Switching from SSD to HDD

[brianx96]

Hello guys, so i have a question. I have a 250gb SSD in my current computer. My grandfather has a 1TB HDD in his computer. i want to trade him my SSD for his HDD. I was wondering if there was a way to get all of my info. including my OS from my SSD to his HDD and vice versa with all of his info and OS onto my SSD. Thank you in advanced.

 

[USAFRet]

Not easily.
You'll need another drive.

1. How much used space is on the existing 1TB drive?

 

[Kenneth Barker]

not really without an external to act as the transfer drive. You would need either 2 external drives of a size large enough to hold each drives data. Or a very large external that you can partition into 2 parts to hold each drive separately and then move them that way.

 

[yoji]

you crazy? go out and buy a HDD and have both!! I could NEVER go back to a HDD system
Anyway - to answer your question.. yes.. you can clone your SSD to his HDD since his is bigger.
If he has more data on his HDD than the size of your SSD (I,e, more than 250GB) then you cant fit his HDD to your SSD.. you would need remove stuff to get it below the 250GB target (and realistically - it needs be a fair bit smaller.. you don't want it full).
You need an interim drive to move stuff i.e.
Move your SSD to interim drive
Move HDD to your SDD
Move interim drive to HDD.
You could do it with just your current drives if you HDD has more than 250GB free.. but it very messy - and beyond scope of this answer.
Anyway.. as I started out.. if you can.. just get an extra HDD and fit it into your machine as a second drive.
HTH
Cheers

 

[SBMfromLA]

I wouldn't recommend doing that... but yes, it is possible. However, it will take a couple of extra steps. If one of your was willing to sacrifice the data... then it would be quite easy to do. But keeping the data/OS from two computers in a swap like this would be pain.

Why not just simply buy a 1TB drive and add it as a secondary drive to your system if you're running low on space?

 

[USAFRet]

And we have to ask...WHY are you doing this?

After having an SSD, there is no possible way I'd go back to using a HDD as my primary drive. Like watching paint dry.

 

[brianx96]

Well it was just an idea for the meantime i needed more storage so i thought i could swap my 250GB SSD with a HDD that can store up to 1TB. But i was just curious haha. Thanks for the help guys

 

[USAFRet]

Well it was just an idea for the meantime i needed more storage so i thought i could swap my 250GB SSD with a HDD that can store up to 1TB. But i was just curious haha. Thanks for the help guys

Just add in another HDD for stuff that doesn't require the performance of the SSD. Music and movies, perhaps.

 

[brianx96]

Ok, my plan for the future is to build a gaming pc and a streaming pc but for right now, what i have is enough to play games like fallout 3, and minecraft. My computer seems a little slow so i thought i just needed more storage.