Moving O/S from hdd to SSD

[DragonBlood7]

I currently have a 1tb hdd and a 250 gb ssd. I have my windows installation disk and key. I would like to wipe my hdd and then put my O/S onto my ssd. I still want to use my hdd after I wipe it for storage. My friend was telling me that I need a usb drive and I need to get a new key that Windows will provide for me, that I'll use to reactive windows once it is on the sad. I'm kind of confused with the whole thing, please help. I don't want to mess up my windows and have to re buy it. Thanks in advanced!

 

[ArtPog]

1. First, tell your friend he has to do a bit more studying on this subject.

2. Although you didn't say...we assume your HDD is currently the boot drive in the PC in which you want to install the SSD as your new boot drive. Is that correct?

3. If it is...provide the TOTAL AMOUNT OF THE DATA CONTENTS ON THE HDD. (We'll assume the HDD has been single-partitioned; it doesn't contain multiple partitions. IF IT DOES CONTAIN MULTIPLE PARTITIONS PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SIZE AND NUMBER OF THESE PARTITIONS AND THE AMOUNT OF DATA IN EACH PARTITION. Capiche?

 

[USAFRet]

I currently have a 1tb hdd and a 250 gb ssd. I have my windows installation disk and key. I would like to wipe my hdd and then put my O/S onto my ssd. I still want to use my hdd after I wipe it for storage. My friend was telling me that I need a usb drive and I need to get a new key that Windows will provide for me, that I'll use to reactive windows once it is on the sad. I'm kind of confused with the whole thing, please help. I don't want to mess up my windows and have to re buy it. Thanks in advanced!

Your friend is pretty much 100% incorrect.

1. How much total used space is on your current 1TB drive?
2. What, specifically, is using that space?
3. What OS is this?

 

[DragonBlood7]

I currently have a 1tb hdd and a 250 gb ssd. I have my windows installation disk and key. I would like to wipe my hdd and then put my O/S onto my ssd. I still want to use my hdd after I wipe it for storage. My friend was telling me that I need a usb drive and I need to get a new key that Windows will provide for me, that I'll use to reactive windows once it is on the sad. I'm kind of confused with the whole thing, please help. I don't want to mess up my windows and have to re buy it. Thanks in advanced!

Your friend is pretty much 100% incorrect.

1. How much total used space is on your current 1TB drive?
2. What, specifically, is using that space?
3. What OS is this?

There is about 70 gb available on the 1tb.
There is mainly games and other programs, a few pictures.
I have windows 7

 

[DragonBlood7]

1. First, tell your friend he has to do a bit more studying on this subject.

2. Although you didn't say...we assume your HDD is currently the boot drive in the PC in which you want to install the SSD as your new boot drive. Is that correct?

3. If it is...provide the TOTAL AMOUNT OF THE DATA CONTENTS ON THE HDD. (We'll assume the HDD has been single-partitioned; it doesn't contain multiple partitions. IF IT DOES CONTAIN MULTIPLE PARTITIONS PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SIZE AND NUMBER OF THESE PARTITIONS AND THE AMOUNT OF DATA IN EACH PARTITION. Capiche?

Yes, the current boot is on the HDD and yes, I want it on the SSD.
The 1tb is just about full, it has about 70gb available. I'm not sure what partitions are and I've never done anything like that to the HDD. So it should just have one.

 

[USAFRet]

There is about 70 gb available on the 1tb.
There is mainly games and other programs, a few pictures.
I have windows 7

So...the consumed space is far above the new SSD size.
For a clone operation into a 250GB SSD, you must get the actual used space to below 200GB.

Do you have another drive, either internal or external, with a bunch of free space on it?

 

[DragonBlood7]

There is about 70 gb available on the 1tb.
There is mainly games and other programs, a few pictures.
I have windows 7

So...the consumed space is far above the new SSD size.
For a clone operation into a 250GB SSD, you must get the actual used space to below 200GB.

Do you have another drive, either internal or external, with a bunch of free space on it?

Would it make sense to delete everything off the HDD that I don't want and then clone what is left on the HDD onto the SSD? I don't have an extra drive around. How does the cloning process work and how do I go about it?

 

[USAFRet]

There is about 70 gb available on the 1tb.
There is mainly games and other programs, a few pictures.
I have windows 7

So...the consumed space is far above the new SSD size.
For a clone operation into a 250GB SSD, you must get the actual used space to below 200GB.

Do you have another drive, either internal or external, with a bunch of free space on it?

Would it make sense to delete everything off the HDD that I don't want and then clone what is left on the HDD onto the SSD? I don't have an extra drive around. How does the cloning process work and how do I go about it?

If you can get that actual used space to below 200GB without major brainpain, sure.
Uninstall, delete, however...below 200GB.

Verify you've not deleted anything actually valuable, or necessary for the OS to actually run.

Then, cloning, exactly like this. All steps, no deviations:
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Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe as necessary.
Delete the original boot partitions, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
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