Trying to use new ssd as boot drive, windows not show old files from HDD

Jun 1, 2018
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I have recently purchased a new western digital green 120gb ssd to use as my boot drive for windows 10 because my pc was booting very slowly from my hard drive.
I read through some forums and realised that the best thing to do was to do a 'clean install' of windows using a usb thumb drive onto the new ssd using my old product key then setting the ssd as the boot drive in the BIOS.
Once doing this I was faced with a blank desktop and none of my old files, drivers or folders but both the ssd and HDD were being recognised fine by the pc.

To conclude,
Do any of you know how I could use my ssd as a boot drive but still keep all of the files from my HDD?(without cloning the hard drive- because the ssd is too small and also without installing non-free software)

Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks
 
Solution


Cloning.
To clone into that little 128GB SSD< you'll need to get the actual used space to below 85GB or so.

Uninstall some things.
Delete old junk you no longer need.
Move video/music/etc off to that external drive.


Once you've reached an actual consumed space of 80-85GB, you can migrate it all to the new SSD.

Just like this:
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and...
You just installed a new boot drive, none of your old files will be there. You will need to clone the HDD to make it work. Do you have a portable HDD? You an move your files to it as a backup to reduce the size of your HDD and keep the software on the HDD for the clone. Then the software will be on your SSD. Then wipe your HDD and move the files over from the portable HDD.

Or you could just bit the bullet and take back the 120gb SSD for a bigger drive. SSD prices have really come down over the past few months.
 
Jun 1, 2018
2
0
10


Thanks very much for the reply,
I do have a portable hard drive.
But when you say clone the 'software', which parts of the HDD should I clone onto the ssd and which parts should I put onto the portable HDD?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Your new OS on the SSD knows nothing about the applications and files that existed in the old OS on the HDD.
You'll need to reinstall your applications.

Steam games can probably be accessed and used.
Your old docs/music/video can as well, but they exist under the old user libraries on the old drive.
 
I think, you just need copy files from your old user profile on HDD to new user profile on SSD.
User profile is located in \users\yourusername\
Copy all subfolders to your SSD (desktop, documents,downloads,favorites,music,pictures,videos,saved games).

Alternatively you can also relocate library folders from your SSD to physically point to HDD. This way you wouldn't even have to copy anything.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Cloning.
To clone into that little 128GB SSD< you'll need to get the actual used space to below 85GB or so.

Uninstall some things.
Delete old junk you no longer need.
Move video/music/etc off to that external drive.


Once you've reached an actual consumed space of 80-85GB, you can migrate it all to the new SSD.

Just like this:
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe as necessary.
Delete the 450MB Recovery Partition, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
-----------------------------
 
Solution