I am going to get an SSD. Are my steps correct?

Vermillion_1

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Aug 2, 2017
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Okay, I am going to tell you my steps on what I am going to do to install my SSD. Please correct them.

P.S I don't care if the OS is on my HDD too.

1. Plug SSD into motherboard and power supply.

2. Turn on PC, go to disk management, and initialize the SSD.

3. Turn off my PC, and unplug all drives instead of the SSD

4. Plug the windows 10 media installer into PC and install windows on SSD.

5. After a while, shut down PC and plug in the other drives.

6. Go to the BIOS and make sure the SSD is at the first boot.

Are my steps correct? Please let me know.
 
Solution


Whatever the status of data on other drives, it is strongly recommended you install the OS with only the one drive connected.

You can wipe the other one later.

Trust...


Well, you should care. I've seen quite a few instances of members have unexplained problems, difficulties and conflicts, even when they've deleted the C:/ partition the OS was installed on, because they did not also remove the EFI or MBR partition from the previous installation. I've even actually seen systems that were running off the OS directory on one drive, but using the EFI or MBR from another drive that never had it removed, which created no end of troubles trying to figure out why they were having various and miscellaneous problems which turned out to be exactly because the boot partition was never actually recreated for the new drive.

Some weird problems that I'd have to really dig through my post history to find, but I can assure you that you don't need the problems that could happen.

Now I'm not saying this will always cause issues, but depending on the hardware and OS it CAN. Old MBR and EFI partitions that are left on secondary drives can confuse the hell out of the bios/system in some cases. Better to simply avoid the possibility at all by completely removing ALL partitions on that drive before reinstalling it in the system as a secondary drive.

 
Well, when somebody has a fairly recent installation that is working right and is not changing other hardware at the same time, with the drive being the only hardware change, then I don't think I'd bother with a clean install and would just clone the OS to the new drive. Problems really only pop up when changing major hardware different chipset or entirely new system, or if the installation has been around for a good amount of time. Especially now that Windows spits out major updates more like full OS upgrades twice a year.

For small changes, like a new OS drive, Macrium Reflect does a perfectly fine job of cloning to the new drive so long as you remember to include the boot partition as well. And never wipe or otherwise modify the old OS drive until you are absolutely certain that everything is fine with the new configuration on the new drive, no matter which way you do it.
 


Thanks, but I am keeping my HDD. It is going to be my secondary drive.
 


Thanks, but I have too much info on my HDD, it won't fit in the SSD. If I have problems, then I will completely wipe the HDD.
 


Thanks.
 
Cloning/migration can work, if you do it correctly.
A clean install on the new SSD is best, though.

But do NOT leave a viable bootable OS on the old HDD.

Specific issue that took 3 days to figure out, last year here:

Person boots up his PC
What the...."Looks exactly like it did 6 months ago"
Same old desktop, all my recent stuff is gone, gone, gone...
Immediate panic mode.
Virus? Windows Update screwing with things?

No.
It was simply a bad SATA cable.
New OS on the new SSD, and he left the old drive with its bootable OS in there.
Power up, and the system fails to see the normal drive, the SSD, due to the bad cable.
So it drops down to the next level in the chain.
The old HDD.
It doesn't tell you, it just does it.

Much confusion ensued. As said, it took us 3 days to figure out what the issue was.
And I've seen a couple of other similar problems.

Move your personal data off that secondary drive, wipe it, and then move whatever data back to it.
 


Good idea. I have a lot of very important data and I have nowhere to keep it. If the problem you stated happens, I will buy a backup drive and wipe the HDD.

Thank you.
 


You need a backup anyway.
Backups are what you do before a problem appears.
 
Because if you don't, you end up with a situation like this, which was one of my clients. This is taken directly from a recent discussion in which I posted it, slightly modified to remove any restricted wording. I will however say that the drive manufacturer in question is off my list for obvious reasons but I fully understand that everybody isn't going to agree or even understand that.


So, I've got a client, who is also a friend, more friend than client but he owns a private investigation firm and recently he learned the hard way even though I had been telling him for YEARS that he needs to either have a server with redundant backups or keep multiple copies on multiple drives of all important files, that USAFRet's signature is altogether too real and likely to happen. Because it did.

His drive was under warranty and he sent it in to Seagate. They said they could recover about 60% of the data and it would cost him 1500.00 up front. No guarantees either. So, they then proceeded to tell him they could not recover any of the data and refused to refund any of his money OR replace the drive. I even spoke to them on the phone on his behalf and they said the drive was intentionally damaged because all the platters were damaged.

This drive had nearly ALL his case files including reports, evidenciary videos and recorded interviews, police records, attorney records, etc. on it. Years and years worth. Current on ongoing case files included. He got back exactly nothing. Seagate basically said #$%@# #$% and thanks for the 1500.00.

Moral of the story, there are two things you REALLY need to listen to, absorb and accept as fact when somebody who knows tells you.

One, your power supply is more important than the rest of your system.

Two, if you don't have a backup drive and keep the backups on it frequent and current, you will be so, so sorry.

To paraphrase Rick (WD), maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but sooner or later every drive is going to die and when it does you had better have been prepared because there are usually no warning signs and even if there are, by then it's usually way too late.


 


You know what? Screw it. Screw my info.

If I install the SSD and open the windows 10 installer from the USB. I will get the option to choose which drive I install windows too. There is also a format option. Do I format the HDD, then proceed the installation of Windows on my SSD?
 


Whatever the status of data on other drives, it is strongly recommended you install the OS with only the one drive connected.

You can wipe the other one later.

Trust us on this one.
 
Solution


Alright, I will unplug my HDD when I plug in my SSD. Then I will install Windows 10. Then, I will plug in the HDD.

Can you please tell me how to format an HDD fully? Like the OS is gone too?

 


The original boot partitions, along with any other partitions:
Delete the original boot partitions, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
 


Alright, thanks!

Just to clarify, I do this to my HDD after I installed Windows on my SSD, right?
 


Hey, here is a pic of my disk management.
JYYMpIz.jpg


You want me to delete the Healthy (Recovery Partition), Healthy (EFI Partition), and the Healthy (Primary Partition), right?

 


Alright, then the OS from the HDD will be gone and I can freely use my PC with both drives in?