[SOLVED] Upgrading and Swapping an SSD

[Gabgam]

I just bought a Sabrent gen 4 drive for my PC. My motherboard currently has a gen 3 SSD in the one and only gen 4 slot available, so I was wondering if it was possible to just switch the slots and still boot into windows just fine? I would also like to transfer just some certain files to the newer faster drive, because I don't want to immediately clutter the new one with nearly a TB of data.
If this doesn't work, what do I need to do to swap the drive slots?
Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

I just bought a Sabrent gen 4 drive for my PC. My motherboard currently has a gen 3 SSD in the one and only gen 4 slot available, so I was wondering if it was possible to just switch the slots and still boot into windows just fine? I would also like to transfer just some certain files to the newer faster drive, because I don't want to immediately clutter the new one with nearly a TB of data.
If this doesn't work, what do I need to do to swap the drive slots?
Thanks in advance.

What motherboard?
Which specific drives?

Do this one step at a time.
Ignore the new drive.
Move the current C drive to the different port.
Power up, and see what happens.

Later, we'll go into file transfers.

 

[Gabgam]

What motherboard?
Which specific drives?

Do this one step at a time.
Ignore the new drive.
Move the current C drive to the different port.
Power up, and see what happens.

Later, we'll go into file transfers.

The motherboard is a TUF gaming Z590
Primary drive is an Intel SSDPEKNU010TZ
New drive is a Sabrent Rocket NVMe4
Both are 1 TB
I already installed the new drive to the second port to initialize it but I will remove it and put the Intel drive in that slot.

 

[Gabgam]

I switched slots and got the computer booted with the old drive in the second slot. Then I put the new drive in the gen 4 slot and powered on, it’s detected in Disk Management now. The next question is how do I move just my OS and other specific files to the new drive?

 

[geofelt]

You will not be able to tell the difference between gen3 drives and gen 4 drives. So no real value in switching.

If you still wanted to to swap, use a clone utility like macrium reflect to clone your current c drive to the new gen 4 drive

These experts could not tell the difference between systems with sara, pcie and gen 4 drives.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DKLA7w9eeA

 

[Gabgam]

You will not be able to tell the difference between gen3 drives and gen 4 drives. So no real value in switching.

If you still wanted to to swap, use a clone utility like macrium reflect to clone your current c drive to the new gen 4 drive

These experts could not tell the difference between systems with sara, pcie and gen 4 drives.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DKLA7w9eeA

Hmm, alright. I got the new drive to increase my storage primarily. The theoretical speeds on this new drive are nearly double that of my current, but I guess that doesn't matter so much. I don't want to completely clone over my old drive because it's still in my system, I just wanted my OS and some other specific files on it, but I'm not sure how to do that.

 

[USAFRet]

I switched slots and got the computer booted with the old drive in the second slot. Then I put the new drive in the gen 4 slot and powered on, it’s detected in Disk Management now. The next question is how do I move just my OS and other specific files to the new drive?

Don't.

Leave the OS on the drive it currently lives on.

1. You can't tell the difference
2. You can't clone "just my OS and other specific files"

 

[Gabgam]

Don't.

Leave the OS on the drive it currently lives on.

1. You can't tell the difference
2. You can't clone "just my OS and other specific files"

Alright, thank you for the help. I just wanted to have my Steam Library, for example, all on one drive instead of split between two. I'll find another way to do that.

 

[USAFRet]

Alright, thank you for the help. I just wanted to have my Steam Library, for example, all on one drive instead of split between two. I'll find another way to do that.

You can put your Steam lib on either drive, or both.

But the overall difference between your two drives is pretty much nothing.

 

[Gabgam]

You can put your Steam lib on either drive, or both.

But the overall difference between your two drives is pretty much nothing.

Alright, thanks for showing me. Unless I can easily move my steam files to the new drive, I'll just live with it being split. Just out of curiosity, what's the best way to go about moving it? Is it as simple as going into my files and copying the library into the new drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Alright, thanks for showing me. Unless I can easily move my steam files to the new drive, I'll just live with it being split. Just out of curiosity, what's the best way to go about moving it? Is it as simple as going into my files and copying the library into the new drive?

Create a folder on the new drive. Call it MySteamGames (or whatever).


Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

To move an already installed game
Games library
Right click the game
Properties
Local Files
Move Install Folder

 

[Gabgam]

Create a folder on the new drive. Call it MySteamGames (or whatever).


Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

To move an already installed game
Games library
Right click the game
Properties
Local Files
Move Install Folder

Ah, cool! One final thing, is there any way to move steam itself to this drive? I want it to be my steam/game drive.

 

[USAFRet]

Ah, cool! One final thing, is there any way to move steam itself to this drive? I want it to be my steam/game drive.

Leave the Steam client where it is, on the C drive.

 

[Gabgam]

Leave the Steam client where it is, on the C drive.

Will do, thank you for your help.