Trying to upgrade/replace my hard drive as painlessly as possible

Dentenstein

Reputable
Nov 30, 2015
1
0
4,510
So, I currently have a 1TB HDD and plan on upgrading to a 250 GB SSD and a 2 TB HDD. Naturally I'd like Windows to live on my SSD. Additionally I would like to transfer the files from my 1 TB to the new HDD. My question is, How can I go about this as efficiently as possible?

I appreciate any feedback on this.
 
Solution
Best thing to do is plug in your new 2TB into your PC and set it say as the D Drive. Then do this

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/redirect-folder-new-location#1TC=windows-7

For all your folders in your user folder but move them to the D Drive (I like to just change the C to a D so that on the D drive it still keeps the D:\users\Yourusername\Folder structure). This will move a bulk of your files to the new 2TB drive.

If you have a lot of games i would uninstall them off the C Drive. We need to get the C Drive below 250GB. Then you can Power down, plug in the SSD, and then boot back into windows, install Macrium Reflect and clone your current C Drive to your new SSD drive.

Once cloned, shutdown your PC, disconnect your...
Best thing to do is plug in your new 2TB into your PC and set it say as the D Drive. Then do this

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/redirect-folder-new-location#1TC=windows-7

For all your folders in your user folder but move them to the D Drive (I like to just change the C to a D so that on the D drive it still keeps the D:\users\Yourusername\Folder structure). This will move a bulk of your files to the new 2TB drive.

If you have a lot of games i would uninstall them off the C Drive. We need to get the C Drive below 250GB. Then you can Power down, plug in the SSD, and then boot back into windows, install Macrium Reflect and clone your current C Drive to your new SSD drive.

Once cloned, shutdown your PC, disconnect your 1TB, power on, go into BIOS, set SSD and primary Boot, and then see if it boots and it should keep the user folders mapped to the D Drive as well. Now all your documnets, downloads, etc will be saved on the 2TB and not take up space on the SSD.

I would install small games that you don't care about load times to the 2TB Drive and if you want the speed install the game to the SSD if you have space.

Me I have a 240Gb in my desktop and that is it. Nothing more. All my files are stored and pointed to my server. I just install games as I play them which is only one or two at a time.
 
Solution