Moving from hdd to sdd

[xtremcarl]

I currently have a WD 500gb hdd in my computer. It is the only drive but have just ordered a corsair force gt 120gb. I am planning on unplugging my WD hdd and doing a clean install of windows 7 on the ssd and then updating it and installing the drivers right to the ssd. I have a few applications like web browsers, virus scanner, malware scanner, games i downloaded like star craft 2, and games i have downloaded on steam like tf2.

My question is about games and applications. Should i plug in my hdd after updating the ssd with the os and drivers and just transfer the game files from my hdd to the ssd or should I re-download them onto the ssd. I want to get the most out of my nice new ssd but if i can just copy them over it would save me a lot of time downloading stuff.

Thanks for the help and any other advise to a first time ssd owner would never be turned away. I have read through the stickies about setting up the ssd and disabling defrag and making sure trim is on and turning system restore points off.

 

[rolli59]

Programs can not be copied and pasted and need to be installed. The installation/ISO files can be copied and pasted.

 

[kajabla]

I believe Starcraft II in particular is self-contained, and you can just copy its folder. I've run it off a flash drive. With other things, though, I'd do fresh installs. Steam games in particular are very difficult to move.

Other tips:
-disable Hibernate to get a whole bunch of space back. You don't need it anyway: sleeping takes almost no more power than leaving the computer off completely.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/819-hibernate-enable-disable.html
-don't index the SSD

 

[house70]

I believe Starcraft II in particular is self-contained, and you can just copy its folder. I've run it off a flash drive. With other things, though, I'd do fresh installs. Steam games in particular are very difficult to move.

Other tips:
-disable Hibernate to get a whole bunch of space back. You don't need it anyway: sleeping takes almost no more power than leaving the computer off completely.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/819-hibernate-enable-disable.html
-don't index the SSD

And, also, disable the automatic defragmenting. It ruins the SSD and it is not needed.

 

[Soda-88]

Programs can not be copied and pasted and need to be installed. The installation/ISO files can be copied and pasted.

that might be true for vast majority of applications like ms office but most games are portable

i know for a fact SC2 falls into that category and so does ENTIRE steam; you just need to copy entire steam folder to your ssd and run steam.exe - it will automatically reinstall Steam and just use the preexisting config file from your previous installation maintaining the same state it was on your previous windows install

 

[Soda-88]

also forgot to mention SC2 only contains user account files in documents folder on system drive, so you will lose all replays, save games and screenshots if you dont back that up; exact location: C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\StarCraft II\Accounts\[number of your sc2 account] - you can just copy those to the same location on your new windows installation on ssd

 

[xtremcarl]

thanks for all the help sounds like it shouldn't be to hard to get games and such moved over and for the tips about what to not do with a ssd.

 

[kajabla]

Soda, I had some serious issues with moving Steam. It's probably just me, but it really wouldn't work.

 

[xtremcarl]

Soda, I had some serious issues with moving Steam. It's probably just me, but it really wouldn't work.

Sorry to hear your having issues. I just installed my ssd today and when i had both drives hooked up did a copy paste on the steam folder.

For me the file location (old hdd) was, E: program files 86/steam

I just did a copy of that whole folder and then opened another window went to(sdd) C: program files 86 and just right clicked a blank spot and hit paste there.

After that i opened steam by clicking the application steam. (file name steam, type application, size 1214kb)

I also made a shortcut of it and put it on my desktop. Hope this helps