HDD to SSD

Zac Perry

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Aug 29, 2014
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I recently bought an ssd, and want to move windows to it. I know its possible to clone the drive, but that will not be ideal as I have a 1tb hdd and a 240gb ssd. If I install windows fresh on the ssd, can I make it use my users folder and program files from another hard drive? That way I would not have to move anything. I open to other suggestions as well. Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
Hey there Zac.

Unfortunately - no. If you make a fresh install you'd have to reinstall all the programs and app, because it would definitely lead to conflicts with some of them. Same goes for the User's Folders. Along with the new OS installation you'll have new ones and basically the ones on the HDD will have nothing to do with the fresh install. It's also recommended that you backup all of your personal files (photos, videos, documents, etc.) and reformat the secondary drive (the HDD) so that there's no trace left of the old Windows and it's system and boot partitions.

If your Windows is on a separate partition, you can try cloning the drive. You could do that even if it's not installed on a separate partition, but you'd have to...
Hey there Zac.

Unfortunately - no. If you make a fresh install you'd have to reinstall all the programs and app, because it would definitely lead to conflicts with some of them. Same goes for the User's Folders. Along with the new OS installation you'll have new ones and basically the ones on the HDD will have nothing to do with the fresh install. It's also recommended that you backup all of your personal files (photos, videos, documents, etc.) and reformat the secondary drive (the HDD) so that there's no trace left of the old Windows and it's system and boot partitions.

If your Windows is on a separate partition, you can try cloning the drive. You could do that even if it's not installed on a separate partition, but you'd have to slim down the HDD a lot in order for this to happens. Check out this tutorial: http://lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid-state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD
 
Solution