SSD & HDD Setup Solution

[Aprils_Renegade]

Hey Guys,

I currently have a Kingston V+100 512GB SSD and a WD Caviar Blue 1TB.

I'm getting an SSD for my Birthday, and my current SSD is so full of steam games i've had to break into my Hard Drive because i'm running out of room. With GTA 5 coming out, I don't have enough space so i've come up with the following ideas, tell me which one is best:

1) Use the New SSD as a dedicated drive for GTA 5 and 1-2 other AAA titles:

This requires no system re-install and it would load fast as hell

2) RAID 0 the new SSD with the existing one and expand my space:

Seems tacky, but practical. The two SSDs would probably be different brands; unfortunately I have no idea how much space or what brand of SSD i'm getting.

3) Reinstall Windows onto the new SSD, have Programs and Games on the Original SSD, use the HDD as it currently is - storage

It's a massive effort and my copy of Windows is OEM so i'd have to pirate or wait until the free Windows 10 upgrade. It makes more sense, but is it worth it? How would I go about backing up game save files, programs, etc. ? Such a hassle..

I appreciate your help and opinions alot, and thank you in advance!

[Captain_WD]

Hey Guys,

I currently have a Kingston V+100 512GB SSD and a WD Caviar Blue 1TB.

I'm getting an SSD for my Birthday, and my current SSD is so full of steam games i've had to break into my Hard Drive because i'm running out of room. With GTA 5 coming out, I don't have enough space so i've come up with the following ideas, tell me which one is best:

1) Use the New SSD as a dedicated drive for GTA 5 and 1-2 other AAA titles:

This requires no system re-install and it would load fast as hell

2) RAID 0 the new SSD with the existing one and expand my space:

Seems tacky, but practical. The two SSDs would probably be different brands; unfortunately I have no idea how much space or what brand of SSD i'm getting.

3) Reinstall Windows onto the new SSD, have Programs and Games on the Original SSD, use the HDD as it currently is - storage

It's a massive effort and my copy of Windows is OEM so i'd have to pirate or wait until the free Windows 10 upgrade. It makes more sense, but is it worth it? How would I go about backing up game save files, programs, etc. ? Such a hassle..

I appreciate your help and opinions alot, and thank you in advance!

 

Hey Aprils_Renegade,

 

It seems that your best solution would be to simply install the new SSD in your system, keep the old one as a boot drive and just put the new more demanding games on the new one (option 1). This way you would avoid all problems with the OS reinstall and moving and backing up all games and files.

You could move some of the games and applications from the old SSD to the new one and install GTA5 and other demanding applications to the boot drive, but that is entirely up to you.

 

Captain_WD.

[Aprils_Renegade]

 

Hey Aprils_Renegade,

 

It seems that your best solution would be to simply install the new SSD in your system, keep the old one as a boot drive and just put the new more demanding games on the new one (option 1). This way you would avoid all problems with the OS reinstall and moving and backing up all games and files.

You could move some of the games and applications from the old SSD to the new one and install GTA5 and other demanding applications to the boot drive, but that is entirely up to you.

 

Captain_WD.

 

Hey Captain,

 

Thanks for the prompt reply. How would I go about transferring save files onto the second SSD drive? Just the old copy and paste seems wrong - wouldn't that lead to incorrect file directories? i.e. the system would think the game is installed on e.g. the C:\ Drive, when I copied and pasted it to D:\? Sure, I could re-install but then there's the matter of backing up save files. Yes, I'm aware the process is different for every game, however some like to spread the data across several locations; Burnout Paradise, for example, has the save file (or rather, the different fragments of it) spread across the root install location in the Steam Folder, in the Documents and in the Local directory under AppData. Don't suppose you know any software or tips which I can utilize to back up saves or transfer them?

[Captain_WD]

Hey Captain,

 

Thanks for the prompt reply. How would I go about transferring save files onto the second SSD drive? Just the old copy and paste seems wrong - wouldn't that lead to incorrect file directories? i.e. the system would think the game is installed on e.g. the C:\ Drive, when I copied and pasted it to D:\? Sure, I could re-install but then there's the matter of backing up save files. Yes, I'm aware the process is different for every game, however some like to spread the data across several locations; Burnout Paradise, for example, has the save file (or rather, the different fragments of it) spread across the root install location in the Steam Folder, in the Documents and in the Local directory under AppData. Don't suppose you know any software or tips which I can utilize to back up saves or transfer them?

 

 

I would google each game for how its save files are kept safe during a reinstall. Steam games should be OK as either the progress is kept online or you have a specific directory for the save games. You could also post on the PC Gaming section for some advice if you can't find anything on the internet: http://linustechtips.com/main/forum/11-pc-gaming/

 

Captain_WD.