OS from HDD to SSD. Help Please!

[Lynks]

Hello, I have a problem and I would like your help. I have a 1TB WD Black hard drive with all my files on it and would like to keep my big files such as games on

the the WD Black but I want to boot my pc on my SSD. I believe I need to move my boot media on the SSD first but my SSD is only 120gb and all my files wont fit on it. 

Is there a way I can move only my OS to the SSD and still use my HDD at the same time?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

[Guest]

Assuming your HDD is all 1 partition.

Shrink that partition to as small as you can.

Offload the large files to a new partition created from the freed space or somewhere else so that no more than 120GB is used on the Windows partition.

Shrink the Windows partition to less than 120GB.

Use Clonezilla or whatever tool you prefer to clone that partition to the SSD.

Once you've booted to the SSD and see that everything is fine, delete the Windows partition on the HDD and expand the remaining one(s).

 

Alternatively, deactivate your Windows licence on the old install and use its key to do a fresh install on the SSD.

[Lynks]

3 minutes ago, Svinsparbriivu said:

Assuming your HDD is all 1 partition.

Shrink that partition to as small as you can.

Offload the large files to that partition or somewhere so that no more than 120GB is used on the Windows partition.

Shrink the Windows partition to less than 120GB.

Use Clonezilla or whatever tool you prefer to clone that partition to the SSD.

Once you've booted to the SSD and see that everything is fine, delete the Windows partition on the HDD and expand the remaining one(s).

 

Alternatively, deactivate your Windows licence on the old install and use its key to do a fresh install on the SSD.

Would it work if I were to unplug the HDD and install windows on the SSD? Would I be able to access files on HDD again later?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Lynks said:

Would it work if I were to unplug the HDD and install windows on the SSD? Would I be able to access files on HDD again later?

There's no point in unplugging the drive.

If you're worried about the files being overwritten, don't. I'm sure Windows installer lets you chose the drive to install the OS on. And yes, you'll be able to read the files on the HDD from the new install unless you're running some sort of encryption software on the current install.

[Deil Grist]

Here ye go. Includes some basic instructions and software suggestions.