Putting windows 7 on sdd

[TacoOfAwesomness]

So I'm installing windows 7 on a new ssd to make my boot drive but I have two questions:
1) How do I transfer my user profile so that my desktop doesn't change
2) How do I delete windows from the old hdd so that I can make the old hdd a dedicated media storage drive

 

[stavie131]

you would have to create a system image of the drive that windows is currently on and then transfer that image to the ssd, then you can just format the old drive to have it as media storage

 

[geofelt]

Use windows easy transfer to export your settings to a file on your current hard drive.
Disconnect the hard drive and do your windows install on your ssd.
If you don't, windows will try to put a hidden recovery partition on the hard drive complicating things.
After windows new install on the ssd, reattach your hard drive and you can import your settings using easy transfer.
You can just delete the windows files from your old hard drive; your user files will still be intact.
Any apps that used the registry will need to be reinstalled.

If your new ssd can hold the contents of your hard drive, you could just clone.
Intel and Samsung have free clone utilities to clone to their ssd drives.

 

[TacoOfAwesomness]

Well I don't want to delete all my programs and data so I wouldn't want to format it. Is there a way to delete windows without formatting the hdd

 

[stavie131]

you would have to go to each system file and delete it one by one

 

[geofelt]

Well I don't want to delete all my programs and data so I wouldn't want to format it. Is there a way to delete windows without formatting the hdd

Just delete the windows folders.
But... because your clean install created a new registry, your programs will not find their registry and will need to be reinstalled.

If this is a big problem, buy a sufficiently large ssd.
Samsung clone utility has an option to exclude from cloning some user selected data files such as video files that might help to make things fit.

 

[TacoOfAwesomness]

Well I don't want to delete all my programs and data so I wouldn't want to format it. Is there a way to delete windows without formatting the hdd

Just delete the windows folders.
But... because your clean install created a new registry, your programs will not find their registry and will need to be reinstalled.

If this is a big problem, buy a sufficiently large ssd.
Samsung clone utility has an option to exclude from cloning some user selected data files such as video files that might help to make things fit.

If i can transfer files, could I transfer the operating system cause I have a lot of stuff that would be a pain to re-install

 

[stavie131]

do a clean install of windows on your ssd, tranfer over your important files (music, docs, pictures etc) then you can format your drive and reinstall all your programs onto that

 

[geofelt]

If reinstalling your programs is a pain, then your only choice is to clone your current drive.
Current ssd's are getting cheaper so one sufficiently large may be doable.