I built my system about 7 years ago and the way I set it up is that I have a 128GB SSD for my operating system and a 4TB hybrid HDD where all my games and media are installed. I'm currently running out of space on my SSD and I've moved pretty much everything I could to my HDD but I still get messages saying I need to free up space. Anyway, I purchased a new SSD with 1TB of space and I want to move my OS to that drive but while I'm good at the hardware stuff I'm not so skilled with the software stuff.
Here's a few details I think are important:
I'm running Windows 10 and this PC is primarily used for gaming and online activities like paying bills. The SSD is Drive C and my HDD is Drive D. Drive C has Windows, all of my drivers and all of my gaming platforms like Steam and Uplay. All of the games I install through Steam or Uplay (as well as about a half-dozen other platforms) are installed on the D Drive.
I'm wondering what's the best way to move Windows to the bigger drive? If I do a clean install, what sort of issues would I have when I reinstalled Steam since all the games are installed on another drive? I found this article with instructions on cloning the drive onto an external drive, installing the new SSD and then booting the PC from a Windows Installation Media ( I have a USB with this on it) and then using the system recover tool to use the drive image from the external drive and just clone it to the new drive. A straight up move like this is the one I prefer but since I'm not a software person I'm wondering what sort of corruption might happen?
Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated.
Here's a few details I think are important:
I'm running Windows 10 and this PC is primarily used for gaming and online activities like paying bills. The SSD is Drive C and my HDD is Drive D. Drive C has Windows, all of my drivers and all of my gaming platforms like Steam and Uplay. All of the games I install through Steam or Uplay (as well as about a half-dozen other platforms) are installed on the D Drive.
I'm wondering what's the best way to move Windows to the bigger drive? If I do a clean install, what sort of issues would I have when I reinstalled Steam since all the games are installed on another drive? I found this article with instructions on cloning the drive onto an external drive, installing the new SSD and then booting the PC from a Windows Installation Media ( I have a USB with this on it) and then using the system recover tool to use the drive image from the external drive and just clone it to the new drive. A straight up move like this is the one I prefer but since I'm not a software person I'm wondering what sort of corruption might happen?
Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated.
Last edited: