Upgrading Boot Drive to SSD Help?

[Jayhawker32]

Hi,

So I currently am running my OS off of a HDD but I want to buy a 120 - 256 Gg SSD to run my OS off of, I still want to use the HDD for storage I just don't want my OS to run off of it. What do I need to do exactly to make this happen? I've seen a lot of people saying you need to clone the HDD to get the OS off of it but I'm very confused. Also, any recommendations as far as the new SSD goes?

Thanks

SPECS:
CPU: i7-4790k @ 4.59 GHz
MOBO: ASUS Maximus VII Hero
RAM: 2x 8 GB Gskill 1866 MHz
GPU: 2x EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0
PSU: EVGA 850 G2
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 240M
Storage: 500 Gb Samsung 850 EVO, 256 Gb Crucial SSD, 500 Gb Hitachi HDD?

 

[Davil]

You will need to reinstall your operating system onto the SSD, you can only clone a disc if the receiving disc is the same size or larger. Your other drive you can just take all the stuff you want to keep and store it on a usb temporarily, format the drive and then move what you want back to it. Also I recommend you get a 256gb drive at least. 128gb would work, but you'll notice it filling up over time more quickly that you would like with temporary files and such.

 

[Paul NZ]

You]http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html]You can use Samsung data migration[/url] since you'll have a Samsung SSD

 

[Jayhawker32]

You will need to reinstall your operating system onto the SSD, you can only clone a disc if the receiving disc is the same size or larger. Your other drive you can just take all the stuff you want to keep and store it on a usb temporarily, format the drive and then move what you want back to it. Also I recommend you get a 256gb drive at least. 128gb would work, but you'll notice it filling up over time more quickly that you would like with temporary files and such.

For all the Microsoft office programs will I have to worry about the product key being lost since the OS is moving to a different drive?

 

[USAFRet]

1. How much total used space is on your current drive?
1b. How much of that is cat videos or similar?

2. What size is the new SSD?

 

[Jayhawker32]

1. How much total used space is on your current drive?
1b. How much of that is cat videos or similar?

2. What size is the new SSD?

1. On my Hard Drive I've used 231 Gb, a few are games that I didn't need to run as quickly, however most of it is comprised of documents, videos, and pictures as well as a few programs that I didn't need to run quickly.

2. I'm looking at probably a 256 Gb

 

[USAFRet]

1. How much total used space is on your current drive?
1b. How much of that is cat videos or similar?

2. What size is the new SSD?

1. On my Hard Drive I've used 231 Gb, a few are games that I didn't need to run as quickly, however most of it is comprised of documents, videos, and pictures as well as a few programs that I didn't need to run quickly.

2. I'm looking at probably a 256 Gb

You need to move a bunch of that off the current drive. Doc/Video/Pics.
Get the current used space to significantly below 200GB
Then consider cloning from old to new
or
Just a clean install of the OS on the new SSD.

 

[Jayhawker32]

1. How much total used space is on your current drive?
1b. How much of that is cat videos or similar?

2. What size is the new SSD?

1. On my Hard Drive I've used 231 Gb, a few are games that I didn't need to run as quickly, however most of it is comprised of documents, videos, and pictures as well as a few programs that I didn't need to run quickly.

2. I'm looking at probably a 256 Gb

You need to move a bunch of that off the current drive. Doc/Video/Pics.
Get the current used space to significantly below 200GB
Then consider cloning from old to new
or
Just a clean install of the OS on the new SSD.

Alright so I've got it down to 137 GB on the HDD. That being said, the hard drive I have in there is from my last computer which used to have win 7 on it and has transitioned from 7 to 8.1 and 8.1 to 10. Would it be wiser to do a clean install on the SSD and then transfer the rest of my backed up data to the new SSD and wipe my old HDD?

 

[USAFRet]

1. How much total used space is on your current drive?
1b. How much of that is cat videos or similar?

2. What size is the new SSD?

1. On my Hard Drive I've used 231 Gb, a few are games that I didn't need to run as quickly, however most of it is comprised of documents, videos, and pictures as well as a few programs that I didn't need to run quickly.

2. I'm looking at probably a 256 Gb

You need to move a bunch of that off the current drive. Doc/Video/Pics.
Get the current used space to significantly below 200GB
Then consider cloning from old to new
or
Just a clean install of the OS on the new SSD.

Alright so I've got it down to 137 GB on the HDD. That being said, the hard drive I have in there is from my last computer which used to have win 7 on it and has transitioned from 7 to 8.1 and 8.1 to 10. Would it be wiser to do a clean install on the SSD and then transfer the rest of my backed up data to the new SSD and wipe my old HDD?

I'd consider a clean install of Win 10. Since this machine has already been Upgraded to Win 10, just install that. No license key needed.
You can obtain the install media here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10