Easiest way to transfer storage drive to new computer?

[TheBahrbarian]

So I recently built a new gaming PC for myself. My old one had a 128gb SSD boot drive, and a 2TB storage drive for pretty much all of my games and other files. I know most of the time moving a storage drive is as easy unplugging it and moving it to the new PC. However, I wont be re-using my 128gb SSD on my new PC since I got a 1TB NVME drive that I will now be using as my new boot drive. I assume there are some programs/games that have save files (which they usually put in my documents folder) or other small files saved on my 128gb boot drive now even though the games themselves are installed on my 2TB storage drive, preventing me from simply moving the 2TB drive to my new PC.

 

So my question is what's the easiest way to move my 2TB drive to my new PC? Should I wipe it and simply reinstall all my games/programs on the new PC, and if so what's the easiest way to do that? I don't have much on my storage drive that needs to be saved/can't be easily re-installed, just a documents and pictures folder I can easily copy onto a flash drive or something. But there is about 1.4TB of games/programs on it so it wouldn't exactly be quick or easy to reinstall everything.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

[Chiyawa]

Okay, so this is my suggestions that I think can help you:

1. Backup your user folder (Or the important part only: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music, Video folder) to your 2TB drive. You can do this by directly copy and paste your file, or you can use Windows Backup.
2. As for application, it may be a problem because they requires a sets of registry (which the application automatically created during installation) to function, so even when you can just move your Program Files folder from one HDD to the other HDD, new system may not run it properly. I would suggest you to locate all of your application installers and copy to your storage drive.
3. As for games, you don't have to re-install your games at all. Just install the game clients and tell the game clients where to locate your games in your storage folder. Each client has their methods and settings, so you can check their forums on how to configure your game clients' game library.

Hope this info helps you a bit.

[TheBahrbarian]

@ChiyawaThanks for the advice, I'll definitely backup my user folder and any important files to an external HDD I have first. Most of the programs installed on my boot drive currently are small ones (like steam, 7zip, essentials like that), so I'll either move them or reinstall them on the NVME on the new PC before I move over my 2TB storage drive. 

 

Worst comes to worst, I'll have the important stuff backed up and I can wipe the drive before installing, I just wanted to avoid that to try and save some time. Thanks again for the advice.