Questions about adding another SSD

[Andrewsf84]

So I have a Dell XPS X8700. It's pretty much stock (core i7 4th gen, 1tb hard drive, 12 gb ram, 460 watt psu...) I added a sata 240gb ssd that I have been using as my boot drive about 2 years ago. Anyway over time I have filled up my ssd and even though I've made attempts at emptying it, it remains mostly full. I just got a sata 500gb ssd and I'm going to add it in, but I had a few questions since I don't do this all this time.

 

1. If I just added this ssd to my system, would it probably draw more power than my current psu can supply?

 

2. What's the easiest way to make the new 500 gb my boot drive? Do I need to move everything from the other ssd? Or should I just install windows on it and start with it blank and move things over as I need to?

 

3. Is there any issues you can think of that I may run into that I should be aware of?

 

Thank you for any help. I have done this all before (well most) it's just been a while and I really haven't done it but once so I don't have a great deal of experience. And of course I'm going to be researching this questions on my own, I just figured why not try to tap into the vast source of knowledge that is the Linus Fan Base.

[Crunchy Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Andrewsf84 said:

1. If I just added this ssd to my system, would it probably draw more power than my current psu can supply?

 

2. What's the easiest way to make the new 500 gb my boot drive? Do I need to move everything from the other ssd? Or should I just install windows on it and start with it blank and move things over as I need to?

 

3. Is there any issues you can think of that I may run into that I should be aware of?

1: Not likely.

 

2: Just migrate everything to the SSD using third-party software(no names come to mind, sorry).

 

3: I can't think of any, you should be pretty much good to go.

[Cupar19]

I see no reason why a 500gb see would max out the psu unless the company who built the computer got a custom made one to fulfil the exact required wattage,so it should work. As for making the 500th the boot drive,why not just copy your stuff over and leave the other as your boot drive unless your replacing it,then I'd do a fresh install then copy your files over.

[FuzzyLogic]

1. Yes, SSDs require a lot of power. If the power supply is overloaded, it could kill your entire system. (Jk you're fine, they use less power than a hard drive)

2. I like HDD Raw Copy, but it requires a separate Windows installation to run off of.

3. Not really

[Andrewsf84]

Alright, thanks a lot.

 

The thing about leaving the 240 as my boot is, and this is probably my fault for not setting up partitions or something, everything I do is getting put on the ssd and not the bigger hard drive. Like all my program installs, iTunes media, and other crap. I don't know what happened. I thought I was moving much of it over but somehow I still ended up with a full ssd.

And, somehow I did like the stupidest thing ever, I'm not even sure how it is possible, but I was trying to move files from one drive to another and I think I canceled something half way through and so like I have a folder full that exists some how on both drives and none at the same time. Like it's taking up space on the ssd according to windirstat, it's location is supposed to be on the hdd and I have a hard time accessing it at all. Like I was trying to change where the desktop folder saved and put it a short cut to it in the file but then moved that folder to the desktop, then was transferring it back to the ssd temporarily but cancelled it so but even though I did it's still there....ha, anyway, I've just backed up everything I can think of that's important to an external drive and I think I'm gonna just clean install on the other drives.

[rukspuks]

lol SSDs take 4-7W, less than your bathroom bulb.

[Andrewsf84]

Just now, rukspuks said:

lol SSDs take 4-7W, less than your bathroom bulb.

LOL what an idiot I am. I was pretty sure it was like nothing. At least I know for sure. I got to hang out on LTT while my kid doesn't shut up instead reading it somewhere else.

[xg32]

1. ssd uses 1-4w depending on its storage size and load appearantly.

 

2. you could clone your old drive, either way it's not bad to have 2 copies of the same windows in case 1 messes up (saved me multiple times of the hassle for a 15minute installation, haven't used my 2nd copy of windows for 4 years, but it's there)

 

3. i would have gotten a 2nd drive that's the same as your first one and raid 0 them, but seeing that you already had a copy of windows on there, and you may not wanna wipe, it's...just a thought.

[Andrewsf84]

Hey guys, I have sort of another issue. I cloned everything to the external hd so I'm good there, I wanted the clean install. Anyway, I do have a new issue. I don't know why...but as a refresher I was looking at some other video about installing ssd's and not the Linus ncsx ones like usual, and decided I'd make a 100gb partition for windows. Anyway I makes up several (I think 5) partitions dealing with the rest of the drive including the remaining chunk of memory for normal storage. Well I was running into a lot of errors (go figure) and at some point I was repeating the process. So I heard or read that I should "clean" the other partitions. I figured it was just going to redo everything anyway so what's the big deal. Apparently it was a big deal because now I have 3 drives: my old hdd, my old 240gb ssd, and my new boot 500gb ssd but with only 100gb showing.

 

Since I have a convoluted way of asking I'm going to restate the basic issue again right here:  I screwed up when installing windows on new boot ssd and created a partition for windows but now I'm missing the other 75% memory of the drive. Should I just like format the drive and set it all up one more time? Or is there another way where I don't have to do that? Again I'm going to be looking up my own info bc I'm not completely worthless but if I can help from you experts too, well why not. Thanks again

[Andrewsf84]

Haa!!! I guess I should have trusted Linus more. I just watched one of the old NCIX vids of his and fixed the problem in seconds.

For anyone who may be wondering...

 

Right click on This PC and select Manage.

Select Disk Management.

As long as your drives are recognized everything should be listed (Mine was my Disk 0 and had shown 365gb RAW. I selected it and then assigned a letter which asked to format it and even though it was part of my boot drive, the format did not erase anything.)

 

The vid was: How to properly configure the SSD as boot drive and HDD as storage drive           

 

Thank you guys again. So much help.