Looking to place OS and a few programs/ games onto newly installed SSD. Need Help.

[Redflare]

Following the holiday festivities I found myself obtaining a 256GB Samsung 850 Pro for my computer to use alongside the 1TB HDD I've had in there for years now. For right now I just want to use the SSD to store (1) The OS which in my case is Windows 8.1, (2) The few games I play regularly, and (3) The editing software I use, e.g. After Effects or Pinnacle, which are all currently sitting on the HDD. The safest way (it seems) to go about getting specifically the OS on there is by doing a clean install of it. Speaking with a Geek Squad representative they suggested that if I'm doing a clean install I might as well just do one of Windows 10 instead of 8.1 since it's the latest version and all that.
In that case I would just hop into the store one day, hand off my SSD to them, and then have it returned with Windows 10 on it and leave, then plug everything back up once I got back home, change the boot order to boot from the SSD, then just migrate the small handful of programs and games over to the SSD and delete them from the HDD.
As someone who's never done this before this is what I've got in mind in regards to how the process SHOULD go down. Now from someone who's actually done this before, is there anything wrong with this method and what would you recommend. Thanks a bunch.

 

[USAFRet]

1. Don't listen to the monkeys at GeeKSquad
2. Do NOT let them mess with your PC.

Now....yes, there are several problems with your plan.
Primarily, you can't 'migrate' games and programs from one drive and OS to another.
You can't move 'the OS and a few programs"
Doesn't work like that. There is no pick and choose like that.

To use this SSD properly, you have 2 options - Clean install or migration.

Clean Install - A fresh install of the OS (8.1 or 10) on the new SSD. This also means a reinstall of your applications. You cannot just move them from one drive to another.
The new OS on the SSD will know nothing about them.

Migration - This is moving the entirety (mostly) of your current C drive to the new SSD.
This requires that the total used space be below the size of that SSD. Since you have a 256GB SSD, that used space must be below 200GB for this to actually work.