Installing a New SSD and Converting Older HDDs to Storage Drives?

[tomatocookie]

I currently have an almost full 1TB hard drive. I recently got a new 1TB hard drive and a 240GB SSD that I am trying to install on my computer.

I have the new 1TB hard drive properly formatted in my computer right now and was wondering how to convert the hard drives into storage drives for music, videos, etc. and make the SSD into my boot drive that also stores some video games.

I thought of two ways to maybe do this.

1. Do I copy most of the data from the full hard drive to the empty hard drive and use the data migration software from there? Is it a simple copy and paste method? Can that method be applied to all of the files?

2. Do I just perform a fresh install of windows on my SSD? If so, do I just delete the windows folder on my old hard drive? How will the fresh installation affect other users that have accounts on this computer?

Other methods would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bjornl]

Fresh install is best.
If you have applications which you can't easily re-install, get a imaging program such as those by Paragon, Acronis or Easus-todo. These will mirror the old drive on to the new drive (assuming there is enough space). Some newer high end disks have come with versions of one of these or something equivalent.

You can not drag and drop or otherwise copy installed applications. You can re-install them or take the whole drive as an image. With the exception of the fairly uncommon "portable apps".

 

[USAFRet]

I currently have an almost full 1TB hard drive. I recently got a new 1TB hard drive and a 240GB SSD that I am trying to install on my computer.

I have the new 1TB hard drive properly formatted in my computer right now and was wondering how to convert the hard drives into storage drives for music, videos, etc. and make the SSD into my boot drive that also stores some video games.

I thought of two ways to maybe do this.

1. Do I copy most of the data from the full hard drive to the empty hard drive and use the data migration software from there? Is it a simple copy and paste method? Can that method be applied to all of the files?

2. Do I just perform a fresh install of windows on my SSD? If so, do I just delete the windows folder on my old hard drive? How will the fresh installation affect other users that have accounts on this computer?

Other methods would be greatly appreciated.

For this situation, a clean install on the new SSD is strongly recommended.
Assuming Windows 10, read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3567655/clean-installation-windows.html
You do this install with ONLY the new SSD connected.
This also means you need to reinstall all your drivers and applications.
Later, you reconnect the other drives.

For the two 1TB drives...
From the original one, you copy ALL of your personal data off to the new blank one. Doc/Video/Music/Downloads.
Then, you delete ALL the partitions on the original 1TB HDD.

So now you have the OS and your applications on the SSD, and your data on one of the HDD's, and a blank HDD.
Use them as desired.

 

[tomatocookie]

For this situation, a clean install on the new SSD is strongly recommended.
Assuming Windows 10, read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3567655/clean-installation-windows.html
You do this install with ONLY the new SSD connected.
This also means you need to reinstall all your drivers and applications.
Later, you reconnect the other drives.

For the two 1TB drives...
From the original one, you copy ALL of your personal data off to the new blank one. Doc/Video/Music/Downloads.
Then, you delete ALL the partitions on the original 1TB HDD.

So now you have the OS and your applications on the SSD, and your data on one of the HDD's, and a blank HDD.
Use them as desired.

I already have the drivers installed on my old hard drive. I plan on using my old hard drive as well. Do I need to install the drivers again on the new SSD? Then do I delete the old drivers on my other hard drive? If so, how do I go about doing this?

 

[tomatocookie]

Fresh install is best.
If you have applications which you can't easily re-install, get a imaging program such as those by Paragon, Acronis or Easus-todo. These will mirror the old drive on to the new drive (assuming there is enough space). Some newer high end disks have come with versions of one of these or something equivalent.

You can not drag and drop or otherwise copy installed applications. You can re-install them or take the whole drive as an image. With the exception of the fairly uncommon "portable apps".

Do I leave the old windows installation on my hard drive alone or do I delete it?

 

[USAFRet]

I already have the drivers installed on my old hard drive. I plan on using my old hard drive as well. Do I need to install the drivers again on the new SSD? Then do I delete the old drivers on my other hard drive? If so, how do I go about doing this?

If you are doing a clean install on the new SSD, the drivers and applications on the old drive do not matter.
You need to reinstall them with the new OS on the SSD.

And you don't 'uninstall the drivers' individually.
You copy everything off that drive that you wish to keep. (Doc/Music/Video/etc), and then wipe that drive completely.