HDD to SSD transfer help

[KumaKuma]

In the future (black Friday later this year) I am planning on buying an ssd to speed up my computer (Crucial mx100, not too expensive but serves my needs). I've spent the whole day researching how to clone my drives and all that, but the problem is my C: drive has 1397.26GB worth of stuff on it. I only want to buy a 128 GB ssd, so how do I only clone my os and other programs (Steam, LoL, Battle.net) to my ssd? The only way I know of is to buy this $20 program that lets you choose which files to clone and which to leave on the HDD, but I don't want to pay that much for a program I'll only likely use once. I only want to choose what programs I'll be putting on my ssd. Also how would I backup my 1300+GB of stuff?

[jscho]

Seriously better off just reinstalling the OS. Keep everything on the hard drive. Just plug in your SSD, and boot from a Windows Install CD/USB. Make the SSD the boot drive and ta-da.

[xnoobftw]

In the future (black Friday later this year) I am planning on buying an ssd to speed up my computer (Crucial mx100, not too expensive but serves my needs). I've spent the whole day researching how to clone my drives and all that, but the problem is my C: drive has 1397.26GB worth of stuff on it. I only want to buy a 128 GB ssd, so how do I only clone my os and other programs (Steam, LoL, Battle.net) to my ssd? The only way I know of is to buy this $20 program that lets you choose which files to clone and which to leave on the HDD, but I don't want to pay that much for a program I'll only likely use once. I only want to choose what programs I'll be putting on my ssd. Also how would I backup my 1300+GB of stuff?

The only way is to backup your stuffs (this case you'll need another hard drive), uninstall as many program as you can till you get 128gb and clone it. I personally re installed all my programs when i got my ssd.

[KumaKuma]

Okay I'll try that. But how do I move my other programs to my ssd after? It's basically just Steam, independent clients like LoL and battle.net.

[elkenrod]

In the future (black Friday later this year) I am planning on buying an ssd

 

 

You are so smart.  I'm basically the retail King, and it upsets me how many people make purchases in October, when they can get a substantial discount if they just wait until the end of November.

[Emit]

Steam and LoL? Re-download. 

Honestly, you won't see much of a benefit to putting games on SSD. Plus, for a 128GB SSD you will only have around 120GB of usable space. Windows will probably use up to 40GB, and you will only have about 80GB left; leave them for demanding applications. You might also want to consider 10-15% overprovisioning. That would leave you with only about 60GB of usable space. That won't even fit 3 games.

I recommend unplugging all of your SATA cables, plug in your SSD, reinstall Windows on your it (it will become drive C:\), and plug your HDD (D:\) back in, followed by your optical drive, card readers, etc. You can choose to clean up your HDD a bit, or leave as is. But do remove unnecessary things like old OS and drivers. You will still have all of your data on the HDD. 

 

TL;DR: Reinstall OS on SSD, you will still have everything on your HDD.

[MPX309]

Just do a fresh OS install.

[Redheadsrule13]

I would advise that you wait and get a bigger SSD. However, when it comes to moving your stuff, Just take all your big files and move them to a separate partition or external HDD until what remains is small enough to go on your SSD, then clone the remaining files to the SSD with something like the WD edition of Acronis (Will work an any drive).