How to keep data when upgrading to an SSD?

[georgeharrison99]

Sometime soon, I hope to add an SSD to my system (I probably should've done that originally, but oh well), as well as a new GPU. At the moment, I am using a WD Blue to store absolutely everything, however when I add the SSD with a fresh install of WIndows 10, I only plan to use it as storage for games, pictures, etc.
I was wondering if there would be any harm in simply reconnecting the hard drive after I have everything set up with the SSD - can I just continue using it to store things as before, or do I have to wipe the drive, reconfigure it as a secondary drive and then redownload all my games, etc? Will games still work even though steam will be installed on the SSD, and games on the HDD? Will the change of GPU cause any issues?

Thank you for helping

 

[Barty1884]

No issues with just attaching it as storage.

You would benefit from a bit of additional space by backing up the things you need and formatting the drive - your programs & OS GB's would then be available for storage.

I'd recommend mapping your folders (documents, music etc) to the storage drive, which will be nice & easy since your drive already has the folder structure.

 

[boosted1g]

First of all, completely defeating the point of an SSD if you are going to have all of your programs run from a hdd instead of the SSD.

Secondly of all, No you can not run your programs/games already installed on the HDD from the SSD.
When you installed the program it put registry keys and system/user files on the windows installation (currently on your HDD). since these files/registry keys are not on your running OS (on the SSD drive) it will not work.


Here is my advice.
Best option would be do a complete fresh install of windows and all programs/games onto SSD
Next option would be to clone all data (its all or nothing) from HDD to SSD drive. Then you can format the OS on the hard drive and start using it for storage. You can also set your documents/pictures/music libraries to point to a folder on the HDD and not the SSD if you need the space on the SSD.

 

[Barty1884]

I missed the bit about using programs already installed on the HDD. boosted1g is correct, those would need to be reinstalled (your more common programs would benefit from being installed on the SSD for faster load times, but seldom used can be installed to the HDD).

Not 100% sure of the working of steam, but any games I have installed on my SSD, I can point to the save files and my HDD.