HDD To SSD

[Mopy]

I recently decided that I want to move to a solid state drive however I was wondering if I kept the old drive in with it (desktop pc) would the files and programs still be readable by windows sutch as games with a bit of file moving and nudging steam to the correct directory?

 

Summary: Want to move to SSD but would be annoyed if have to reinstall games. Also SSD will not be big enough to move all the games over to it.

 

Thanks!

[TylerDurden!]

yeaahhh, no, maybe, depends on the game, was it a standalone install or through an installer (epic, steam) you would at least have to move the save folder to wherever it likes to be.  By the time you did all of that, you could probably just reinstall your games.

[SupaKomputa]

You don't have to install the game in the SSD.

Do this:

- install fresh windows in the ssd. unplug any drive but the ssd just to make sure.

- create the same username and password as the old windows.

- after completed, boot to your old windows (selecting the old disk as boot).

- copy : c:/users/ , overwrite everything.

- copy ProgramData, Program files and Program files (x86), skip overwrite.

- boot to the SSD. Some program cannot work with this method, you need to reinstall. But i hope most will.

[Enderman]

Programs no, but with games you can tell the launcher (steam, battlenet, etc) where the game location is and you won't need to reinstall those.

 

It's still recommended you move the games somewhere else and wipe the HDD to get rid of the old windows partitions though, thenmove the games back.

[mariushm]

No, don't do what is said above , you'll just get a mess.

 

Install your Windows, install your Steam and other things.

With Steam, you could just move your game from the old drive to your new steam folder ... just move the folders from steam \ steamapps \ common   to your new steam drive folder, then start steam.

It should detect the games you moved and you may just have to right click on those you moved and hit properties, then local files , then verify integrity of files ... it will take a few moments and the game will be checked for errors.

You can also create a steam folder on your old mechanical drive, close steam, move the remainder of the games from old steam location to your newly created steam folder location and start steam and steam should scan the folder and detect those games. Again, may have to verify contents of each game before launching them but that's about it.

 

 

[GooseyCheeks]

I am in a similar situation. I will (finally) be getting an SSD for my desktop which is currently using one WD Caviar Blue 1TB drive for everything. The SSD will be a 256GB Sandisk drive, so I'm definitely going to have problems moving to such a small space.

 

This thread is a bit confusing, because everyone seems to have their own method of going about this.

I think what I'm gathering is that we need to do this:

Step 1: Install the SSD into the system and format it.

Step 2: Download the Windows 10 media creation tool, install Windows onto the SSD, and enter the key for our license

Step 3: Copy all the files from the HDD onto an external drive. Boot from the SSD, then format the HDD.

Step 4: Now that we have a clean install, we can install Steam, Epic Games, etc. and drag the game files onto the HDD from the external drive and tell Steam, Epic Games, etc. where the new installs are located.

 

What I'm confused about is our Program Files, Program Files (x86), and Users. These files are huge and I would only be able to fit them on the HDD. I've never had a multiple hard drive computer, so I don't know if it's possible to just drag these over to the hard drive.

 

What if instead of doing a clean install, I did this:
1. Back up everything to an external hard drive

2. Delete all the big files in Program Files, Program Files (x86), and Users (using something like WizTree to see what's taking up the most space) until my system uses less than 256GB

3. Use Macrium reflect to clone my HDD to the SSD

4. Boot from the SSD, format the HDD, and install Steam, Epic Games, etc. I can now drag the game files onto the HDD from the external drive and tell Steam, Epic Games, etc. where the installs are located.

 

Wouldn't the second method save a lot of time, because I wouldn't have to reinstall all the little programs I've accumulated over the years? I don't know if this method is possible, but I saw it mentioned somewhere.