Migrating Games to SSD from HDD (no reinstall?)

[mt229431]

Hello,

I recently purchased a 120 GB OCZ Vertex 3 and have decided to install a clean copy of windows 7. However, I do not want to re-download SWTOR, WOW, or SC2 as my current internet provider has a cap, and downloading these three games would basically kill it... So, once I have Windows 7 installed on the SSD, I'd like to put SWTOR and WOW on the SSD as well. I'd also like to backup SC2 so that I can simply reformat the old HDD as a storage drive, and then drag and drop it back onto the HDD once the reformat is done. Is this possible?

Another thought, is it possible to partition the old HDD prior to all of this such that the OS is on one parition and all my data on the other (including games)? That way, I could just delete the OS partition afterwards and not have to deal with a backup?

Thanks for your assistance

 

[RealBeast]

You can just drag and drop copy all three game folders onto the SSD. Do it one at a time and after each run the Launcher.exe program to correct the registry values and then make a new shortcut for each. Then move on to the next until all three are done.

Note that this works on these three programs, but doesn't necessarily work on other programs. Also, it is possible that you will need to reinstall DirectX -- just download it from Microsoft and install it ahead of time.

While you could partition, I would move the games first in case something goes wrong with the partitioning.

 

[mt229431]

Great, thanks! That sounds simple enough! So, just so I'm clear on the process, once I have have the OS installed on the SSD, when I connect the old hard drive, can I just drag and drop from it before reformatting it? Or do I need to move these game folders to and external HD first, and drag and drop from there?

 

[RealBeast]

You can just drag them to the SSD from the old OS drive, then run the Launcher.exe to fix the registry entries, and then make a new shortcut for them. I would do them one at a time.

 

[mt229431]

Alright, last question I think...so once I've done that, should I bother reformatting the old drive? Is there a way to just uninstall windows from the drive? Or do I clean it completely?

 

[RealBeast]

Yes, I would copy data files to my external drive and then reformat it -- easiest way to get rid of the old OS.

 

[mt229431]

ok, so:

1) Install OS on SSD
2) Reconnect unformatted old HDD
3) Dag and Drop games and run launcher.exe to re-write registry values
4) Backup remaining data from old HDD to external HD.
5) Reformat old HDD
6) Put old data back onto newly reformatted HDD.

Correct?

 

[RealBeast]

Yes.

 

[mt229431]

Thank you. You are great

 

[mauller07]

You can just coppy to the SSD then in Disk managment change the drive letter to the letter the HDD was and everything will "JUST WERK"

 

[ram1009]

You don't say where you're downloading games from. If it's someplace like STEAM I'm not sure that procedure will work.

 

[apesoccer]

or you could image your old hd to the ssd...assuming you're not using 120 gb currently...over and done with in 10-30 min...did a laptop that way 2 hrs ago; took 45 min with 80gb on a 5400 rpm drive to the 120gb ocz...

 

[RealBeast]

You don't say where you're downloading games from. If it's someplace like STEAM I'm not sure that procedure will work.

Yes, I've done it many times, works fine for Steam games as Steam describes HERE.

 

[RealBeast]

or you could image your old hd to the ssd...assuming you're not using 120 gb currently...over and done with in 10-30 min...did a laptop that way 2 hrs ago; took 45 min with 80gb on a 5400 rpm drive to the 120gb ocz...

While cloning works, it if far preferable to do a clean re-installation.