Question About windows 7 and windows 10

[Thombro911]

I have a couple questions about upgrading to Windows 10. I recently bought a rtx 2080 ti and need windows 10 to run some of the features for games. So, I went ahead and bought an Ssd to clean install windows 10 directly on. Now, my question is do I need to wipe my old hdd that has my windows 7 installed on it or would I be able to install windows 10 on this new drive without facing any issues for boot sequences and whatnot if I configure the bios to address booting from the ssd? I'm mainly confused on what route I should be taking for this situation, I do fine when it comes to hardware but software upgrades always give me anxiety on how to handle them. Should I clean install to the Ssd? Or clone my hdd to the ssd and then upgrade windows 10 there? My main problem is does keeping windows 7 on a separate hard drive put my computer at risks of constantly giving me headaches with errors and crashing? If anyone can help me with this I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Colif]

Do you have a win 10 license now?

If you have a license, ideal situation is fresh install onto SSD without the HDD being in PC (unless you want to dual boot) as otherwise the installer will use the boot partition on the HDD instead of making it own on the SSD

 

[Thombro911]

Do you have a win 10 license now?

If you have a license, ideal situation is fresh install onto SSD without the HDD being in PC (unless you want to dual boot) as otherwise the installer will use the boot partition on the HDD instead of making it own on the SSD

I'll be buying a license today. Now when I do that on the SSD. After the installation that old HDD is still usable, right? Like I can still access files and games that are held on that drive without any headaches or complications after the clean installation? Cause if that's the case I'll just do that. I just don't want there to be complications with the partitions on windows 7 and the windows 10 between the two drives.

Now with dual booting. Can you explain what that entails exactly? Like is there any perks to having that? If I wasn't buying the SSD I wouldn't even have asked any of this and just upgraded the windows on my HDD. Loll. I kinda wanna wrap my head around the options completely before I commit to a specific action.

 

[Colif]

Dual booting... this is helpful if you have old programs that don't work on win 10. GIven about 90% of Win 7 programs work fine on 10, its benefits are sort of based on what you play. Win 7 supports more XP games than 10 would but unless you playing almost 20 year old games now, it may not be very handy.

Personally I would use hdd as a storage drive and just use win 10. You can leave win 7 on hdd for now, just in case you do want to use it

If you decide to dual boot you will want to leave the hdd in when you install win 10 on ssd so that win 10 can add its boot details to one on hdd. (If the hdd ever dies or is removed, the ssd won't boot as its boot partition will be on the hdd)

Win 10 only
If you decide to only use win 10, remove hdd while ssd is installed on, and then put hdd back into pc, and then, once windows boots off ssd, you should go into bios and make sure the hdd isn't added to the boot order. That way PC won't ever accidentally boot into win 7 again.

Files - You shouldn't have problems accessing them. WIll need to take ownership but 1st time you try to access a folder on hdd after the install, Windows will ask if you want to take ownership of the folder and once you click yes, you will have full control.

Games - Are these steam games? Or Ubisoft or Origin? As all games from these libraries can be used again without needing to download them. Games like WOW are the same, just need to create a desktop shortcut and point at launcher. Most other games would need to be reinstalled again, especially microsoft games.

 

[Thombro911]

Dual booting... this is helpful if you have old programs that don't work on win 10. GIven about 90% of Win 7 programs work fine on 10, its benefits are sort of based on what you play. Win 7 supports more XP games than 10 would but unless you playing almost 20 year old games now, it may not be very handy.

Personally I would use hdd as a storage drive and just use win 10. You can leave win 7 on hdd for now, just in case you do want to use it

If you decide to dual boot you will want to leave the hdd in when you install win 10 on ssd so that win 10 can add its boot details to one on hdd. (If the hdd ever dies or is removed, the ssd won't boot as its boot partition will be on the hdd)

Win 10 only
If you decide to only use win 10, remove hdd while ssd is installed on, and then put hdd back into pc, and then, once windows boots off ssd, you should go into bios and make sure the hdd isn't added to the boot order. That way PC won't ever accidentally boot into win 7 again.

Files - You shouldn't have problems accessing them. WIll need to take ownership but 1st time you try to access a folder on hdd after the install, Windows will ask if you want to take ownership of the folder and once you click yes, you will have full control.

Games - Are these steam games? Or Ubisoft or Origin? As all games from these libraries can be used again without needing to download them. Games like WOW are the same, just need to create a desktop shortcut and point at launcher. Most other games would need to be reinstalled again, especially microsoft games.

Thanks for the detailed reply, man. I really appreciate that. I'm gonna end up doing the clean install to the SSD and take the windows 7 drive out of the boot sequence and if I run into any headaches trying to run a game I can just switch out the boot sequence I'm assuming instead of having to redownload games that should work. Most of them are from Steam, Uplay and Origin but I do have some simply installed through Gog and whatnot. Is there any specific reason that games simply installed to the hard drives wouldn't load after a windows upgrade? Seems kinda weird considering games don't have different window versions when you go to download and install them. Loll.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the detailed reply, man. I really appreciate that. I'm gonna end up doing the clean install to the SSD and take the windows 7 drive out of the boot sequence and if I run into any headaches trying to run a game I can just switch out the boot sequence I'm assuming instead of having to redownload games that should work. Most of them are from Steam, Uplay and Origin but I do have some simply installed through Gog and whatnot. Is there any specific reason that games simply installed to the hard drives wouldn't load after a windows upgrade? Seems kinda weird considering games don't have different window versions when you go to download and install them. Loll.

If you do a clean install on a new drive, the new OS knows nothing about any applications or games installed in the old drive and OS.

Steam games can (usually) work, probably Origin as well.
Any other applications or games will need to be reinstalled.

 

[Thombro911]

If you do a clean install on a new drive, the new OS knows nothing about any applications or games installed in the old drive and OS.

Steam games can (usually) work, probably Origin as well.
Any other applications or games will need to be reinstalled.

Damn, that's horrible news for me man. Loll. I was hoping after the clean install to just be able to just replug the old one back in and boot up games whenever I was in the mood after the installation was done. So based on that my other two hard drives with games already installed on them will not run those games either with the windows 10 clean install ssd?

 

[USAFRet]

When a game or application is installed, it makes dozens, sometimes thousands, or entries in the Registry and elsewhere.
Some few applications will work, but most will not.

The new OS knows nothing about them.

You can try them, but you'll have to dig around for the actual "exe". It will NOT simply be your previous shortcut.
And don't be surprised if most or all of them simply do not work.

For Steam games, you just have to tell your new Steam client (yes, you install a new Steam client) where these old games live.
Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

 

[Thombro911]

When a game or application is installed, it makes dozens, sometimes thousands, or entries in the Registry and elsewhere.
Some few applications will work, but most will not.

The new OS knows nothing about them.

You can try them, but you'll have to dig around for the actual "exe". It will NOT simply be your previous shortcut.
And don't be surprised if most or all of them simply do not work.

For Steam games, you just have to tell your new Steam client (yes, you install a new Steam client) where these old games live.
Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

I was guessing it was related to the registry linking to the game's general layout programming. So if I were to simply upgrade my existing windows 7 to windows 10. Would all games on my 3 hard drives run since I imagine the registry would still be available if I keep all files and programs during the install. Because if thats the case I may have to simply upgrade to windows 10 on my original hard drive and clone/move windows 10 partition to the SSD while I copy the original files to another source location til that's done. It sounds like a lot more work but I have no joke about 5 terabytes of games and other applications that I don't feel like reinstalling because of the clean installation. Loll. I appreciate the help and details so I don't just blindly do something that I would end up regretting when none of my games over the last 10 years worked anymore. Loll.

 

[USAFRet]

I was guessing it was related to the registry linking to the game's general layout programming. So if I were to simply upgrade my existing windows 7 to windows 10. Would all games on my 3 hard drives run since I imagine the registry would still be available if I keep all files and programs during the install. Because if thats the case I may have to simply upgrade to windows 10 on my original hard drive and clone/move windows 10 partition to the SSD while I copy the original files to another source location til that's done. It sounds like a lot more work but I have no joke about 5 terabytes of games and other applications that I don't feel like reinstalling because of the clean installation. Loll. I appreciate the help and details so I don't just blindly do something that I would end up regretting when none of my games over the last 10 years worked anymore. Loll.

An inplace upgrade from Win 7 to 10 will probably work.
Probably. Do a full C drive backup, just in case.

But you can't do an upgrade and change drives in the same operation.
One at a time.

Either migrate to the new drive then upgrade the OS
or
Upgrade the OS then migrate to the new drive.

 

[ElectrO_90]

How big is your new SSD and your old Win7 drive?
You could always CLONE it, then do a windows 7 update to 10.
This also means you have a complete backup (original hdd) if things go wrong.

 

[geofelt]

If your new ssd is a Samsung ssd and can hold the contents of your current hdd, you can use the Samsung ssd migration aid to move your "c drive.
Here is a link to the software and instructions.

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

Remove your old HDD which is untouched and see if you can't simply upgrade windows 7 to 10.

 

[USAFRet]

What size is the new proposed SSD, and how much space is currently consumed on your C drive?

 

[Thombro911]

What size is the new proposed SSD, and how much space is currently consumed on your C drive?

I just bought the Samsung 860 EVO 1TB and my old HDD is a TB size with 700 gigabytes used up. So I think my plan of attack is to clone the entire HDD to the SSD then upgrade to windows 10 with just the SSD connected just in case anything goes wrong with the install on the SSD I can just wipe that drive and start again. After installing I can run it from there for a couple hours to make sure everything is working correctly and after that is confirmed possibly remove the old content off the old HDD. But in all seriousness I may not even remove the old content off the old HDD cause I also picked up a 3Tb HDD so storage wouldn't be a main problem for me at the moment. I'm just a horrible data hoarder. Loll.

 

[Thombro911]

If your new ssd is a Samsung ssd and can hold the contents of your current hdd, you can use the Samsung ssd migration aid to move your "c drive.
Here is a link to the software and instructions.

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

Remove your old HDD which is untouched and see if you can't simply upgrade windows 7 to 10.

I didn't even know that Samsung released a data migration tool. I picked up a Samsung 860 EVO. So, thanks for that I was originally going to use AOMEI Backupper for the process but I like the idea of using Samsung's released tool for their SSD.

 

[Thombro911]

How big is your new SSD and your old Win7 drive?
You could always CLONE it, then do a windows 7 update to 10.
This also means you have a complete backup (original hdd) if things go wrong.

I like that plan of attack on this. I originally was thinking of the clean install but I think using my old HDD as my back up drive for Windows 7 is a nice resource to have for sure cause every website talking about transferring to SSD were from 2015-2016 where HDD were generally just bigger than SSD cause of price points so they were all saying backup the files on an external and shrink down but I can skip that part entirely.

 

[USAFRet]

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Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
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