upgrading to win 8 SSD from win 7 HDD can i do it?

[Pinquu]

Hello Linus tech forum

I just got my new SSD today and up until now i have had windows 7 on a (standard?) HDD drive 500gb which i was running win 7 on. 
But as i got my new SSD i figured i might as well upgrade my OS as well so here we go... My question is: will i be able to upgrade and boot from my windows 8 and be able to have access to my HDD with all my current programs on? or should i just defrag it and start over? 

i watched the video where linus explains how to manage to boot from ssd and have hdd as storage so that shouldnt be a problem.
 

 - Pinquu

[VMaxMuffin]

You should still be able to access your W7 HDD. Though unless you're planning on dual booting, I'd back up all the files you need from the HDD, wipe it and then have it as a simple storage drive (with no OS). Simpler that way.

 

EDIT: Also 'defragging' is not wiping to start over. Defragging refers to defragmenting the hard drive, which basically moves related bits of information physically closer to each other for better speeds (long story short).

[Pinquu]

Thank you for your response. 

i wasn't initially planning on dual booting, all i want is to maintain access to all my installed programs and files on my HDD such as games and video, while still having the ability of booting from my SSD and running my OS from there. I guess ill consider wiping it in future.

 - Pinquu