Transferring files from HD to SSD

gamer_Niall

My SSD came today, I have a few questions for you guys. I plan on doing a fresh install of win 7 ultimate on it.

My question is if I connect my old HD can files be transferred across between the two?

Also will programmes still run? I'm not sure how it works.

jumbobreakfast

I'd reccomend that you disconnect the old drive before re-installing on the SSD in case you wipe the wrong drive. Afterwards, you can access files from the old drive but you will have to reinstall any programs you had before as they use registry entries that will be blown away when you reinstall windows.

Make sure the Bios is configured to boot off the new drive when you put the old one back in.

As for games, if you use steam, you can reinstall steam on the new windows and then copy over the steamapps folder from the old HD and repair/verify the files

Some Origin games like BF3 can be transferred over in a similar way

glynf

Best thing to do is to install a fresh copy of windows first. Make sure to disconnect your hard drive with the current windows installation first-only the SSD should be connected. Go to the BIOS, set the first boot device to DVD drive, and restart. go through install process as normal. When its done, shut down the PC and reconnect your hard drive. Reboot and go to BIOS again. make sure that the SSD is the first device, the HDD second. Save, exit, and reboot.

When you restart, it will boot from the windows 7 on the SSD first. Go to my computer, you should now be able to browse to your old hard drive, and copy files/folders across.

edit; It is best to reinstall programs as opposed to copying them-less likely to cause problems/errors. when you're done, you could format the HDD and use as a storage drive.

bucks73

Handy site for installing more than one popular programs in one go is http://ninite.com/

gamer_Niall

Awesome, thanks for the replies guys!

One more thing, I'm not really bothered about many of the programmes just my iTunes. I've got over 10k songs, a lot are from blank cd's and downloaded etc, I'd like to keep the programme and all the music on my HD will it run from their?

glynf

Few different ways to do it, Give a look here;

BloodBath

You should put the program on the ssd and the files on the hdd. It should be possible. Generally you want all of your programs running from the ssd.

Change your windows downloads and all other downloads folders to a hdd as well.

If it's a desktop you should disable hibernation and reduce the virtual memory to about 2gb. This will free up about 15gb of ssd space.