Moving from SSD+HDD combo to a single SSD in a new system

[vinnyok]

Hey! So I've had the plans for a new gaming PC in the works for about a year now and when all the new stuff comes out this fall I'm finally gonna make my move. Part of the plan is to go from my current storage setup of a 240GB SATA SSD and 1TB HDD combination to a single 2TB M.2 drive in my new system. The problem is... I have no idea how to copy two separate drives over to a new one without losing any data or my OS and ensuring my game libraries know that my games are still there but just on a different drive. Is there a software I need to do this? Can I copy everything so I don't have to do a clean windows install and move things manually? Can I avoid messing with partitions?? I honestly don't even know where to begin...

 

[Queen Chrysalis]

41 minutes ago, vinnyok said:

Hey! So I've had the plans for a new gaming PC in the works for about a year now and when all the new stuff comes out this fall I'm finally gonna make my move. Part of the plan is to go from my current storage setup of a 240GB SATA SSD and 1TB HDD combination to a single 2TB M.2 drive in my new system. The problem is... I have no idea how to copy two separate drives over to a new one without losing any data or my OS and ensuring my game libraries know that my games are still there but just on a different drive. Is there a software I need to do this? Can I copy everything so I don't have to do a clean windows install and move things manually? Can I avoid messing with partitions?? I honestly don't even know where to begin...

 

I mean, you're gonna be reinstalling windows anyway.  Cloning drives in 2022 is not the way to go. 

 

TBH, what's wrong with the setup you have now?  Is it not enough space?  Otherwise, if it's just for gaming I don't see  an issue with your current storage configuration.  SATA SSDs are fine for windows and gaming, but if you want an m.2 you could just get a 1TB m.2 for like $65 and then just use the drives you have for extra space.

[brob]

Best results would be simply reinstalling all software on the new system. You can then install the SSD and HDD so that media etc. can be copied to the new drive. Once that is done the old drives can be removed.

 

If you are not going to reinstall the o/s clone the SSD onto the new NVMe drive. Numerous utilities to do this. Some drive manufacturers provide links.

 

Install the HDD. You can then move HDD content at your leisure.

[Mayday793]

Since all the registry files are linking your games to your hard drive(assuming thats where all your games are) they're attached with a particular drive letter(also partition name i.e. SDA for example) . So copying all the files to a new drive would ruin that if you were to do a simple copy and paste of all the game files. 
You're for sure gonna have to mess with partitions theres no way of getting around that, even if there was(which there might be some silly way i'm not thinking of right now) , itd be much more difficult than creating a partition on your new nvme with the os and another partition with the files. "

I've never done this but my best suggestion would be doing a clonezilla clone of the ssd to your NVME keeping the original partition size of the ssd for convenience. Then you can expand the size of the partition on the NVME to be the full side of the disk , then you could boot to the NVME, go into program settings in windows and select to move all your programs from your hardrive (drive D) to your NVME (drive C) . Some light googling i've done says using clonezilla to copy your windows install to a new drive should work no problem so i would suggest that.


here is the link to Clonezilla if you want to try it: https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
You will need to create a bootable USB then you can clone the source disk (your ssd) to your destination (NVME) . 
If you do this let me know and the expansion of the partition to fill the whole drive afterwards is very simple. 

[Mayday793]

here is th

32 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

 Cloning drives in 2022 is not the way to go. 

 

Why not cloning drives? What's wrong with it?