[SOLVED] I have bought new ssd. What is the best way to make it boot windows without losing data from my old hdd that was booting windows?

arsenije13

Reputable
Aug 17, 2016
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SSD that I bought is 250 gb. My HDD that windows is currently booted on is 1 tb with 452 GB used. Since I think cloning is not an option should I just back up files in my other HDD that has 1.16 TB free or is there better way to save the files?
 
Solution
There is another option here, and I've exercised it before in the past myself.

Most cloning programs have no difficulty cloning from a larger capacity drive to a lower capacity drive provided what's actually on the larger one does not exceed the capacity of the lower capacity one.

You likely have the bulk of the space taken on your current drive consumed by user data, particularly photos and music. You have the option to copy off all of your user data to a backup drive, then delete it from your current system drive, to get the used space down to a size that can be cloned over to the new SSD.

I've done this in the past, but using 2 HDDs rather than an SSD/HDD pair. This was during the era where really high capacity HDDs were...

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
SSD that I bought is 250 gb. My HDD that windows is currently booted on is 1 tb with 452 GB used. Since I think cloning is not an option should I just back up files in my other HDD that has 1.16 TB free or is there better way to save the files?
Your personal files can be moved to a different drive.
All your applications, drivers, etc...all that will absolutely need a full reinstall after the OS install on the new SSD.
 

arsenije13

Reputable
Aug 17, 2016
7
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4,510
Your personal files can be moved to a different drive.
All your applications, drivers, etc...all that will absolutely need a full reinstall after the OS install on the new SSD.
That's a shame since I have lots of programs and apps. Is there any reliable way to reinstall programs or I must find them all over again?
 

britechguy

Commendable
Jul 2, 2019
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There is another option here, and I've exercised it before in the past myself.

Most cloning programs have no difficulty cloning from a larger capacity drive to a lower capacity drive provided what's actually on the larger one does not exceed the capacity of the lower capacity one.

You likely have the bulk of the space taken on your current drive consumed by user data, particularly photos and music. You have the option to copy off all of your user data to a backup drive, then delete it from your current system drive, to get the used space down to a size that can be cloned over to the new SSD.

I've done this in the past, but using 2 HDDs rather than an SSD/HDD pair. This was during the era where really high capacity HDDs were insanely expensive.

Also, lets face it, most of us could offload a lot of what we keep on our main drives "just because" to external media (and with backups of that, too, as you never keep single copies of anything you consider precious) and grab that external media when we need it. In my case, I could easily keep my entire music library off of my computer altogether as I don't ever use the computer as the player for same, but my smartphone. I only convert CDs to MP3s on the computer, but don't ever play them using the computer.
 
Solution

arsenije13

Reputable
Aug 17, 2016
7
0
4,510
There is another option here, and I've exercised it before in the past myself.

Most cloning programs have no difficulty cloning from a larger capacity drive to a lower capacity drive provided what's actually on the larger one does not exceed the capacity of the lower capacity one.

You likely have the bulk of the space taken on your current drive consumed by user data, particularly photos and music. You have the option to copy off all of your user data to a backup drive, then delete it from your current system drive, to get the used space down to a size that can be cloned over to the new SSD.

I've done this in the past, but using 2 HDDs rather than an SSD/HDD pair. This was during the era where really high capacity HDDs were insanely expensive.

Also, lets face it, most of us could offload a lot of what we keep on our main drives "just because" to external media (and with backups of that, too, as you never keep single copies of anything you consider precious) and grab that external media when we need it. In my case, I could easily keep my entire music library off of my computer altogether as I don't ever use the computer as the player for same, but my smartphone. I only convert CDs to MP3s on the computer, but don't ever play them using the computer.
Thats a Great idea! Thanks!