[SOLVED] Trouble adding an SSD to my rig.

[LilLafo]

SO finally after 2 years I decided it was a good time to add a SSD to my rig. For a task that seems so simple it has caused me such a headache. I still am struggling to decide which cloning software to use but right now I am trying to Acronis True Image WD edition which I found purely from the fact that the SSD I want to install is a 500GB western digital blue. After what seemed to be a successful clone I tried to boot from the the cloned SSD only to get a a black screen that seems to go on for eternity. After doing some research I kinda figured that it might be the cloning process that is the problem because no matter what I do to the boot order in my bios it will not work and I made sure that boot order was correct and disconnected the old hard drive to make sure that the only place it could boot from was the new SSD. Still could not get the clone to boot.

My second thought process was maybe that the SSD I purchased was faulty, so I said screw it and wiped it to a clean state again and installed Windows 10 on it fresh and finally it worked, I was able to boot from the new drive and everything is in working order. The only problem is that I'm not sure I want to part ways with all of the stuff on my old drive. At this point I'm questioning weather I should wipe the SSD and try to clone it again just so I don't have to spend copious amounts of time downloading and reinstalling programs. Not to mention,is it even worth trying to clone all of my stuff to the SSD if it's gonna be almost full anyways? Is it a viable option to transfer the programs I want straight from HDD to the SSD, then wipe the HDD? Is it as safe as just dragging and dropping the over?

 

[USAFRet]

A 500GB SSD?
What specific make/model is it? 2.5" or M.2"?
What motherboard?
How much space is consumed on your current C drive?
Can you return the ysstem back to original working condition?

 

[RealBeast]

Nope, for programs they will need to be reinstalled to the SSD. Data can just be dragged over though.

Now that you know the SSD works, you can try cloning again, But first create a system repair disk that may help with the black screen after the clone by fixing the boot partition for you.

 

[USAFRet]

Is it a viable option to transfer the programs I want straight from HDD to the SSD, then wipe the HDD? Is it as safe as just dragging and dropping the over?

No. You can't copy applications like that.

 

[LilLafo]

A 500GB SSD?
What specific make/model is it? 2.5" or M.2"?
What motherboard?
How much space is consumed on your current C drive?
Can you return the ysstem back to original working condition?

The make of the SSD is 2.5" and my mother board is a MSI Z270 gaming pro motherboard.
So their is currently 513 GB free of the 929GB capacity. Granted I had to delete quite a few games to get it there because before it was almost maxed out. Yes as long as I still boot from my original hard drive it's like nothing changed.

 

[USAFRet]

"So their is currently 513 GB free of the 929GB capacity. "

That is not enough free space on the current drive.
For a successful clone operation into a 512GB SSD, the actual consumed space needs to be below 400GB.

Get to that point and we can discuss the actual cloning steps.