How to safely move primary SSD to secondary SSD?

[kisara]

Hi everybody,

I am getting a new SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 256GB SATA III SSD and would like to use it as my boot drive, replacing my current ADATA Premier SP550 480GB 2.5” SATA 3 drive which I would like to use as secondary storage for storing Steam games.

I am wondering how to do this safely? I remember back in the day, it would be putting the primary drive at the end of the IDE cable, then formatting and installing OS making sure to keep only one drive in the system to avoid confusion, then shut off computer and put the secondary drive in the middle of the IDE cable making sure to set the jumpers to slave instead of master.

Also, in the 256GB primary drive I would like to store Windows 10 OS, Chrome, antivirus, mkv codec, Diablo III + Reaper of Souls expansion, Steam client (and the games would install in the 480GB drive). Would the 256GB be enough for all of these?

 

[slingsrat]

Are you doing a fresh OS install? If so then your method is fine although there is no master/slave with SATA, just have your new drive present when you install windows. Put the old drive back in afterwards but make sure your new drive is higher in the boot priority list. Then you can copy any files over you need then wipe the old drive. 256GB will be enough for the things you want. Put the steam client on the old drive though it doesn't make sense to have it separate to the games themselves.

 

[kisara]

Thanks for the response. So how do I wipe the old drive afterwards? Just right click and format? If so, which options should I choose? I will be using Windows 10.

 

[slingsrat]

Thanks for the response. So how do I wipe the old drive afterwards? Just right click and format? If so, which options should I choose? I will be using Windows 10.

Just go into Disk Management and format it. Choose whatever options suit you. Probably just the default settings will be fine.

 

[kisara]

Just go into Disk Management and format it. Choose whatever options suit you. Probably just the default settings will be fine.

Thanks! I never used Disk Management before! Will try it out to format the secondary drive once it's in there.