Hard Drive Partitioning Question

[Sterlingr]

Hello all!
I am starting my first build soon. To save money I opted to buy one 1TB drive and am planning to add a 120gb SSD in a year or so.
Now my question is; what is the best way to plan for this? This is the plan I've come up with.

As soon as I install my 1TB drive, partition it into two parts. One 120gb partition and another for the rest. In doing so I would create two "drives" (C: and D: for example) and would organize everything as if the 120 partition (C was a SSD even though these are only really on one drive. Then, whenever I do get an SSD, just copy the 120gb partition over.

Ok now does that make sense ?

Please tell me if that would work or not... and if you have any other idea for planning to make that transition easier.

Thank you!

 

[Math Geek]

you are thinking along the right lines. you can clone the c: to the ssd when you get it and having only what you would want to transfer over on it will make it a simpler process. it won't be as simple as copy and pasting the drive to the new ssd but cloning software is close in practice. there are also system partitions and the boot manager that have to be moved over as well to not lose the boot information.

i always keep my data separate from the c: for many reasons. and i suggest it to others all the time as well if you happen to get a virus or something goes wrong, dropping in a windows disk and starting over is less of an issue when no data is lost. plus many other reasons.

but you have the right idea making 2 partitions to make the move to an ssd easier.

 

[Sterlingr]

you are thinking along the right lines. you can clone the c: to the ssd when you get it and having only what you would want to transfer over on it will make it a simpler process. it won't be as simple as copy and pasting the drive to the new ssd but cloning software is close in practice. there are also system partitions and the boot manager that have to be moved over as well to not lose the boot information.

i always keep my data separate from the c: for many reasons. and i suggest it to others all the time as well if you happen to get a virus or something goes wrong, dropping in a windows disk and starting over is less of an issue when no data is lost. plus many other reasons.

but you have the right idea making 2 partitions to make the move to an ssd easier.

Couldn't I plug in the SSD, then copy the "C:" drive to it, then make the SSD the C: drive and not use any cloning software? Or is that not a thing?

 

[Math Geek]

the problem is you also have to move the system partition that is on the front of the drive. this contains the boot properties. by not moving this partition correctly, the boot manager will not look in the right place for the windows install and it won't boot. i don't believe you can simply move this partition as well but rather have to do it properly to ensure it works. clone software is simple to use and may even come with the ssd. if not, there is free software out there that will do the job easily.

 

[Sterlingr]

the problem is you also have to move the system partition that is on the front of the drive. this contains the boot properties. by not moving this partition correctly, the boot manager will not look in the right place for the windows install and it won't boot. i don't believe you can simply move this partition as well but rather have to do it properly to ensure it works. clone software is simple to use and may even come with the ssd. if not, there is free software out there that will do the job easily.

Cool, and clone software would make it easy to copy the system and the C: partition onto the SSD?

 

[Math Geek]

that it will

when the time comes, make a new thread asking what software to use if none is included with the ssd and i'm sure you will get 100 ways that will all work great.