Moving OS to new Storage

[Dolbey]

Currently I have a single Sata SSD (1TB) in my PC with Windows 10 and everything else. Since I am slowly running out of storage I planned to upgrade soon. I want to buy an additional 1TB M.2 drive for games and everything but I also want to buy a 250GB M.2 to have only Windows and maybe a few other Applications on it to optimize performance. Now everything that is on my current drive like games and other Programs can stay there but I want to boot from the new 250GB drive. Is it possible to Boot up the new SSD and still access games of the old drive, do I have to uninstall the OS on the old drive afterwards. 

I mean it would probably all be easier just cleaning everything and doing a fresh install of all games but my internet is really bad and I was hoping that maybe I can keep the games since they are so big and reinstalling them would probably take me a few days.

[j4j_0]

I recently did something similar for a mate, what we did was removed all the drives and just put in the new one. Then you'll want to get the windows 10 installation media on a USB stick and basically boot up the computer as if it were a brand new build. Just say you don't have a windows code when prompted. Then once that was all done we just plugged in the old drives and moved games, appdata etc to the new drive

 

[RONOTHAN##]

Games can usually be saved from one install to another, though it depends on the launcher you use. Steam I know makes it very easy to just say "Import Steam Library" and have it detect all your games. I'm not as sure about Epic Games, Origin, etc. 

[wseaton]

Cloning your current drive to a new one is old hat. It's a relatively seamless procedure not requiring anything to be reinstalled. Windows *is* aware the drive has been swapped, but it looks the other way because it's such a common procedure. Back in the XP days a drive swap like this would often trip Windows product activation. Microsoft then backed off their piracy algorithm with Win7 and onwards due to so many people doing spinner to SSD swaps.

 

The problem here is you are trying to move an OS from a 1tb drive / partition to a 256GB. That's....not going to work. You will need to shrink your data and likely boot partition to less than 256GB or you won't be able to clone it and will require a reinstall of Windows.

[Eschew]

Hey there.

8 hours ago, Dolbey said:

Now everything that is on my current drive like games and other Programs can stay there but I want to boot from the new 250GB drive. Is it possible to Boot up the new SSD and still access games of the old drive, do I have to uninstall the OS on the old drive afterwards. 

I mean it would probably all be easier just cleaning everything and doing a fresh install of all games but my internet is really bad and I was hoping that maybe I can keep the games since they are so big and reinstalling them would probably take me a few days.

Hm.

Might run into boot issues if the OS on the old drive isn't completely wiped.

It's a bit tedious, but I'd recommend copying those games and programs to a temporary / backup drive, wiping the original SSD, then copying the games and programs back to the SSD.

 

Though, it's probably still less time-consuming than if you were to redownload your entire games library. Those SSD speeds should help?

 

Copying and pasting games from one drive to another works for Steam, Origin, and Ubisoft Connect -- each game launcher is equipped to repair / relocate game directory paths and reinstall redistributables. I imagine it'd work for Epic Games Store as well, though I don't have an EGS account to test that theory.

• Steam is easy and painless, everything’s done automatically and in an instant.
  • Steam Cloud is also an option for many games, if you'd like to retain your saves.
• Origin needs the user to find the game’s new folder, and can verifying files take a while, depending on how large the game is.
• Ubisoft Connect is also easy and painless, seems to be automatic. But I only have one Ubisoft game to test that with.

[xsacsd54]

If you pass that Windows deploy from and HP to a Dell, or pass a frequent OEM Windows deploy you obtain at Newegg to a one of a kind laptop or alternate the MB I can almost guarantee you will be compelled to reactive by using moving company service. More than probably whilst you attempt to reactivate you'll be denied, but this algorithm appears to have a issue of fulfillment vs failure.