Changing drives

[Chivpcgamer]

I read that you can change your primary drive, transfer the data without having to reinstall windows. Is it true and ok to do?

Is it possible to transfer your hdd data to another without too much trouble? Or should you get an extra hdd and say, only transfer steam across?

[Bluuz]

Do you mean cloning a drive? It's often done in laptops and there is software that can do that for you.

For Steam, you can just change the "common" directory, when you install games. You can have the files for steam on an ssd, for example, and all the games on a separate hard drive.

[wpirobotbuilder]

Sure. Some SSDs come with data migration software which will move everything over. If your new drive doesn't come with it, go with what Bluuz said.

 

I believe you are limited to transferring to a drive of similar and/or larger size, not sure if those utilities can move your data to a smaller drive.

 

Personally I would reinstall the system from scratch if the drive in question has been in use for a long time and has accumulated a lot of stuff, purely to tidy things up. But I get not wanting to re-download all your games and reinstall applications, and you can move the Steam games folder to the new drive.