Replacing a hdd with an SSD but keeping the hdd for storage

[Bazza23]

Hi guys,

I have read through a couple of threads but can’t seem to find a pin point answer. To put it simple I currently have a 1tb hard drive in my pc. I want to replace this with a 120gb ssd for Windows and maybe 2 of my favourite games whilst keeping the hdd for storage and some other games I don’t really play as much. What I’m asking is that is it as simple as plug and play with the ssd.

1.Format the current hdd and unplug it
2. Plug the ssd in and fresh install windows
3. Re plug in the harddrive and use as storage and for less popular games

I’ve also read in a couple places that you need to change some things in the bios to get the ssd to work/get detected by the pc. Could someone clarify on this please.

Thanks in advance,

Baz

 

[Barty1884]

I'd suggest backing up data/games to an external drive before formatting the HDD.

You'd be better to disconnect the HDD temporarily. Clean install your OS to the SSD and make sure you can boot from it. Set it as boot priority #1.

Then you could reconnect the HDD and format it (if you can backup data, or if you're ok with starting from scratch & redownloading etc).

As far as changes in the BIOS, it depends on the age of the system.
You may have to enable AHCI for the SSd...... You may have to enable CSM to boot from a USB to install the OS - depends on the age of the hardware & specifics.

 

[Corwin65]

I'd also recommend at least a 240GB SSD. They fill up fast and the price difference is really close.

 

[Barty1884]

^^ Good point. I meant to mention that, and ended up rambling.

120GB is doable.... but it can be a total pain to be regularly managing your space.

No matter how good your intentions are for OS + a couple of games.....those game files are typically larger than you first assume, and a couple of waves of Windows updates and you'd be running pretty close to max capacity -- which isn't good for an SSD.

 

[Bazza23]

I'd suggest backing up data/games to an external drive before formatting the HDD.

You'd be better to disconnect the HDD temporarily. Clean install your OS to the SSD and make sure you can boot from it. Set it as boot priority #1.

Then you could reconnect the HDD and format it (if you can backup data, or if you're ok with starting from scratch & redownloading etc).

As far as changes in the BIOS, it depends on the age of the system.
You may have to enable AHCI for the SSd...... You may have to enable CSM to boot from a USB to install the OS - depends on the age of the hardware & specifics.

I don't mind losing data that is currently on the hard drive. Only games are stored on it anyway so backing it up wont be an issue. i just thought i would need to wipe it as it has windows 10 on it and so would the ssd then as well. The machine is quite new. I would say about a year and a half old and is pretty decently speced with a gtx1070, i5 6600k and 16gb of ram. i will eventually get a better ssd more in line with lets say 500gb+ but i wanted to use this one i had lying around as a sort of tester until i get the new one as i haven't ever installed one before.

The answer i was looking for was the AHCI thing. I saw that floating around and wondered if it applied to me... because my machine is quite new do you think i can get away with just plugging it in a fingers crossed it will just work? How much space should i leave spare typically on a ssd?

 

[Bazza23]

I'd also recommend at least a 240GB SSD. They fill up fast and the price difference is really close.

Yeah im going to get one with much higher storage like 500gb but i just had this one spare so thought i would test on this before i invest in the larger storage one as ive never installed an ssd before.

 

[Barty1884]

With a new(ish) system, there shouldn't be anything you have to change (except, probably enabling CSM to boot from a USB).
AHCI etc was standard BIOS base settings by the time Skylake came out.

Having an OS on an HDD and the SSD won't create any problems, provided you boot to the SSD. There's potential you could boot from the wrong drive, so a format would be ideal..... especially if you don't mind downloading your games/data again.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes...after you have the OS up and running on the new SSD, please delete ALL partitions from the old HDD.

I've seen more than a couple of instances here where the PC booted from the 'wrong drive'. Things looked a little bit off, and the user could not figure out why, or what happened.

2 identical, bootable, OS's on different drives serves little purpose except to take up valuable drive space.

And absolutely get an SSD larger than 120GB.
240GB minimum, 500GB preferable.

 

[Bazza23]

Thanks a bunch guys much appreciated going to give it a go today.