[SOLVED] How do I install my new SSD?

[Anas03]

Right, so I currently have a 1TB HDD and I have been using it for over 5 years. It has my life's work on it and my father's too., and steam games of course.

Of course, since we have been using it for 5 years, the bootup time is soo slow. It takes around 5 minutes to load up our account.

I want to buy a 240gb SSD just for the sake of having a faster bootup time and downloading games quicker. I do not, and I mean do not want to delete anything from my HDD. The only thing I am willing to copy to the SSD is the games. Nothing else. So when I install my SSD, how do I get windows on it? Or is it already on it? And will my files still be on the desktop or will it be in the HDD drive which I can access through file explorer? Also, if I do have an SSD as the main, if I try to open any of the work files on the HDD will it be incompatible because of the SSD being the main or can it still open normal? And last question, if I want to see my files on the desktop from my HDD, id just have to switch it back to primary in bios right?

 

[SamirD]

...if it's real important, burn it on DVD.

This only works if you use quality media and store it properly. Cheap media deteriorates quickly. MAM-A archive is what you want.

 

[USAFRet]

if it's real important, burn it on DVD.

DVD? Not unless you buy expensive archive media.

I have a stack of burned DVD that are between 5 and 10 years old.
Going through them, I get about 50% success rate in reading. Commodity DVD is NOT the way to safeguard your data.

 

[SamirD]

I didn't read all replies but I've always used Aomei Partition Assistant Standard edition to clone. That would require the that the 2 partitions on both drives are the same size. So if you have a 1 TB partition ( C: ), the new SSD needs to be at least the same size. Which is why I partition to smaller sizes nowadays. Warning: You can't partition a drive without loosing all data on it so don't even think about that for your current 1 Tbyte.

Always have backups. Relying on 1 drive for all your data is bad. What happens when it dies, or master boot record (MBR) gets corrupt? You loose it all. Put data on 2-3 different drives, if it's real important, burn it on DVD.

Neat program, but this is yet another program that you have to install, so you may end up causing issues if you're already dealing with a drive that you don't need to be touching (ie, emergency backup, etc.).

 

[USAFRet]

Neat program, but this is yet another program that you have to install, so you may end up causing issues if you're already dealing with a drive that you don't need to be touching (ie, emergency backup, etc.).

Backups, and prep thereof, are to be done before the BadThing happens.
If you wait until the drive has issues to start to figure it out, you've waited too long.

 

[SamirD]

Backups, and prep thereof, are to be done before the BadThing happens.
If you wait until the drive has issues to start to figure it out, you've waited too long.

Yep! And yet we see it every day...lol...