So, I know there’s many forums on this, but I can’t find an exact answer. I just got a new SSD, the Samsung 960 EVO 250GB. I have a 2TB HDD. I want to run my OS and one game through the SSD, and keep all storage on my HDD. Is there a way to do this without getting rid of all of my user settings on my PC? It looks like a clean install may be better, but is there a way to recover all of my user settings once I do a fresh install? Or should I just migrate my OS to the SSD, and leave behind everything else. I only use my gaming PC for Fortnite and random browsing. Thank you guys.
SD for Games and OS, HDD for storage
- Thread starter ztolson31
- Start date
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- Mar 16, 2013
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1. You can't "migrate my OS to the SSD, and leave behind everything else"
All or nothing, mostly.
2. You can't save the old user settings from the old OS.
You can export and import browser settings, but thats about it.
For your use case..."OS and one game"...that means a clean install on the SSD.
All or nothing, mostly.
2. You can't save the old user settings from the old OS.
You can export and import browser settings, but thats about it.
For your use case..."OS and one game"...that means a clean install on the SSD.
- Jun 12, 2015
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what do you mean by user settings? if you have a Microsoft account now and user is attached to an email address, it is likely your settings are synced on a roaming server and if you were to login to another PC many of youre desktop settings will move onto PC,
look in settings/accounts/sync your settings. It shows what is saved here
Otherwise, you can't just move windows settings to new ssd, you can't clone the drive as 2tb won't fit into 250gb
I would clean install win 10 on ssd (removing hdd from power while you do so as Win 10 will see the boot partition on hdd and just add itself to that, not handy if hdd later removed or breaks as then ssd won't boot) and then once win 10 on machine, unplug PC and reattach hdd. Check in bios to make sure hdd not listed in boot order and restart windows.
Now leaving win 10 on PC twice is not ideal, Once you ready to remove win 10, I would mark the old windows folder on hdd as Windows.old and run disk cleanup and set it to delete old versions of windows. That still leaves a boot partition but it won't boot since Windows is not there anymore. Ideal situation is to reformat hdd but its up to you.
look in settings/accounts/sync your settings. It shows what is saved here
Otherwise, you can't just move windows settings to new ssd, you can't clone the drive as 2tb won't fit into 250gb
I would clean install win 10 on ssd (removing hdd from power while you do so as Win 10 will see the boot partition on hdd and just add itself to that, not handy if hdd later removed or breaks as then ssd won't boot) and then once win 10 on machine, unplug PC and reattach hdd. Check in bios to make sure hdd not listed in boot order and restart windows.
Now leaving win 10 on PC twice is not ideal, Once you ready to remove win 10, I would mark the old windows folder on hdd as Windows.old and run disk cleanup and set it to delete old versions of windows. That still leaves a boot partition but it won't boot since Windows is not there anymore. Ideal situation is to reformat hdd but its up to you.
- Mar 16, 2013
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1. Install the OS on the SD with only the SSD connected. Disconnect ALL other drives.
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10
2. Whatever data that lives on the current HDD, ensure you have anything you wish to keep off on some other drive or location.
Then, wipe the the entire drive and reformat.
Trying to delete "just Windows" is an incomplete process. You really need to wipe the whole drive of all partitions.
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