Putting an SSD in my aging rig. Can i migrate my games over?

[Kenton82]

Hi guys and girls. Much as the title says, i was interested in putting an SSD in my rather aging setup to run my games from. So first, i am not sure which version of SATA my motherboard is (and weather it would be able to support a modern SSD) my full specs are in my profile, but the mobo is an Asus Rampage II Extreme, running windows 10 pro 64. Secondly, presuming this would work, and would be a good idea, would there be any way of migrating my 4 favourite games over to the SSD, or weather they would have to be fully re-installed? (probably a silly question in all honesty!)

Many thanks as ever gang.

Kenton

 

[drkatz42]

Your MB supports SATA II spec(3 Gb/s) and although current drives are SATA III(6 Gb/s), these drives are backwards compatible. You'll get roughly half the speed of SATA III with an SSD but this is going to blow away any typical mechanical HD. Cloning the current HD to SSD should allow you to properly migrate your data.

http://www.todo-backup.com/backup-resource/clone/free-windows-10-hdd-clone-software.htm

 

[Kenton82]

Your MB supports SATA II spec(3 Gb/s) and although current drives are SATA III(6 Gb/s), these drives are backwards compatible. You'll get roughly half the speed of SATA III with an SSD but this is going to blow away any typical mechanical HD. Cloning the current HD to SSD should allow you to properly migrate your data.

http://www.todo-backup.com/backup-resource/clone/free-windows-10-hdd-clone-software.htm

Ah great, many thanks for your help mate. That is more than i had hoped for speed and compatibility wise! Just one other question leading on from your comment on cloning the data from my current HD, would i need to clone everything, i.e my o/s? Or would i just be able to clone my games and data? I am a complete noob when it comes to SSD's, and my aim was to play the games from the SSD, as the pc does little else apart from web surfing. But if i am going about it all wrong, it would be great if you could push me in the right direction!

Cheers again pal.

Kenton.

 

[RolandJS]

Cloning a source HD onto a target HD means everything on the source is copied exactly without any changes onto the target HD. Had you asked about moving only Data from source to target - I would have said such is aok; however, moving only games from source to target probably will fail, such programs have to be installed "within" the OS on the target HD.

 

[Kenton82]

Hi, great! In that case my best option to get an SSD up and running would be to clone my HDD onto it - completely? So a full clone of the whole drive? The best thing about my current HDD is that it is only about a year old and is only showing at 7% used space, out of 1TB. I only have about four steam games, and norton, so no office, or any other programmes.
Am i right in thinking this should be a straight forward operation, once i buy my SSD?

Thanks for the answers guys.

K.

 

[RolandJS]

Go with your plan; I can't see anything wrong with it

 

[Kenton82]

Go with your plan; I can't see anything wrong with it

Ok! I will obviously have to change the bios so that the pc will boot from the SSD though... ?

 

[silverado_95]

Once you clone everything to the ssd put it on your first sata port, the one your hhd should be on now and it should boot from the ssd. Or you can chage the boot order in bios to whatever port the ssd is on

 

[lakimens]

I have experience with this problem, I bought an ADATA SP600 and I didn't know my motherboard(GIGABYTE H81M) had Sata 2 ports, so I plugged it in and was seeing low speeds, I'm not sure about the right numbers, but it was close to 300Read and 200Write. After I insterted it in the Sata 3 port, I got more than 450READ and write is the same.

 

[Kenton82]

Once you clone everything to the ssd put it on your first sata port, the one your hhd should be on now and it should boot from the ssd. Or you can chage the boot order in bios to whatever port the ssd is on

That all makes perfect sense! Thanks. Im still living in the dark ages of IDE connections! Need to get up to speed with the SATA business! (no pun intended!) I am still slightly confused as to weather i will still use my existing HDD, and what for? The SSD's are not as big as my HDD (without spending a fortune) So a bit concerned that i may fill up a 250GB SSD in a smaller amount of time, especially with games, game updates, and add-ons?

Sorry for such noobish questions, but just dipping my toe in the area of SSD's, and need some confidence i think! lol.

Many thanks again.
K.

 

[lakimens]

If you play more than a few games, you will definitely fill it. Keep your HDD for movies and files that don't require the speed of the SSD.

 

[aquielisunari]

Hi guys and girls. Much as the title says, i was interested in putting an SSD in my rather aging setup to run my games from. So first, i am not sure which version of SATA my motherboard is (and weather it would be able to support a modern SSD) my full specs are in my profile, but the mobo is an Asus Rampage II Extreme, running windows 10 pro 64. Secondly, presuming this would work, and would be a good idea, would there be any way of migrating my 4 favourite games over to the SSD, or weather they would have to be fully re-installed? (probably a silly question in all honesty!)

Many thanks as ever gang.

Kenton

With compatibility out of the way, I will move onto moving games. Silly is not asking because it sounds silly to you. Are these games within a client library such as Steam or Origin? I have followed step two http://lifehacker.com/how-to-move-a-pc-game-to-another-hard-drive-without-re-1714706774 many times with Steam and Origin games. I haven't really experimented with uPlay too much.

I would absolutely move your favorite 4 games over to your SSD. Your games won't benefit as far as FPS is concerned but load times will be reduced. There is nothing an SSD can do to speed up games loading over a network. Local games on the other hand will benefit. Hitching, caused by HDD's can also be cured by moving the offending game(s) over to an SSD. Hitching is what happens when your HDD is being asked for more information faster than it can relay. Due to a platter spinning at 7200(assuming)rpm there will be a delay caused by having to search for that info. An SSD isn't bound by moving parts akin to a record player. This means the reading/writing speeds are quicker which ends hitching that sometimes shows up as micro-stutters.

 

[Kenton82]

Hi guys and girls. Much as the title says, i was interested in putting an SSD in my rather aging setup to run my games from. So first, i am not sure which version of SATA my motherboard is (and weather it would be able to support a modern SSD) my full specs are in my profile, but the mobo is an Asus Rampage II Extreme, running windows 10 pro 64. Secondly, presuming this would work, and would be a good idea, would there be any way of migrating my 4 favourite games over to the SSD, or weather they would have to be fully re-installed? (probably a silly question in all honesty!)

Many thanks as ever gang.

Kenton

With compatibility out of the way, I will move onto moving games. Silly is not asking because it sounds silly to you. Are these games within a client library such as Steam or Origin? I have followed step two http://lifehacker.com/how-to-move-a-pc-game-to-another-hard-drive-without-re-1714706774 many times with Steam and Origin games. I haven't really experimented with uPlay too much.

I would absolutely move your favorite 4 games over to your SSD. Your games won't benefit as far as FPS is concerned but load times will be reduced. There is nothing an SSD can do to speed up games loading over a network. Local games on the other hand will benefit. Hitching, caused by HDD's can also be cured by moving the offending game(s) over to an SSD. Hitching is what happens when your HDD is being asked for more information faster than it can relay. Due to a platter spinning at 7200(assuming)rpm there will be a delay caused by having to search for that info. An SSD isn't bound by moving parts akin to a record player. This means the reading/writing speeds are quicker which ends hitching that sometimes shows up as micro-stutters.

Hi mate, yes, my games are all within steam. An you are quite right with the hitching! My HDD manages, but takes ages to load large maps on BeamNG Drive, and sometimes results in quite a prolonged 'hang' but the pc does recover itself every time. In train simulator it has the same problem. Also happens when the games are in motion and it has to acquire loads of data from the HDD in one go. As you may see, i do not do things by halves and love thrashing my old rig with the biggest maps and the highest detail possible to attempt to maintain 60FPS where possible. Also, i do not do 'on-line' gaming of any sort.

Cheers for the help and in-depth reply!

K.

 

[aquielisunari]

Hi guys and girls. Much as the title says, i was interested in putting an SSD in my rather aging setup to run my games from. So first, i am not sure which version of SATA my motherboard is (and weather it would be able to support a modern SSD) my full specs are in my profile, but the mobo is an Asus Rampage II Extreme, running windows 10 pro 64. Secondly, presuming this would work, and would be a good idea, would there be any way of migrating my 4 favourite games over to the SSD, or weather they would have to be fully re-installed? (probably a silly question in all honesty!)

Many thanks as ever gang.

Kenton

With compatibility out of the way, I will move onto moving games. Silly is not asking because it sounds silly to you. Are these games within a client library such as Steam or Origin? I have followed step two http://lifehacker.com/how-to-move-a-pc-game-to-another-hard-drive-without-re-1714706774 many times with Steam and Origin games. I haven't really experimented with uPlay too much.

I would absolutely move your favorite 4 games over to your SSD. Your games won't benefit as far as FPS is concerned but load times will be reduced. There is nothing an SSD can do to speed up games loading over a network. Local games on the other hand will benefit. Hitching, caused by HDD's can also be cured by moving the offending game(s) over to an SSD. Hitching is what happens when your HDD is being asked for more information faster than it can relay. Due to a platter spinning at 7200(assuming)rpm there will be a delay caused by having to search for that info. An SSD isn't bound by moving parts akin to a record player. This means the reading/writing speeds are quicker which ends hitching that sometimes shows up as micro-stutters.

Hi mate, yes, my games are all within steam. An you are quite right with the hitching! My HDD manages, but takes ages to load large maps on BeamNG Drive, and sometimes results in quite a prolonged 'hang' but the pc does recover itself every time. In train simulator it has the same problem. Also happens when the games are in motion and it has to acquire loads of data from the HDD in one go. As you may see, i do not do things by halves and love thrashing my old rig with the biggest maps and the highest detail possible to attempt to maintain 60FPS where possible. Also, i do not do 'on-line' gaming of any sort.

Cheers for the help and in-depth reply!

K.

You're welcome 😀

Were you able to move your games? Let us know how this works out.

 

[Kenton82]

Hi guys and girls. Much as the title says, i was interested in putting an SSD in my rather aging setup to run my games from. So first, i am not sure which version of SATA my motherboard is (and weather it would be able to support a modern SSD) my full specs are in my profile, but the mobo is an Asus Rampage II Extreme, running windows 10 pro 64. Secondly, presuming this would work, and would be a good idea, would there be any way of migrating my 4 favourite games over to the SSD, or weather they would have to be fully re-installed? (probably a silly question in all honesty!)

Many thanks as ever gang.

Kenton

With compatibility out of the way, I will move onto moving games. Silly is not asking because it sounds silly to you. Are these games within a client library such as Steam or Origin? I have followed step two http://lifehacker.com/how-to-move-a-pc-game-to-another-hard-drive-without-re-1714706774 many times with Steam and Origin games. I haven't really experimented with uPlay too much.

I would absolutely move your favorite 4 games over to your SSD. Your games won't benefit as far as FPS is concerned but load times will be reduced. There is nothing an SSD can do to speed up games loading over a network. Local games on the other hand will benefit. Hitching, caused by HDD's can also be cured by moving the offending game(s) over to an SSD. Hitching is what happens when your HDD is being asked for more information faster than it can relay. Due to a platter spinning at 7200(assuming)rpm there will be a delay caused by having to search for that info. An SSD isn't bound by moving parts akin to a record player. This means the reading/writing speeds are quicker which ends hitching that sometimes shows up as micro-stutters.

Hi mate, yes, my games are all within steam. An you are quite right with the hitching! My HDD manages, but takes ages to load large maps on BeamNG Drive, and sometimes results in quite a prolonged 'hang' but the pc does recover itself every time. In train simulator it has the same problem. Also happens when the games are in motion and it has to acquire loads of data from the HDD in one go. As you may see, i do not do things by halves and love thrashing my old rig with the biggest maps and the highest detail possible to attempt to maintain 60FPS where possible. Also, i do not do 'on-line' gaming of any sort.

Cheers for the help and in-depth reply!

K.

You're welcome 😀

Were you able to move your games? Let us know how this works out.

Not yet, i still have to buy the drive, but thought i would do my homework before hand!
Any suggestions as to which SSD i should get? Not so much about space, but manufacturer??

Cheers man.

 

[aquielisunari]

Hi guys and girls. Much as the title says, i was interested in putting an SSD in my rather aging setup to run my games from. So first, i am not sure which version of SATA my motherboard is (and weather it would be able to support a modern SSD) my full specs are in my profile, but the mobo is an Asus Rampage II Extreme, running windows 10 pro 64. Secondly, presuming this would work, and would be a good idea, would there be any way of migrating my 4 favourite games over to the SSD, or weather they would have to be fully re-installed? (probably a silly question in all honesty!)

Many thanks as ever gang.

Kenton

With compatibility out of the way, I will move onto moving games. Silly is not asking because it sounds silly to you. Are these games within a client library such as Steam or Origin? I have followed step two http://lifehacker.com/how-to-move-a-pc-game-to-another-hard-drive-without-re-1714706774 many times with Steam and Origin games. I haven't really experimented with uPlay too much.

I would absolutely move your favorite 4 games over to your SSD. Your games won't benefit as far as FPS is concerned but load times will be reduced. There is nothing an SSD can do to speed up games loading over a network. Local games on the other hand will benefit. Hitching, caused by HDD's can also be cured by moving the offending game(s) over to an SSD. Hitching is what happens when your HDD is being asked for more information faster than it can relay. Due to a platter spinning at 7200(assuming)rpm there will be a delay caused by having to search for that info. An SSD isn't bound by moving parts akin to a record player. This means the reading/writing speeds are quicker which ends hitching that sometimes shows up as micro-stutters.

Hi mate, yes, my games are all within steam. An you are quite right with the hitching! My HDD manages, but takes ages to load large maps on BeamNG Drive, and sometimes results in quite a prolonged 'hang' but the pc does recover itself every time. In train simulator it has the same problem. Also happens when the games are in motion and it has to acquire loads of data from the HDD in one go. As you may see, i do not do things by halves and love thrashing my old rig with the biggest maps and the highest detail possible to attempt to maintain 60FPS where possible. Also, i do not do 'on-line' gaming of any sort.

Cheers for the help and in-depth reply!

K.

You're welcome 😀

Were you able to move your games? Let us know how this works out.

Not yet, i still have to buy the drive, but thought i would do my homework before hand!
Any suggestions as to which SSD i should get? Not so much about space, but manufacturer??

Cheers man.

I work under the saying that if it isn't broke don't fix it. Samsung's Evo 250GB or 500GB are both proven drives.

 

[Kenton82]

Great, i have also seen many good reviews of these drives. I will be getting one of these soon!
Just as a side question, would i be better off cloning my entire HDD to the SSD, or just the games (and all the references to steam - i presume?)

K.

 

[aquielisunari]

Great, i have also seen many good reviews of these drives. I will be getting one of these soon!
Just as a side question, would i be better off cloning my entire HDD to the SSD, or just the games (and all the references to steam - i presume?)

K.

My second principle is the KISS principle. I would move only the games. In time you may have some extra money where you can buy a second SSD(Adata 120GB) for your most OS and most used programs. A 250GB Samsung may be a bit much for just an OS and programs. You can eventually have a drive dedicated to your OS/programs, a drive just for your games and a storage drive for movies, music, personal files and other media that won't benefit from the speed of a SSD. Not having all your eggs in a basket helps. But your games are in one basket. I have my library on two drives. Make that 3. I have my library on one drive, a mirror of that library on another and a few games on my Adata 120GB. My financial adviser, Wallet won't allow me to buy the 500GB Samsung just yet. Should one drive crash and burn I simply change the default library location. Am I going to use precious bandwidth(in the country on satellite) to download hundreds upon hundreds of GBs worth of games? No.

 

[RolandJS]

Unless one does a reinstall, how does one move just the games? If the answer is in a previous post, let me know which one

 

[aquielisunari]

Unless one does a reinstall, how does one move just the games? If the answer is in a previous post, let me know which one

😀 It's in this one. Scroll up or click here

I use option 2.