How to move os to a ssd but leaving games and files on my harddrive

[Trillx5]

Hi, i just bought a amd r3 ssd. Its coming today. But as of right now im using a 1 terabyte hdd that has my games and files, music, apps. I was wondering if there is a way to move the os from the hdd to the sdd and delete the windows os stuff on the hdd, but leaving all my other stuff intact. Is there a way to do that?

Or installing windows fresh to the ssd, but i still need to get rid of the os on the hdd.

I really need to keep those files. I have a 500 gb harddrive, but its filled with other games. Redownloading games is a pain.

I'm using windows 10 btw.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Are your games & apps actually installed on the Windows partition?

 

[little_me]

My suggestion:
Remove all current hard disks.
install SSD
install windows on SSD
plug in old hard disks
apply delete button on contents of old hard disks as you need/want

You might have to tell games/steam where the games are though since drive letters will most likely be different.

 

[Trillx5]

What do you mean by the same partition. I have a1tb that's in my computer, it's the only drive in my computer, the games and files are on the same drive

 

[Trillx5]

Little_me , I read that some files are linked to registry and stuff so if you do that, alot of stuff gets messed up because your creating a new registry. Is that true? Or not sure

 

[little_me]

Since the SSD is smaller (most likely, 1TB SSD's are still costly) than the hard disk, you can't create one to one copy of HDD contents on SSD. (this would avoid all the problems)
A lot of games and programs/apps write stuff to registry and/or c:\programdata and/or user profile. This means that if you reinstall windows, you need to reinstall said games/programs also for them to work.
I think 99% or more of steam games work just fine by copying though, as long as steam is told where said game is. If it doesn't work right away, restarting steam and verifying local game cache will fix things pretty well.
(Steam, settings, downloads, steam library folders)

 

[Trillx5]

ok, ill just install windows on the ssd and wipe the harddrive and reinstall everything. I HAVE 1 HUGE QUESTION. Is there anything I need to do before installing windows 10 on the ssd? Do I have to change some drive format or achd or whatever, I know trim is enabled on windows 10? what do I need to do before I use the ssd?

 

[little_me]

Only thing to bear in mind when installing windows 10 is.. license.
If you had windows 10 on your computer before this, you are fine. If not, you would need working windows 7/8 license to enter on installation.
If you have misplaced it, running https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ might help you.

As I noted, only things I would look for is:
-Make sure AHCI mode is enabled in bios. (It most likely is by default)
-Disconnect other hard disks to avoid accidentally formatting them/such when installing windows 10.
-Windows 10 installer can use straight out of box SSD just fine and create it's own partitions as needed, nothing special needed.
-Downloading drivers to separate USB stick beforehand will most likely help you set drivers up to date straight away:
motherboard/chipset
networkcard
soundcard
display driver
Antivirus/firewall of your choice.

Lacking extra USB stick, next best choice would be to store them on the old hard disk, allowing you to run them from it right after installing windows 10 and connecting the hard disk.