How to partition windows 8 to move to SSD?

[Danielle Spargo]

My HDD currently has 1.5 of 1.8TB used up, and I just bought a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD with the hopes of partitioning the section of my computer with my OS, and then cloning it to the SSD, while leaving my media files on the HDD. I understand if I choose to move my games, I will likely have to reinstall them? If I keep my save files, do you think they will load? Or should I leave games with important saves on the HDD? Will that avoid the issue? I know I will likely need a 3rd party program, as I've heard Samsung's migration software is garbage. I'm willing to spend some time on this, and initially I will leave a copy of my OS on the HDD as well until I am certain that I can boot properly from the SSD. I don't know for certain that my PC came with a windows 8 Disk, so I think migration is the best option. Unless perhaps I can install windows 10 on the SSD, and switch my OS? Apparently the XPS 8500 motherboard doesn't support windows 10 though.

Thank you for the help!

 

[USAFRet]

For a migration, you need to get the C drive (or partition) to under 400GB.

Which application? Either Macrium Reflect or the (non-garbage) Samsung Data Migration tool.
(I don't know who told it it was bad, but it isn't)

 

[Danielle Spargo]

Ok, so I can just make a partition, and move my videos/pictures to the other partition, and then I should be able to clone the smaller part easily? Is there a program that's good to use to make and organize my partitions? I only have about 300 gigs of free space left, so I'm assuming I would have to make a 300 gig partition, then move 300gb of movies there, and then expand the partition another 300gb, and repeat? Which program should I use to easily partition my drive and organize the partitions? I know windows already uses a partition as well, which is why my 2TB HDD is only 1.8TB I assume I'll have to move that 200GB piece over as well? That's part of the system, right? Or is it just some extra overhead space used by the actual drive?

Ok, so I've pulled up my disk management, and my partitions are:
500MB EFI Partition (I'm guessing I have to move this, as it's my BIOS, correct?)
40 MB OEM partition (I don't know if it means Dell, or the HDD manufacturer when it says OEM, but 40MB is small so I'll move it)
500MB Recovery Partition (Can I just recover from the HDD? Or will I need to move this part over?)
1849GB Primary partition
350MB Recovery Partition
12.17GB Recovery Partition.

So I'm trying to split primary C into a C and D drive, whose sizes can be altered as I move stuff from the one to the other.

If I move games over from C to my new D partition, they won't work, right? They need to be reinstalled onto the new drive?

 

[USAFRet]

These 4 you need:
500MB EFI Partition (I'm guessing I have to move this, as it's my BIOS, correct?)
40 MB OEM partition (I don't know if it means Dell, or the HDD manufacturer when it says OEM, but 40MB is small so I'll move it)
500MB Recovery Partition (Can I just recover from the HDD? Or will I need to move this part over?)
350MB Recovery Partition

For the main '2TB partition', your current C...you need to reduce that to below 400GB for migrating over to that 500GB SSD.
However...your plan of moving, resizing, moving, resizing...this is a minefield. Anytime you start messing with partition sizes, you run a non-zero risk of it all going bad.

Of your current 2TB drive, how much is actually used by video and pics? A couple of the current migration tools give the functionality to ignore those in the migration process.
Possibly leading to not having to do all that stuff.

But a MUCH safer way would be to buy another drive. Either internal or external. Move your games, video, pics to that drive. Hopefully getting the total used space on the current C to below 400GB.
If they are Steam games, this is no problem.
If they are other, well, then you'd have to reinstall them anyway.

 

[Danielle Spargo]

My videos, pictures, and music together equal 1.1TB, so all I need to do is ignore those. After doing the math, even with all my recovery partitions and whatnot, I'm only using 483GB on my games and my system. If the games are cloned over, will they continue to work? I can delete WoW and get down to 450GB. Probably after deleting League, HotS, SWTOR, and Hearthstone, I'll be down to about 400GB.

Which program would allow me to ignore the music, videos, and pictures when migrating? It sounds like that would be a very good option for me. As for making partitions, does it only go bad if I don't follow the instructions properly? Or does it just sometimes go bad regardless of what a person does? I'm fairly confident I could follow the instructions properly, I've built half of this computer myself, all that remains from the original is the case and motherboard.


So any game that's moved over, I will have to reinstall anyway? What about games that are left behind? Can the programs choose to leave games behind too? I have some steam games, and of course my WoW save data is on their servers, but I'm worried about Dragon Age Inquisition, which is on a platform called Origins. I'm 90 hours into the game, but I still have a ways to go before I beat it, and I definitely don't want to lose my save data.. I'm also half way through Farcry..

 

[USAFRet]

Macrium Reflect, or Samsung Data Migration, allows you to leave off stuff in your Libraries.
Doc, music, video. No, you can't select games (applications) to disregard. Only static files like .jpg/.doc/.mp3, etc.

So, at "483GB", you're almost there.
Games that are cloned over with the OS as part of that C partition? Yes, they will work no problem.

So, you just have to reduce that C by another 85GB or so...

 

[Danielle Spargo]

Awesome, thank you!!! You've been an amazing help! I'm still waiting for my SATA to USB cable to come in the mail, but when it arrives, I think I'll be able to figure this out. Thank you! It's such a relief that I can leave DAI and Farcry alone, and have them work without having to do anything. I was pretty worried about that lol. I'll post again if I need help figuring anything out, but until then, thanks again!

 

[Danielle Spargo]

So the samsung software did turn out to be garbage. I've reduced the size of the drive to 380GB, and it still keeps telling me I need to shrink it further to fit on the 500gb SSD. It told me to delete 70GB at first, and after deleting 100GB, it still wants more. It says 9GB, but I deleted all my save data on all my games except 2, and I'm not deleting them. So I've decided to try the Reflect software, but I just can't find out how to deselect my media files, like I was doing with samsung

Thanks again for the help!