How do I go about installing a new SSD and transferring the OS to it?

[Fluvous]

Hi! I just recently bought an SSD (M.2 WD Blue 500gb). For the longest time I've just focused on builds that have only used one hard drive, so adding a new storage device to me is unusual. I'm certain that I will know how to install it, but how would I go about transferring my OS (Windows 10) from my current hard drive to my new SSD. When I would search online, I would usually just come across installation guides that didn't say what to do afterwards.

 

On a side note, is it possible to have a program like steam installed on my SSD with a few select games, but have a few games downloaded to the hard drive?

 

Any info on this would be a great help  Even just linking me to what I'm looking for would be enough.

Thanks!

 

Mobo - Gigabyte GA B350 Gaming 3

SSD - WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD M.2 2280

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 3TB

[Atra1n2]

If your data on your hard drive now can be defragmented down to 500 gb or less, you may be able to clone the data from the HDD to the SSD with a utility like CloneZilla which is its own bootable program. If not, the easiest thing to do may be a clean OS install on the SSD, set it to primary boot device, copy what you want off the HDD onto a secondary device and reformat it to be a data drive to rid the former Windows installation and move back all of your files you backed up and reinstall your apps and games.

[Atra1n2]

Also, within Steam you can set custom game library locations and specify where you want downloaded games to reside.

[buzzinkeegs]

@Fluvous  https://www.partitionwizard.com/download/v11/pw11-free.exe

[buzzinkeegs]

[Fluvous]

6 minutes ago, buzzinkeegs said:

@Fluvous  https://www.partitionwizard.com/download/v11/pw11-free.exe

 

29 minutes ago, Atra1n2 said:

If your data on your hard drive now can be defragmented down to 500 gb or less, you may be able to clone the data from the HDD to the SSD with a utility like CloneZilla which is its own bootable program. If not, the easiest thing to do may be a clean OS install on the SSD, set it to primary boot device, copy what you want off the HDD onto a secondary device and reformat it to be a data drive to rid the former Windows installation and move back all of your files you backed up and reinstall your apps and games.

Awesome thank you! I'll let you know how it goes.

 

For some reason it detects my SSD, but not the HDD when the SSD is in. After going back to how it was, it still works. If you guys have any ideas on what I'm missing let me know, otherwise I'll probably figure it out soon.

[buzzinkeegs]

@Fluvous what mobo u using some m.2 slots share either the sata lanes or the pci lanes mine is the latter i have strix x470 f and 2 nvme m.2 so can only use the first 2 pci lanes but have no penalty to sata lanes i have a feeling yours may be the oposit

 

[Fluvous]

13 minutes ago, buzzinkeegs said:

@Fluvous what mobo u using some m.2 slots share either the sata lanes or the pci lanes mine is the latter i have strix x470 f and 2 nvme m.2 so can only use the first 2 pci lanes but have no penalty to sata lanes i have a feeling yours may be the oposit

 

I'm using the Gigabye GA-ab350 gaming 3. Their website shows support for either

• Ultra-Fast PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 with PCIe NVMe & SATA mode support

Edit: SSD is SATA. Wouldn't this only affect connectivity with the SSD? The HDD is what's not showing in the BIOS. 

Thanks again. 

[buzzinkeegs]

@Fluvous pls see attached supliment for ur mobo section 1.7

[buzzinkeegs]

this is why i will always recomend a 470 board the trade offs on the 350s 370s and the 450s are realy bad and the restrictions for overclocking on some of the 450s are just about all the insentive i needed to completly bypass them and spend the xtra coin

[Fluvous]

6 minutes ago, buzzinkeegs said:

this is why i will always recomend a 470 board the trade offs on the 350s 370s and the 450s are realy bad and the restrictions for overclocking on some of the 450s are just about all the insentive i needed to completly bypass them and spend the xtra coin

Damn I totally missed that. I only checked to make sure it "supported" SATA but not what I needed. To double check though, an NVMe SSD would work, correct? 

[buzzinkeegs]

12 minutes ago, Fluvous said:

Damn I totally missed that. I only checked to make sure it "supported" SATA but not what I needed. To double check though, an NVMe SSD would work, correct?

some of the other sata ports are still available just try switch it to the others until it shows up if u have other drives installed in them just unplug them until u get your os mooved over the box shows which ports are available for diferent use sinarios
if all else fails and u have a large enough external drive or usb u could use macrium reflect to clone your os but if your guna do that u may as wwell just clean install for the time it will take https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

[Fluvous]

3 minutes ago, buzzinkeegs said:

some of the other sata ports are still available

I felt so stupid because I realized that right after my last comment I had a LONG night at work. Thank you so much! I should be able to take it from here. 

[buzzinkeegs]

no problem pal best of luck to you im going to get some rest now too 6.40 am hear and been up 30 hours