Need help on adding SSD as boot device and keep current HDD on my current PC

[LouisCell]

Did some research fro my situation, I'm running everything on my 750GB WD HDD, and I'm going to put my OS and some frequently used software on a new Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD 

 

Searched on web, and in most tutorial is about replacing the HDD with SSD, that's easy for my to understand.

 

What I'm confusing about is that when cloning the drive using the data migration software, does it clone the entire drive, or I can select which partition I want to clone? Also after everything is done, what will happen to the original partition? Any conflict on the Drive Letter? (may be a dumb question since I have never done such thing)

 

I have 3 partition on my PC, 1 for OS, 1 for documents and files, and 1 for Games

 

I will keep my HDD as regular storage disk

 

 

 

I assume that I can clone the partition of where my OS is, and here is what I will do:

 

Back up all the entire disk (assuming that the data migration software can't selectively clone the OS partition)

 

Use the USB to SATA cable to do the cloning (Or I should just plug the drive to the SATA port on the motherboard for better speed? If so, what should I be aware of?)

 

System reboot and I will go to BIOS to change the boot device (I assume this step should be very easy on my MSI Z87 motherboard?)

 

After entering the system, test everything out and format the original partition (What will happen to the drive letter? I assume the SSD will simply replace the old partition's position, and all other partition will change the drive letter automatically??? really confusing here)

 

I plan to merge the original partition with the partition for games

 

Thank you all!!

[Jonny.Wong.16]

Did some research fro my situation, I'm running everything on my 750GB WD HDD, and I'm going to put my OS and some frequently used software on a new Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD 

 

Searched on web, and in most tutorial is about replacing the HDD with SSD, that's easy for my to understand.

 

What I'm confusing about is that when cloning the drive using the data migration software, does it clone the entire drive, or I can select which partition I want to clone? Also after everything is done, what will happen to the original partition? Any conflict on the Drive Letter? (may be a dumb question since I have never done such thing)

 

I have 3 partition on my PC, 1 for OS, 1 for documents and files, and 1 for Games

 

I will keep my HDD as regular storage disk

 

 

 

I assume that I can clone the partition of where my OS is, and here is what I will do:

 

Back up all the entire disk (assuming that the data migration software can't selectively clone the OS partition)

What drive cloning software are you using? I believe most should be able to clone a partition onto a new drive.

Use the USB to SATA cable to do the cloning (Or I should just plug the drive to the SATA port on the motherboard for better speed? If so, what should I be aware of?)

Either way should work fine. I would go for the faster speed of the SATA port.

System reboot and I will go to BIOS to change the boot device (I assume this step should be very easy on my MSI Z87 motherboard?)

Yep.

After entering the system, test everything out and format the original partition (What will happen to the drive letter? I assume the SSD will simply replace the old partition's position, and all other partition will change the drive letter automatically??? really confusing here)

Your SSD should take on the old drive letter, but you can always change the drive letters manually in Disk Management later.

I plan to merge the original partition with the partition for games

 

Thank you all!!

[LouisCell]

What drive cloning software are you using? I believe most should be able to clone a partition onto a new drive.

Either way should work fine. I would go for the faster speed of the SATA port.

Yep.

Your SSD should take on the old drive letter, but you can always change the drive letters manually in Disk Management later.

 

Thanks for your reply!

 

I don't know which software works the best, but I plan to use the Samsung data migration software

 

After everything is done, do I need to re-activate my OS? I assume that I will need to call Microsoft to do so?

 

Thank you.

 

 

[Jonny.Wong.16]

Thanks for your reply!

 

I don't know which software works the best, but I plan to use the Samsung data migration software

 

After everything is done, do I need to re-activate my OS? I assume that I will need to call Microsoft to do so?

 

Thank you.

I haven't had to re-activate Windows when restoring drive images, so I assume cloning would work the same way.