Moving OS to SSD?

[CandyCornGamer]

I currently have a HDD 1TB with all my data (photos, music, games, etc) and I want to buy an SSD (120gb) to have my OS and software on it since I know it'll be faster. Is there a way I can have all of my data on the HDD, then move it to the freshly installed OS SSD? Will it still run even though some of those programs are in the system files (x86) and all? I've never done this before and would like some information to the process.

 

[SBMfromLA]

Yes, it's possible but it does take a few extra steps.

Before I say anything, let me recommend that you buy the Samsung 250GB SSD for $85 instead of a lower capacity model
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/ref=sr_1_1_m?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1453857093&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+ssd

There are two ways do to what you're asking. The quickest/easiest way would simply be to UNPLUG your old hard drive... Install the new SSD and Install Windows and copy over your Data Files (Documents, music, photos, videos) and then reinstall all your programs then format your old HDD and use that as a storage drive.

If you want to try to keep some of your programs to move to your SSD... then unplug old HDD... install SSD and Windows... then copy over all the data files I described above. THEN... go to the program files on your old HDD and copy those over to the SSD. NEXT (very important) go to Folder Options and select option to SHOW HIDDEN FOLDERS. Then you need to go through two locations: Program Data & AppData (Local & Roaming) and look to see if any of those programs you copied over have a corresponding folder to copy into the same location onto you new SSD. For example, if you wanted to copy Mozilla's Firefox.. you would go to Program Data and copy the Mozilla folder... then you would go to AppData\Local and copy the Mozilla folder there as well... to your SSD and your Firefox browser will work just like it did on the old drive, but faster since it's on an SSD.

I do NOT recommend you copy everything because some of the stuff there will be automatically recreated. Only do stuff like the programs you installed like your games. I've done this for years and from my experience it seems to work like 90% of the time. Some people recommend against this because they aren't familiar with this technique... but trust me.. it works fairly well.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
I thought I'd add a few things. Everyone has their own method for doing things and I have my own special way. I will tell you how I have my computer setup to give you an idea. I have Four physical drives in my computer (C, D, E, F). Drive C is my O/S drive and I have my browser, video encoders, disk utilities, drivers... on that. On Drive D I have a folder called Program Files. Here is where I install all my games and misc. programs to keep my SSD light. Drive E is where I have all my program backups that I download and all my archives and driver backups of previous versions. My newly added Drive F is just a drive I added for all my downloads because I had a spare drive and wanted to reduce wear and tear on my other three drives. The point I wanted to show you was.... it's a good idea to spread out your data. If you have a two drive system, I would install all the games onto the larger old HDD instead of the SSD and also RELOCATE the Videos, Pictures, & Music to that drive as well... to keep your SSD light and running smoothly... and also, because most crashes/problems happen on the C drive. If you keep your programs on another drive... you don't have to worry about reinstalling all that stuff if you ever need to reinstall Windows. However, you just have to create new shortcuts to the .EXE.

 

[nukemaster]

You should also be able to shrink your existing Windows partition and create a second partition to hold your data.

Your user folders have an option to change the location and move files. This would be helpful to get all your files to the new partition.

Once you have all of this done if your OS will fit on the SSD you can clone it to the SSD with something like Reflect by Macrium

It is not as clean, but not all programs can copy and paste because they use registry entries.

The biggest advantage to a fresh install is it removes any junk you have collected over the years. You can still use the hard drive for file storage after. Using 3rd party partition(like Partition Master) software you can split the drive(shrink and make a new partition to hold your data) remove the old windows partitions then make a new partition to copy your files back to and remove and extend the partition to take the full drive.

You have many options and some are faster or better than others.

 

[CandyCornGamer]

I don't know how to do partitions, I only have that 1 drive and I'm mainly gonna use the SSD for the OS and programs like Adobe, editing, etc. The HDD will house my games, music, photos, etc. I just need to know how to do this. Can I simply install the SSD with the OS and then attach my already data filled HDD without problems? Or will I have to take out the data? If so, where do I put it and all. I'm about as noob as this gets so please be patient.

 

[CandyCornGamer]

Yes, it's possible but it does take a few extra steps.

Before I say anything, let me recommend that you buy the Samsung 250GB SSD for $85 instead of a lower capacity model
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/ref=sr_1_1_m?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1453857093&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+ssd

There are two ways do to what you're asking. The quickest/easiest way would simply be to UNPLUG your old hard drive... Install the new SSD and Install Windows and copy over your Data Files (Documents, music, photos, videos) and then reinstall all your programs then format your old HDD and use that as a storage drive.

If you want to try to keep some of your programs to move to your SSD... then unplug old HDD... install SSD and Windows... then copy over all the data files I described above. THEN... go to the program files on your old HDD and copy those over to the SSD. NEXT (very important) go to Folder Options and select option to SHOW HIDDEN FOLDERS. Then you need to go through two locations: Program Data & AppData (Local & Roaming) and look to see if any of those programs you copied over have a corresponding folder to copy into the same location onto you new SSD. For example, if you wanted to copy Mozilla's Firefox.. you would go to Program Data and copy the Mozilla folder... then you would go to AppData\Local and copy the Mozilla folder there as well... to your SSD and your Firefox browser will work just like it did on the old drive, but faster since it's on an SSD.

I do NOT recommend you copy everything because some of the stuff there will be automatically recreated. Only do stuff like the programs you installed like your games. I've done this for years and from my experience it seems to work like 90% of the time. Some people recommend against this because they aren't familiar with this technique... but trust me.. it works fairly well.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
I thought I'd add a few things. Everyone has their own method for doing things and I have my own special way. I will tell you how I have my computer setup to give you an idea. I have Four physical drives in my computer (C, D, E, F). Drive C is my O/S drive and I have my browser, video encoders, disk utilities, drivers... on that. On Drive D I have a folder called Program Files. Here is where I install all my games and misc. programs to keep my SSD light. Drive E is where I have all my program backups that I download and all my archives and driver backups of previous versions. My newly added Drive F is just a drive I added for all my downloads because I had a spare drive and wanted to reduce wear and tear on my other three drives. The point I wanted to show you was.... it's a good idea to spread out your data. If you have a two drive system, I would install all the games onto the larger old HDD instead of the SSD and also RELOCATE the Videos, Pictures, & Music to that drive as well... to keep your SSD light and running smoothly... and also, because most crashes/problems happen on the C drive. If you keep your programs on another drive... you don't have to worry about reinstalling all that stuff if you ever need to reinstall Windows. However, you just have to create new shortcuts to the .EXE.

I posted a response as an answer.

 

[CandyCornGamer]

You should also be able to shrink your existing Windows partition and create a second partition to hold your data.

Your user folders have an option to change the location and move files. This would be helpful to get all your files to the new partition.

Once you have all of this done if your OS will fit on the SSD you can clone it to the SSD with something like Reflect by Macrium

It is not as clean, but not all programs can copy and paste because they use registry entries.

The biggest advantage to a fresh install is it removes any junk you have collected over the years. You can still use the hard drive for file storage after. Using 3rd party partition(like Partition Master) software you can split the drive(shrink and make a new partition to hold your data) remove the old windows partitions then make a new partition to copy your files back to and remove and extend the partition to take the full drive.

You have many options and some are faster or better than others.

I posted a response as an answer.

 

[nukemaster]

You can actually disconnect the hard drive and install windows then connect the old drive as long as the system knows to boot from the SSD.

You may run into one issue. Permissions.

The new install of Windows may have to take ownership of files on the hard drive.

Can you please let me know how much space you are using?

You can shrink a partition to move files without 3rd party software. 3rd party software is just more easy in some cases. One thing to never do is move the system reserved partition or the start of c: as that can prevent proper startup of the system. Shrinking the c: from the right side does not cause issues and just allows you to clean off the old crap.

Steam is VERY friendly for copy+paste use(I normally install it then copy the copy with all games over it). It will automatically perform first run tasks on games.

I also DO recommend a larger SSD if you can.

On this system, I have 2 SSD's one for Windows and games(and Windows 10 as well now) the other for more games. They are each 256 gigabytes and I wish I had a bit more space.
I have no hard drive in the system because all my files are on another system access over the network(this means all my systems can share the same personal files and backup is much more central). The system that holds the files is my media center pc and does have a single 128 gigabyte SSD, so it can be done, but I do not have many games on it or anything.

My media center system runs the SSD for windows programs and some games(started life with a single hard drive) a hard drive for all my files(WDC RED since it kind of is used like a NAS) and another hard drive for media center recordings(notebook drive).

Due to your lack of drives, If you want to remove all the old Windows crap, you will have to shrink your partition and move files over. Too many hidden and security restricted files to make it worth trying to manually remove all the files(and you may have a system reserved partition).

You can do this AFTER installed Windows on the SSD.

These images are from a guide for a user that wanted to reinstall and keep files.

1. You would hit Start + R to open RUN
2. Enter diskmgmt.msc

3. Right click the partition you want to shrink and select Shrink
4. Wait a second while it determines how much you can shrink(files in the way prevent this. 3rd party software can move these files and allow you to shrink farther in some cases).
5. Input the size you want to shrink by 1gigabyte is 1024 megabytes

6. and 7. You will now have some unallocated space and can create a new partition(volume) in that space.

You will now have a location to dump files you want to keep when you later.


The location tab on users folders can be used to move files from the current location to the new partition from the current hard drive load of Windows.

Most of the User folders have the location tab under properties

You will remove Windows partition and system reserved(make sure you get everything you want and do this when running from the SSD).

My Images show c : , but yours will NOT be C : because your SSD will be the drive that has c : . Make sure you only remove partition from the hard drive. It will be easy to tell by the larger size.

This is what the 3rd party software looks like for partition modification.

 

[CandyCornGamer]

You can actually disconnect the hard drive and install windows then connect the old drive as long as the system knows to boot from the SSD.

You may run into one issue. Permissions.

The new install of Windows may have to take ownership of files on the hard drive.

Can you please let me know how much space you are using?

You can shrink a partition to move files without 3rd party software. 3rd party software is just more easy in some cases. One thing to never do is move the system reserved partition or the start of c: as that can prevent proper startup of the system. Shrinking the c: from the right side does not cause issues and just allows you to clean off the old crap.

Steam is VERY friendly for copy+paste use(I normally install it then copy the copy with all games over it). It will automatically perform first run tasks on games.

I also DO recommend a larger SSD if you can.

On this system, I have 2 SSD's one for Windows and games(and Windows 10 as well now) the other for more games. They are each 256 gigabytes and I wish I had a bit more space.
I have no hard drive in the system because all my files are on another system access over the network(this means all my systems can share the same personal files and backup is much more central). The system that holds the files is my media center pc and does have a single 128 gigabyte SSD, so it can be done, but I do not have many games on it or anything.

My media center system runs the SSD for windows programs and some games(started life with a single hard drive) a hard drive for all my files(WDC RED since it kind of is used like a NAS) and another hard drive for media center recordings(notebook drive).

Due to your lack of drives, If you want to remove all the old Windows crap, you will have to shrink your partition and move files over. Too many hidden and security restricted files to make it worth trying to manually remove all the files(and you may have a system reserved partition).

You can do this AFTER installed Windows on the SSD.

These images are from a guide for a user that wanted to reinstall and keep files.

1. You would hit Start + R to open RUN
2. Enter diskmgmt.msc

3. Right click the partition you want to shrink and select Shrink
4. Wait a second while it determines how much you can shrink(files in the way prevent this. 3rd party software can move these files and allow you to shrink farther in some cases).
5. Input the size you want to shrink by 1gigabyte is 1024 megabytes

6. and 7. You will now have some unallocated space and can create a new partition(volume) in that space.

You will now have a location to dump files you want to keep when you later remove the Windows partition and system reserved(make sure you get everything you want and do this when running from the SSD).

My Images show c : , but yours will NOT be C : because your SSD will be the drive that has c : . Make sure you only remove partition from the hard drive. It will be easy to tell by the larger size.

I currently have a 1tb HDD, 629 gb free of 931. Like I said before, I currently don't need a bigger SSD (nor can I afford one atm) since I just want to put the OS, and programs like Adobe and editing software onto it since I'd rather use the 1TB for everything else. I read on a different thread that you can simply install an OS onto the SSD, boot from that, reattach the HDD and run it perfectly fine. I just want to move those files to the SSD and remove the OS from the HDD. Is there a simpler way to do this? Or do I need to do as you and the other guy suggested? Apologies if I come off as annoying, like I said I'm new to this.

 

[nukemaster]

You can certainly boot off the SSD and leave the HDD(the system will run perfectly fine, but you may have to take ownership of your documents) as it is, but you will have 2 copies of Windows. This may be an advantage if the SSD was to fail.

I had added some information above.

You certainly have no shortage of space. Partitioning would still be best if you want to fully remove the old OS since it will leave behind a boot partition either way and your bios has to know to boot from the SSD

As you can see having on OS per drive does not cause any actual issues.

 

[CandyCornGamer]

You can certainly boot off the SSD and leave the HDD(the system will run perfectly fine, but you may have to take ownership of your documents) as it is, but you will have 2 copies of Windows. This may be an advantage if the SSD was to fail.

I had added some information above.

You certainly have no shortage of space. Partitioning would still be best if you want to fully remove the old OS since it will leave behind a boot partition either way and your bios has to know to boot from the SSD

As you can see having on OS per drive does not cause any actual issues.

I want to fully remove the OS from the HDD, and just have my files on it. I just don't know much of what a partition is or how to do one.

 

[CandyCornGamer]

You can certainly boot off the SSD and leave the HDD(the system will run perfectly fine, but you may have to take ownership of your documents) as it is, but you will have 2 copies of Windows. This may be an advantage if the SSD was to fail.

I had added some information above.

You certainly have no shortage of space. Partitioning would still be best if you want to fully remove the old OS since it will leave behind a boot partition either way and your bios has to know to boot from the SSD

As you can see having on OS per drive does not cause any actual issues.

Okay, so I figured out how to make it, now I just need to know why? What's the point? If I make it, will all my files go to the partitioned space, or just the data that I can't recover (like photos) and then format the original space? Also, would it be simpler just to copy all of the software I want put on the SSD from the HDD? Like dragging it over and all.

 

[nukemaster]

The SSD does not have room for all your files.

I am going to try to explain why the partitioning is needed in this case.

Your operating system install places files all over the drive. many of these files can not be simply deleted.

You also have to a partition on the drive that performs the system boot(system reserved). This only takes a small portion of space, so it is just removed for completeness.

You could try to take ownership of all those files and holders and show hidden and OS files to remove them, but in the end it would be a pain.

With the partition idea, you just copy what you want to the new partition leaving the old one free to be formatted(erased). At this point you can copy the files to the formatted partition and then extend the drive to take over the fill drive. It sound complicated, but it is not too bad.

1. Shrink your drive to fit the data you want(you have LOTS of room for this).
2. Copy all the files you want from c : \ users \ your login here to that drive(place it in a folder called users / your name if you wish).
3. Copy games or programs in case you need them. If you have steam copy the full folder(steam is very friendly with this). This part may be slow(because it is the same drive)
4. Disconnect the drive and install your SSD to install Windows. You may need to tell the bios to boot from the SSD.
5. Shut down and connect the hard drive.
6. From your SSD load of Windows open disk management(diskmgmt.msc) and remove the system reserved and windows partition of the old hard drive.(NOT the SSD). Make sure you have every file you want. after this ALL files on your old load of Windows are gone
7. You should now have a huge chunk of us-allocated space. You can make a volume and format it.
8. Copy all your files back to this volume(sorry this is going to be slow). This should now be the 1st volume on the drive.
9. Once all files are copied, remove the last volume since your files are now on the first(if you cut the second is empty if you copied you now have the same files on both sides)
10. You should not have an unallocated section of space at the end of the drive.
11. Right click the partition(the one that is left) and select extend. Extend it to take the full drive.
12. Goto c : \ users \ your name \ and right click each folder you want to move and use its location tab to move the locations to your hard drive. You will NOT have to move files since you already have the files in that location.
13. Install steam and then copy your old copy over it.
14. Do the same with software if you want.
15. Take a break you are pretty much done.
16. Get all your settings back in order.

Optional

Get a external drive(they are fairly cheap) for future backups of files. A drive can fail at any time and if you care about your personal files, you may want to have a copy just in case.

If you have ANY questions, I will try to help.

 

[CandyCornGamer]

The SSD does not have room for all your files.

I am going to try to explain why the partitioning is needed in this case.

Your operating system install places files all over the drive. many of these files can not be simply deleted.

You also have to a partition on the drive that performs the system boot(system reserved). This only takes a small portion of space, so it is just removed for completeness.

You could try to take ownership of all those files and holders and show hidden and OS files to remove them, but in the end it would be a pain.

With the partition idea, you just copy what you want to the new partition leaving the old one free to be formatted(erased). At this point you can copy the files to the formatted partition and then extend the drive to take over the fill drive. It sound complicated, but it is not too bad.

1. Shrink your drive to fit the data you want(you have LOTS of room for this).
2. Copy all the files you want from c : \ users \ your login here to that drive(place it in a folder called users / your name if you wish).
3. Copy games or programs in case you need them. If you have steam copy the full folder(steam is very friendly with this). This part may be slow(because it is the same drive)
4. Disconnect the drive and install your SSD to install Windows. You may need to tell the bios to boot from the SSD.
5. Shut down and connect the hard drive.
6. From your SSD load of Windows open disk management(diskmgmt.msc) and remove the system reserved and windows partition of the old hard drive.(NOT the SSD). Make sure you have every file you want. after this ALL files on your old load of Windows are gone
7. You should now have a huge chunk of us-allocated space. You can make a volume and format it.
8. Copy all your files back to this volume(sorry this is going to be slow). This should now be the 1st volume on the drive.
9. Once all files are copied, remove the last volume since your files are now on the first(if you cut the second is empty if you copied you now have the same files on both sides)
10. You should not have an unallocated section of space at the end of the drive.
11. Right click the partition(the one that is left) and select extend. Extend it to take the full drive.
12. Goto c : \ users \ your name \ and right click each folder you want to move and use its location tab to move the locations to your hard drive. You will NOT have to move files since you already have the files in that location.
13. Install steam and then copy your old copy over it.
14. Do the same with software if you want.
15. Take a break you are pretty much done.
16. Get all your settings back in order.

Optional

Get a external drive(they are fairly cheap) for future backups of files. A drive can fail at any time and if you care about your personal files, you may want to have a copy just in case.

If you have ANY questions, I will try to help.

So do I format just separate partitions? Not the whole HDD right?

 

[CandyCornGamer]

The SSD does not have room for all your files.

I am going to try to explain why the partitioning is needed in this case.

Your operating system install places files all over the drive. many of these files can not be simply deleted.

You also have to a partition on the drive that performs the system boot(system reserved). This only takes a small portion of space, so it is just removed for completeness.

You could try to take ownership of all those files and holders and show hidden and OS files to remove them, but in the end it would be a pain.

With the partition idea, you just copy what you want to the new partition leaving the old one free to be formatted(erased). At this point you can copy the files to the formatted partition and then extend the drive to take over the fill drive. It sound complicated, but it is not too bad.

1. Shrink your drive to fit the data you want(you have LOTS of room for this).
2. Copy all the files you want from c : \ users \ your login here to that drive(place it in a folder called users / your name if you wish).
3. Copy games or programs in case you need them. If you have steam copy the full folder(steam is very friendly with this). This part may be slow(because it is the same drive)
4. Disconnect the drive and install your SSD to install Windows. You may need to tell the bios to boot from the SSD.
5. Shut down and connect the hard drive.
6. From your SSD load of Windows open disk management(diskmgmt.msc) and remove the system reserved and windows partition of the old hard drive.(NOT the SSD). Make sure you have every file you want. after this ALL files on your old load of Windows are gone
7. You should now have a huge chunk of us-allocated space. You can make a volume and format it.
8. Copy all your files back to this volume(sorry this is going to be slow). This should now be the 1st volume on the drive.
9. Once all files are copied, remove the last volume since your files are now on the first(if you cut the second is empty if you copied you now have the same files on both sides)
10. You should not have an unallocated section of space at the end of the drive.
11. Right click the partition(the one that is left) and select extend. Extend it to take the full drive.
12. Goto c : \ users \ your name \ and right click each folder you want to move and use its location tab to move the locations to your hard drive. You will NOT have to move files since you already have the files in that location.
13. Install steam and then copy your old copy over it.
14. Do the same with software if you want.
15. Take a break you are pretty much done.
16. Get all your settings back in order.

Optional

Get a external drive(they are fairly cheap) for future backups of files. A drive can fail at any time and if you care about your personal files, you may want to have a copy just in case.

If you have ANY questions, I will try to help.

Also, why won't a 120gb SSD be enough? I'm literally just putting the OS, Adobe flash, photoshop and a video editing software on it, that should be plenty of room, that only takes up like 40gb at most. But fine, I'll get myself a 240gb just to be on the safe side.

 

[nukemaster]

So do I format just separate partitions? Not the whole HDD right?

You have to format partitions 2 times.

-First time is when you make a partition at the end of the drive(right side)
-After ALL the files you want are moved to this partition on the right side, you can remove the Windows partition and its reserved if you have one. At this point you make a partition in the allocated space and copy the files back over.
-Once all your files are now on the LEFT side partition you can remove the one on the right and use the extend option to make your file partition take the full drive.
-This can all be done from the new load(if you shrink and copy files first[before disconnecting and installing on the SSD], it may be more easy).

Also, why won't a 120gb SSD be enough? I'm literally just putting the OS, Adobe flash, photoshop and a video editing software on it, that should be plenty of room, that only takes up like 40gb at most. But fine, I'll get myself a 240gb just to be on the safe side.

Larger drives just allow more software to be installed. It is also good to keep some free space on the drive. I have a 128(26 free) gigabyte in my media center PC so you can use one for sure. My Windows 10 system is on a 64gigabyte(a partition on my 256 gigabyte games SSD) partition(ALL games are on another partition) with 28 gigabytes free.