[SOLVED] Moving my old SSD to my new PC

[mattian09]

Hi,

I have a new PC arriving in about a week and would like to know whether I can move my old Samsung EVO 860 SSD into my new pc. Currently it has Windows 10 and games installed on it.
It will not be the boot drive for my new PC as I have an M.2 installed into it, so do I need to use the Samsung Wizard to do a secure erase or PSID revert before moving it over to the new PC or can I just plug it in.

Probably a very basic question but I'm completely inept when it comes to tech stuff.

Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

Do you wish to keep anything from that drive?
You're going to install a new OS on the new drive and system?

 

[mattian09]

It would be good if I could keep the games on there, if not it's not a problem. Windows 10 will be installed on the M.2 drive of my new PC.

 

[popatim]

Games that use launcher apps ,like Steam and Origin, can be left on there and then their location on the SSD can be added to the library locations in the launcher app when you install that.

Steams are in Program files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common
Origin defaults to Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\

You need to be careful with your game saves. back them up first if you can.

Steam, they can be on the steam cloud or on your pc (both?) mostly. Iif on your PC they are in the steam userdata folder (program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata), in your old My Documents folder (c:\user\<your user name>\documents), or in the hidden Appdata folder of the old account (c:\users\<your user name>\appdata) You will need to enable viewing of hidden folders to see this. I think I have only a couple of games that save here so it's not very common.

Origin, and I only have maybe 3 Origin games, all save to the Users Documents folder (c:\user\<your user name>\documents) from my experience.

 

[mattian09]

So I'm guessing I can just move my SSD over then?

 

[USAFRet]

So I'm guessing I can just move my SSD over then?

As a secondary drive. yes. Mostly.

It is much recommended to move anything off that drive you wish to keep, wipe it completely, and then move things back.
Keeper stuff = your personal docs, SteamApps folder.

'wipe it completely' = all partitions, not just "format" what you see in File Explorer.

Trying to keep things where they are and remove only "windows" is a pain.

 

[mattian09]

Thank you