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SSD upgrade

lior1111
By lior1111
in Storage Devices
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Posted

Hello , a friend of mine wants to upgrade his pc , 
Hes buying a completely new PC and i advised him to get an SSD ( hes lucky to have me :D ) 
Anyway , is it possible to take the HDD from the previous computer , put it in the new one alongside the SSD and move just the operating system to the SSD without having to format the pc , backup all the HDD data and stuff? just simply moving the windows to the SSD and making it boot from there while having the HDD operate as storage ? and if so , how ?
Thank you.

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Really you're best off just reinstalling windows on the ssd

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Yes but that's stupid. Make a fresh installation on the ssd and just install the hdd next to it. 

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Posted
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1 minute ago, DocSwag said:

Really you're best off just reinstalling windows on the ssd

 

Just now, FloRolf said:

Yes but that's stupid. Make a fresh installation on the ssd and just install the hdd next to it. 

wont the HDD still have windows files on it though?

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Od course you can clone system from HDD to SSD and use it on another computer. Macrium Reflect is that type of program. Create bootable rescue usb after install (program should give you that option at first run) and boot from usb for cloning offline system.

 

If you have lot of programs installed, plugins, addons, complex configuration etc. it's the best way - unless you have week to restore everything. The more you using your computer - the more cloning is recommended method. If you using only clear windows with 2 or 3 programs and the only you change after install is wallpaper - clean install is probably easiest way to someone without cloning experience. But still - I recommend to not made the same thing few times. If you already have system installed, it's stupid to install it again on every new drive you buy or every time you change something in your pc.

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53 minutes ago, maximus732 said:

yes, you could probably just delete it any way or if you don't want to just set ssd as priority to boot in bios

 

42 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

Od course you can clone system from HDD to SSD and use it on another computer. Macrium Reflect is that type of program. Create bootable rescue usb after install (program should give you that option at first run) and boot from usb for cloning offline system.

ok thanks!

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Posted
2 hours ago, lior1111 said:

 

wont the HDD still have windows files on it though?

Yeah but idk how else you would do that.

1 hour ago, homeap5 said:

Od course you can clone system from HDD to SSD and use it on another computer. Macrium Reflect is that type of program. Create bootable rescue usb after install (program should give you that option at first run) and boot from usb for cloning offline system.

 

If you have lot of programs installed, plugins, addons, complex configuration etc. it's the best way - unless you have week to restore everything. The more you using your computer - the more cloning is recommended method. If you using only clear windows with 2 or 3 programs and the only you change after install is wallpaper - clean install is probably easiest way to someone without cloning experience. But still - I recommend to not made the same thing few times. If you already have system installed, it's stupid to install it again on every new drive you buy or every time you change something in your pc.

Only problem is if the stuff on the HDD is bigger in size than the SSD. Then you'll have a problem.

Make sure to quote me or tag me when responding to me, or I might not know you replied! Examples:

 

Do this:

Quote

And make sure you do it by hitting the quote button at the bottom left of my post, and not the one inside the editor!

Or this:

@DocSwag

 

Buy whatever product is best for you, not what product is "best" for the market.

 

Interested in computer architecture? Still in middle or high school? P.M. me!

 

I love computer hardware and feel free to ask me anything about that (or phones). I especially like SSDs. But please do not ask me anything about Networking, programming, command line stuff, or any relatively hard software stuff. I know next to nothing about that.

 

Compooters:

Spoiler

Desktop:

Spoiler

CPU: i7 6700k, CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3, Motherboard: MSI Z170a KRAIT GAMING, RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 4x4gb DDR4-2666 MHz, Storage: SanDisk SSD Plus 240gb + OCZ Vertex 180 480 GB + Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 7200 RPM, Video Card: EVGA GTX 970 SSC, Case: Fractal Design Define S, Power Supply: Seasonic Focus+ Gold 650w Yay, Keyboard: Logitech G710+, Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum, Headphones: B&O H9i, Monitor: LG 29um67 (2560x1080 75hz freesync)

Home Server:

Spoiler

CPU: Pentium G4400, CPU Cooler: Stock, Motherboard: MSI h110l Pro Mini AC, RAM: Hyper X Fury DDR4 1x8gb 2133 MHz, Storage: PNY CS1311 120gb SSD + two Segate 4tb HDDs in RAID 1, Video Card: Does Intel Integrated Graphics count?, Case: Fractal Design Node 304, Power Supply: Seasonic 360w 80+ Gold, Keyboard+Mouse+Monitor: Does it matter?

Laptop (I use it for school):

Spoiler

Surface book 2 13" with an i7 8650u, 8gb RAM, 256 GB storage, and a GTX 1050

And if you're curious (or a stalker) I have a Just Black Pixel 2 XL 64gb

 

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7 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Only problem is if the stuff on the HDD is bigger in size than the SSD. Then you'll have a problem.

That's obvious. But I assume that nobody wants to copy 2TB of data to DVD or floppy. :) All copy operations (including cloning) requires that. It's basic knowledge.

 

And about leaving old system on old HDD - keep it (just system, you can delete programs, games etc). It's nice when you have possibility to boot computer in case something goes wrong (like virus attack or any other problem). You can still use free space of that disk to whatever you want.

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