Upgrade to WIndows 10 on SSD

[christianelliott]

Hi,

I've been running Windows 7 for several years on my HDD, and I've recently purchased a new Samsung 850 evo SSD. I'd like to do the free upgrade to Windows 10 on my SSD and use it as my main drive while keeping documents, pictures, etc on my HDD. Is there any way to change my Windows directory to the new SSD and some programs while keeping others on the HDD. I'd prefer to not have to do an install from scratch on the SSD.

Thanks

 

[azaran]

The 850 comes with migration software that works really well. Run the software to migrate everything to the SSD. Boot the SSD, make sure everything is there, the format the HDD and move all your documents, pictures, etc on to it. From there you can redirect the libraries in Windows to look at the HDD. Then do your upgrade to Windows 10. That way even if the upgrade crashes and burns and you have to start from scratch your data is already on a separate disk.

 

[Dvx67]

I basically did the same thing but installed 7 on my SSD and then did the upgrade to 10. Takes a little longer but no problems.

 

[christianelliott]

The 850 comes with migration software that works really well. Run the software to migrate everything to the SSD. Boot the SSD, make sure everything is there, the format the HDD and move all your documents, pictures, etc on to it. From there you can redirect the libraries in Windows to look at the HDD. Then do your upgrade to Windows 10. That way even if the upgrade crashes and burns and you have to start from scratch your data is already on a separate disk.

The SSD is definitely not big enough to move everything onto. I was thinking I could use my old Windows 7 disk to reinstall onto the SSD, then upgrade there, install the HDD again and delete the old Windows files off of it. Would that work as well?

 

[azaran]

Personally I usually recommend doing it from scratch just because that way you're not carrying over any legacy problems. The downside is of course the amount of time it may take to backup everything and reload. I just did that on my main system and a few days later I'm still installing random little things I didn't think about or didn't feel like installing on the first night. Above all else tho make sure you have any and all serial keys you need written down somewhere, if you do a Win10 from scratch you'll need your OS key during the install.

 

[azaran]

If your SSD isn't big enough to hold it all, make your life easy and do the install from scratch. Otherwise you're going to be doing a juggling of files that's just going to be a pain in the ass and take up as much time as doing it all from scratch.

 

[Dvx67]

The 850 comes with migration software that works really well. Run the software to migrate everything to the SSD. Boot the SSD, make sure everything is there, the format the HDD and move all your documents, pictures, etc on to it. From there you can redirect the libraries in Windows to look at the HDD. Then do your upgrade to Windows 10. That way even if the upgrade crashes and burns and you have to start from scratch your data is already on a separate disk.

The SSD is definitely not big enough to move everything onto. I was thinking I could use my old Windows 7 disk to reinstall onto the SSD, then upgrade there, install the HDD again and delete the old Windows files off of it. Would that work as well?

Yes, that is what I did.

 

[christianelliott]

If your SSD isn't big enough to hold it all, make your life easy and do the install from scratch. Otherwise you're going to be doing a juggling of files that's just going to be a pain in the ass and take up as much time as doing it all from scratch.

Yeah that makes sense. I noticed that Samsung's migration software allows you to pick and choose what you want to migrate over. I think I will try to clone over the Windows files from the HDD to the SSD as well as the programs I want to keep, leaving the other programs behind to get axed when I upgrade to Windows 10 on the SSD.

 

[azaran]

If your SSD isn't big enough to hold it all, make your life easy and do the install from scratch. Otherwise you're going to be doing a juggling of files that's just going to be a pain in the ass and take up as much time as doing it all from scratch.

Yeah that makes sense. I noticed that Samsung's migration software allows you to pick and choose what you want to migrate over. I think I will try to clone over the Windows files from the HDD to the SSD as well as the programs I want to keep, leaving the other programs behind to get axed when I upgrade to Windows 10 on the SSD.

Sounds like a good plan.

 

[TeamT]

I basically did the same thing but installed 7 on my SSD and then did the upgrade to 10. Takes a little longer but no problems.

[/quotemsg]

DVX67, I just ordered a 500G SSD and plan on doing what you did. Just installing windows 7 on the SSD and then upgrading it to 10. Can you give me any hints or advice you have from doing this. I was going to try to gather all the drivers and stuff I think I would need to a Flash drive first. But any tips you can give me having already done this would be appreciated.

 

[christianelliott]

If your SSD isn't big enough to hold it all, make your life easy and do the install from scratch. Otherwise you're going to be doing a juggling of files that's just going to be a pain in the ass and take up as much time as doing it all from scratch.

Yeah that makes sense. I noticed that Samsung's migration software allows you to pick and choose what you want to migrate over. I think I will try to clone over the Windows files from the HDD to the SSD as well as the programs I want to keep, leaving the other programs behind to get axed when I upgrade to Windows 10 on the SSD.

Sounds like a good plan.

Unfortunately, the software doesn't allow you to pick and choose programs, only media files to leave behind. Would you still recommend transferring things over or doing a clean install?