Upgrading SSD

[thatisoffensive]

Hi, I have a build that had a 30gig ssd for the OS but I keep running out of space so I just bought a Crucial M4 128g SSD from Newegg. It comes with cloning software but the question I have is after I clone it what do I do? I am not that advanced with computers but I did built my own comp. I heard that after you clone it you should disconnect your old drive and boot up with the new one only, but in the videos they don't go into detail after that. I want to still be able to use my old SSD. Should I wipe everything off it, and how would I do that? Is there a program that does it for you? Sorry if this seems very obvious to you but I want to know.

Thanks

 

[xtremcarl]

After you clone it over you should go into your bios, hit f2 or f10 or whatever it is for your motherboard during the startup and change your boot order and make your new cruical m4 as the first drive checked.

You don't' need to erase the old ssd you can have 2 drives that have the os installed in your computer but just have the one you want it to boot off of first in order. You might want to erase your old ssd to regain that space for any programs you want.

I would really advise installing windows 7 fresh on the new ssd. Sometimes cloning software doesn't work as well as you might wish.

 

[game junky]

Assuming the cloning application worked correctly, you would be able to boot onto the new drive. Yes, you would want to disconnect the old drive and format that drive. There are many ways to format the drive, but it can be accomplished easily in disk management. While running windows off your new Crucial drive, launch disk management. Make sure you have the other drive connected via either an alternate Sata port on the motherboard or via the USB drive connector that came with your Crucial drive.

If you're running windows 7, you can search for it within the start menu by typing diskmgmt.msc and pressing enter. Disk management will show you a list of all the connected drives. Find your 30GB SSD drive and right-click on the partition you would like to erase and select format. Simple, but effective because a solid state is just flash memory.

 

[thatisoffensive]

Thanks for the help

 

[thatisoffensive]

Wait, I have another question. After I have cloned it and booted it up with the new drive, do I just plug the old SSD in when the system is on or do I boot it up again with the new SSD as the boot drive. Also can you erase your SSD right in Disk Management?

 

[game junky]

You'll want to boot with the new drive running the OS. If the old drive is being powered by your USB drive connector that came with the new drive, you can treat it like any other USB drive. It will have to be connected before you launch disk management to be visable though.

Yes, you can erase the drive right inside disk management. If you still want to use the drive, you could also snag an external drive enclosure and make it a really fast external hard drive. I would recommend finding one with a USB 3.0 or an eSata connector depending on what works with the majority of the computers you touch. Just my two cents...