Adding an SSD to an existing system

[hakoreh]

I currently have an existing 2TB SATA drive running Windows and also has my other video files etc. I just bought an SSD and want to put the OS and program files on the SSD and keep the bigger files such as the media - music movies tv etc on the bigger hard drive. Let's call the 2TB drive my existing drive and the SSD drive the SSD drive to not confuse anyone.

Using Google I see there are a few methods but I narrowed it down to 2.

1) Clone my OS on the current existing drive to the SSD
2) Clean install my OS on the SSD and keep everything on the existing drive

I really don't want to clone the drive for two reasons. I am currently using just under a TB on my existing drive and I have nowhere to put it as in back it up to. Also I am sure I have uninstalled programs, and files and folders have remainded from those installations so my new install wouldn't really be clean, I'd be copying over some garbage and I rather just install from scratch. Thoughts on that?

So should I decide to go with option #2 I wanted to make sure before I start that I have my steps outlined.

1) I would disconnect the existing drive and connect the SSD
2) I would install W7 as usual on the SSD
3) I would reconnect the existing drive
4) In Disk Manager or whatever it's called I would set my SSD as the primary drive
5) I would install all my programs on the SSD
6) I would delete everything but the media files from the existing drive thereby making it a media only drive
7) I think that's it?

 

[ram1009]

I would unplug the old HDD and do a clean install of the OS on the SSD. Then re-plug the old HDD and migrate what you want when you want. Actually, I've done this many times.

 

[daysyang]

don't forget to set bios to ahci and set your boot drive to the ssd.

 

[kajabla]

Feel free to leave programs on the HDD, especially ones that don't really need fast access times. It doesn't have to be media-only. Personally, I've got an old HDD with Windows still installed on it; I boot from it every once in a while for one reason or another. You can run most programs off the HDD (not all; Photoshop doesn't do it, for instance) even when booting from the SSD.

 

[hakoreh]

Best answer selected by hakoreh.