How would I setup an SSD?

[BunnyHunter67]

I am looking into getting a 1 TB 850 Evo. Currently I have a 1 TB seagate HDD. How would I setup the SSD. And transfer over my os to the new drive. I have never done anything with data migration. Also would I be able to drag and drop my steam and games onto the new drive? I am just curious how all of that would work. Thanks for the help!  

[Guest]

1. Get appropriate cables. You need a SATA data cables. SATA power should be provided by the PSU (look inside your case, the bigger one that connects your HDD is power, the next to it smaller is data). Not sure if Samsung includes it or not. Not sure if your mobo still have spare ones. Connect SATA data from your motherboard to your SSD just like you did with the HDD

SATA DATA

SATA POWER (note that there are many wires coming to it not one solid stripe like the data)

2. Get program. Macrium Reflect or the already included Samsung Wizard allows you to clone HDD to SSD (so it will also copy all the files and most importantly OS).

But a better option is always clean install OS. Keys will be preserved.

 

3 You don't need to drag and drop anything, software does everything for you. But if you did a clean installation you can copy paste the entire Steam folder as shown in this guide (should do it after the installation)

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

 

4. There are programs that can clean up your HDD after Windows installation. For the best result unplug HDD if you do a clean installation to avoid confusion with SSD

[Godlygamer23]

I think most people on this forum will recommend that you do a fresh installation of Windows on the SSD to avoid any kind of potential issues with data migration. As far as the Steam games are concerned, you should be able to keep them on the Seagate drive, and if you do a reinstallation of Windows, you can just add the folder to Steam and it should detect everything. 

 

If it doesn't, go to the folder with all the games installed(and go into the Common folder) and look at all the games you have there. Go back to Steam and pretend you're going to re-download the game. Make the target destination the Steam folder you added, and it should detect the existing files that are already there.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I think most people on this forum will recommend that you do a fresh installation of Windows on the SSD to avoid any kind of potential issues with data migration. As far as the Steam games are concerned, you should be able to keep them on the Seagate drive, and if you do a reinstallation of Windows, you can just add the folder to Steam and it should detect everything. 

 

If it doesn't, go to the folder with all the games installed(and go into the Common folder) and look at all the games you have there. Go back to Steam and pretend you're going to re-download the game. Make the target destination the Steam folder you added, and it should detect the existing files that are already there.

I think OP also wants to move his Steam games to SSD for faster load time. Nevertheless both options should work