Need a little guidance.

[ineedfire]

Hey guys n gals.

I've just installed windows 8.1 on a fresh SSD and my god its quick!

Im trying to set it up and am finding it a little confusing with the new layout but I'm sure I'll get used to it pretty quickly. I just have a few quick questions that I need a little help with.

First, my existing setup was completely up to date (drivers, BIOS etc etc) - do I have to update all these again for win8.1?

Second, I cant seem to figure out why (im not SUPER computer savvy but I know my way around) but once everything once installed and working - I shut everything down and plugged in my HDD that had all my games and downloads installed. This HDD did NOT have win7 installed, I was merely using it as storage and had a separate 250GB HDD for the OS (no longer using it obviously). So my question is, what do I have to do to get this HDD to sync with win8.1?

That's all I can think of for now but I will probably encounter more issues as the day goes on.
If anyone could help me with these questions that would be great!

 

[avjguy2362]

Generally any programs that you installed on your old OS will have to be installed again ( provided they are Windows 8 compatible ). If your games are steam games then just install the main Steam program ( from steam's site ) and specify where you want you steams games to download: your old steam games folder. If you had all you games from disk then you just need to install them again. Gaming sites differ, you'll need to find their directions. Getting W8 to see all you pictures, videos, and documents, requires that you open the "my <pictures or videos or music, etc>" folder, right click properties and choose the location tab. Then click browse and point to the folders on you ext HD. If you use Windows Media Player, there is a similar setup ( Organize> Manage Library's) so you can combine all you folders to to be seen as one library.

 

[ineedfire]

I was hoping there was a way around it. I had backed up all my downloads to an external HDD previously in case I had to do this.
I'll start formatting the HDD and start fresh. Should be the easiest solution.

Does anybody have any suggestions of how I should go about my drivers? Do I need to wipe my previous versions before sourcing updates for win8.1?

 

[avjguy2362]

Windows always installs the newest drivers it has available and are usually more than good enough to be stable. However the GPU driver should probably be checked and make sure your BIOS is set to AHCI in the sata controller section.
Here is a list of programs from CNET that are mostly free and will scan your system and automatically or manually update all your drivers. I have not used, but heard good things about the free version of Glary ( 6th on the list ).
http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=driver+updater&platformSelect=&tag=srch%3Ba&searchtype=downloads&filterName=platform%3DWindows%2CMac%2CiOS%2CAndroid%2CWebware%2CMobile&filter=platform%3DWindows%2CMac%2CiOS%2CAndroid%2CWebware%2CMobile#

 

[ineedfire]

Thanks for the help!