinstall it to make it work, it won't just work by being there on the original drive. Steam does cloud backups of savegames.GORDON wrote:I have reinstalled BL on fresh Windows loads, and my characters and waypoints and stuff were still there and unlocked, no special backups needed. Must be a Steam thing.
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then I'd probably go with a 256GB.
I got twin 240 giggers, one specifically for Steam and games, another for everything else*. I was vaguely considering getting a 512er for Steam but then my cheapness overruled the techie in me. Waiting for another price drop.
* except static info like images and audio, they're stored on a 3TB HDD.
So any files that are on my original drive will still work as normal even though they are stored in the Windows folders on another HD? for example, I wanna play Borderlands 2 and its still on my old HD, will that still boot up and play as normal?
The windows system files, probably not. Any Steam-installed games will have no trouble making the transition. When I went from laptop to desktop, all my BL2 achievements were still there. Saved game info will still live on the old drive. I can't see any reason why moving the save info wouldn't work (most saves are just files of some sort), but it's theoretically possible some incredibly stupid game dev has some jenga code that disallows such an action.
Provided you don't format your old drive, all the info you need will still be present if you run Winblows from a new SSD.
Edited By Malcolm on 1420582528
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K. I've got a Samsung 840 256GB SSD lying around that I was looking to get rid of.Stranger wrote:current HD is 1TB, and wasn't sure about the SSD size possibly the 128GB, but if I have to install a bunch of other stuff on it like Steam etc.. then I'd probably go with a 256GB.
If you are interested, I would sell at a reasonable discount. Not sure what that is at the moment. They seem to be going for $80 to 90 on eBay, used. Would you be interested at $60?
Yes, you will need to have Windows installed on it. I recommend having Steam and some other apps installed on it as well, but that is optional.
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This is almost exactly what I did. C drive is the new default for everything, D drive has the old Windows as well as my Steam install (which has gotten huge). All advice above covers almost everything I experienced.
You will need to "reinstall" any games that are not through Steam so that they can do their registry stuff in the new Windows, but if you install to the same location it will probably be A) fast and B) not overwrite saves and stuff. For most games. Those programmed competently, anyway.
EDIT: Oh, almost forgot one thing not yet mentioned. You'll probably just want to copy over your entire AppData folder from the old Windows user directory to the new one. Maybe go in and delete anything you know you won't need anymore in the future to save space, but that way you'll get all your save games and settings for almost all the modern software as they usually end up in there.
Edited By TPRJones on 1420582944
You will need to "reinstall" any games that are not through Steam so that they can do their registry stuff in the new Windows, but if you install to the same location it will probably be A) fast and B) not overwrite saves and stuff. For most games. Those programmed competently, anyway.
EDIT: Oh, almost forgot one thing not yet mentioned. You'll probably just want to copy over your entire AppData folder from the old Windows user directory to the new one. Maybe go in and delete anything you know you won't need anymore in the future to save space, but that way you'll get all your save games and settings for almost all the modern software as they usually end up in there.
Edited By TPRJones on 1420582944
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
If you are interested, I would sell at a reasonable discount. Not sure what that is at the moment. They seem to be going for $80 to 90 on eBay, used. Would you be interested at $60?
Yes, I would definitely be interested in that! I'm in no big hurry but you can count me in for buying one of those. thanks!
It sounds pretty easy reading what all of you have said, but I'm sure I'll run into some problems. Like how about Photoshop? would I need to have that installed on the SSD to run and edit photos? Same goes for any music recording software I have? one is Magix music maker, it is a Steam game technically.
And how about non Steam games? LOL and MechWarrior? can I just drag and drop them into the SSD in the same folder they are kept in on the old Windows or should I just redownload those?
I'm a freak when it comes to keeping things uncluttered on my PC. I don't like the thought of having games saved in two different places and just the thought of having windows installed on two HD's is already driving me crazy just thinking about it. I won't need that there taking up space!
WORLD CHAMPIONS!!
Stranger wrote:Yes, I would definitely be interested in that! I'm in no big hurry but you can count me in for buying one of those. thanks!
Yes, I would definitely be interested in that! I'm in no big hurry but you can count me in for buying one of those. thanks!
Just let me know. Right now it's rotting in a drawer.
I would re-install. In general, most programs on Windows are not just copy/paste (but some are). They do Windows registry settings and profile changes that will not be included in a clean install.
And how about non Steam games? LOL and MechWarrior? can I just drag and drop them into the SSD in the same folder they are kept in on the old Windows or should I just redownload those?
It sounds pretty easy reading what all of you have said, but I'm sure I'll run into some problems. Like how about Photoshop? would I need to have that installed on the SSD to run and edit photos? Same goes for any music recording software I have? one is Magix music maker, it is a Steam game technically.
The ideal way to do this is to clone the drive. But, that only works if your old stuff would fit on the new drive. So if you have <250GB of stuff, you can just clone and boot off the SSD, and everything will be exactly like you left it.
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Cloning is good. If you don't want to go that route, once you get your ApData folder onto the new C drive I'd say try running your old software from where it sits. Some of it will work fine just like that; make some shortcuts and call it done. Others will get confused because they need some registry stuff installed; for those you can install back into the same place on D or install into the new C whichever you prefer. There will probably be few problems.
Remember if things get out of hand you can always boot from the old drive again as long as you haven't dumped the Windows system off of it, so everything is reversible until you decide to make it not.
Edited By TPRJones on 1420591529
Remember if things get out of hand you can always boot from the old drive again as long as you haven't dumped the Windows system off of it, so everything is reversible until you decide to make it not.
Edited By TPRJones on 1420591529
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
Unplug your old hard drive, plug in the new SSD and reload windows. Do all updates. Reinstall all your apps. Then plug in the old hard dive, but make sure your SSD is the primary boot drive. Then copy all the stuff from the old drive you want to keep. Things like save files, pictures, music, etc. NOT entire games or apps. Those should have been reinstalled. Once you have everything copied/moved from the old drive, reformat it. I suggest two 500GB partitions. Install non-critical apps/stuff to one partition, use the second for storage of static files. Pictures, music, videos, etc. Stuff you just want to keep forever.
Then, when you want to reinstall again later (cause Windows just needs that), all your static stuff is already not on your main drive. Copy stuff from your main drive to the 'static' partition for back up, reformat the SSD, reinstall, etc. I call my 'static' partition "Storage". Because that's what it is. Long term storage of stuff I always want to have. It gets backed up, etc. So when I reinstall Windows, I just reformat my boot partition, reinstall fresh and all the stuff I wanted to keep is still on the "Storage" partition.
You never want to reinstall windows on top of itself or reuse old installs. Go fresh. Windows needs to be cleaned out every once in a while. Every program makes registry changes/additions, but never cleans up after itself. Temp files in the System directory, etc. Shit just piles up and up and up. A fresh install cleans all that up.
Fresh install on new drive (of Windows AND apps/games). Back up important stuff from old drive. Reformat old drive into two partitions. Profit.
Then, when you want to reinstall again later (cause Windows just needs that), all your static stuff is already not on your main drive. Copy stuff from your main drive to the 'static' partition for back up, reformat the SSD, reinstall, etc. I call my 'static' partition "Storage". Because that's what it is. Long term storage of stuff I always want to have. It gets backed up, etc. So when I reinstall Windows, I just reformat my boot partition, reinstall fresh and all the stuff I wanted to keep is still on the "Storage" partition.
You never want to reinstall windows on top of itself or reuse old installs. Go fresh. Windows needs to be cleaned out every once in a while. Every program makes registry changes/additions, but never cleans up after itself. Temp files in the System directory, etc. Shit just piles up and up and up. A fresh install cleans all that up.
Fresh install on new drive (of Windows AND apps/games). Back up important stuff from old drive. Reformat old drive into two partitions. Profit.
You never want to reinstall windows on top of itself or reuse old installs. Go fresh. Windows needs to be cleaned out every once in a while. Every program makes registry changes/additions, but never cleans up after itself. Temp files in the System directory, etc. Shit just piles up and up and up. A fresh install cleans all that up.
Yep. Copy-paste what you can, but you'll eventually want that old windows directory off the old drive. Reformat it specifically as storage space with no boot or system sectors.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."