Moving from hdd to ssd?

[Jason Werthman]

I would like to get my os and maybe some other things on an ssd, I am looking at a 120 or a 240 gig ssd for this, but I can only get my total file size down to about 500 gigs on my hdd. I was wondering how I would go about moving my OS onto an ssd that's smaller than my current hard drive and if I'd lose my programs and such... Thanks for any help.

 

[CN Shana]

hey, unfortunately, at least in my experience, you can not just copy and paste with windows program folders, you would have to backup everything important(any documents, photo's, videos, game saves/files, etc.) onto an external hard drive.
then install the new SSD, and then install windows on that new SSD, either with a disc of windows 10 or a flash drive, or windows 8 if you were still going to use 8, and then after full setup you would just copy and paste the things from the external hard drive to the new solid state drive that you wanted. For the most part you could just get a 512gb solid state drive if you wanted to really keep almost everything you currently have.

The

Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E250B/AM)
is only $84.99

and the

Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM)

is $164

so the 500gb one is a little less than double

These are prices found on amazon.

So really it wouldn't be that much of a "Wallet Buster" if you were to just get a 500gb one.

Also keep this in mind, the closer you are to being "full" on a ssd, the slower it will run,
im not saying if you max one out it will run horribly slow, but there may be some lag on a few things here and there the fuller it gets. you mostly want to keep a ssd below 90% capacity used.

and to finish your question, yes a new installation of windows would require the re installation of any programs on the old drive, which for the most part, its better just to install a new version of the program, instead of just copying it's files over.

But i do know you can't just copy windows over, you have to install it.

 

[anoori9000]

YOu are correct.

You would put your OS as well as drivers and programs you use a lot on the SSD. Then, other programs, pictures, video, will go on your OLD HDD for mass storage.

The best thing to do when doing this kind of an upgrade is to do a fresh install of windows. Make sure you back up all the files you need.

Install SSD, unplug HDD. Install OS. Install drivers. Plug on old HDD. Format it. Done!

Here are some good ones:

Cheap 240 gig: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/ocz-internal-hard-drive-arc10025sat3240g

A higher quality one: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam

M.2 SSD (only with certain motherboards) http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mzn5e250bw

 

[USAFRet]

With any of the current clone/migration tools, this will not work.
You can't squeeze 500GB of stuff into a 250GB drive.
And there is no 'some'. You can't pick and choose what goes over.

2 options:

Get your total used space to below 200GB and migrate
or
Clean install the OS (and everything else) with the new SSD

 

[Jason Werthman]

hey, unfortunately, at least in my experience, you can not just copy and paste with windows program folders, you would have to backup everything important(any documents, photo's, videos, game saves/files, etc.) onto an external hard drive.
then install the new SSD, and then install windows on that new SSD, either with a disc of windows 10 or a flash drive, or windows 8 if you were still going to use 8, and then after full setup you would just copy and paste the things from the external hard drive to the new solid state drive that you wanted. For the most part you could just get a 512gb solid state drive if you wanted to really keep almost everything you currently have.

Okay, thank you, ill probably just wait another month and get a 512 gig then.

Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E250B/AM)
is only $84.99

and the

Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM)

is $164

so the 500gb one is a little less than double

These are prices found on amazon.

So really it wouldn't be that much of a "Wallet Buster" if you were to just get a 500gb one.

Also keep this in mind, the closer you are to being "full" on a ssd, the slower it will run,
im not saying if you max one out it will run horribly slow, but there may be some lag on a few things here and there the fuller it gets. you mostly want to keep a ssd below 90% capacity used.

and to finish your question, yes a new installation of windows would require the re installation of any programs on the old drive, which for the most part, its better just to install a new version of the program, instead of just copying it's files over.

But i do know you can't just copy windows over, you have to install it.