Windows 8 SSD transfer

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CaffeinePowered

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May 15, 2013
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Hello! I've just ordered a new Samsung 840-PRO series SSD. Right now I'm running on a 1TB hard drive that's mostly full, which I obviously can't just transfer over to the SSD. So the question is, can I move ONLY W8 and a few selected programs over to my SSD, while keeping the rest of my programs and all of my documents on the 1TB drive? Clearing and restarting is not really an option unfortunately, as I keep some sensitive data on my disk. If that's not possible, should I just buy another copy of W8 or W7 and then manually move my selected few programs over? Thanks!
 
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John_VanKirk


One of the best ways of installing Win-8 to a new SSD, is to purchase and cleanly install a new copy of it. You probably got the rock low price on the upgrade version for your Vista, so you are not out that much in cost. I would purchase the Win-8 Pro OEM 64 bit version, and using the Personal License Agreement to have MS support, install it fresh on the 840 Pro. Requirements for your system include >1GHz CPU, 2GB or RAM, 20GB of disk space, and DirectX9 WDDM 1 or later. Cost $135. You would then install your...
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John_VanKirk

John_VanKirk

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Hello, & Welcome to Tom's Hardware!
You are going to love that 840 Pro! Great choice.
Couple important questions need answering to get the best answer.
How big is your 840 PRO? Knowing that you might be able to tailor your larger HDD boot partition to smaller than the new SSD. For example possibly you could shrink the primary partition size on the 1TB drive with Windows Disk Management, or Easeus Partition Master, and add a second partition to store your data. (or a separate HDD temporarily). Then clone over your OS and programs. Samsung has a new clone app on their website to do that (now that Ghost is dead).
Other question is: is your OS (win-7 or win-8) a purchased retail version that you can reinstall, or an OEM version tied to your MB and components? Sometimes it is easier (and better) to cleanly install the OS on an SSD, then reinstall your commercial applications, and keep your data on the HDD as secondary storage.
 
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CaffeinePowered

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Ah, it's a 128 gb, and my copy of W8 was an upgrade over an OEM Windows Vista. I'm actually starting to like the idea of just keeping the original disk separate, possibly even dual booted with a clean version on the ssd.
 
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John_VanKirk

John_VanKirk

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One of the best ways of installing Win-8 to a new SSD, is to purchase and cleanly install a new copy of it. You probably got the rock low price on the upgrade version for your Vista, so you are not out that much in cost. I would purchase the Win-8 Pro OEM 64 bit version, and using the Personal License Agreement to have MS support, install it fresh on the 840 Pro. Requirements for your system include >1GHz CPU, 2GB or RAM, 20GB of disk space, and DirectX9 WDDM 1 or later. Cost $135. You would then install your retail appls, and then copy over frequently used data.

And if you were going to cleanly install Win-8, make sure the HDD is NOT attached at time of installation, so the OS will install the MS Reserved partition and the System Partition on your new SSD, attaching the HDD later for secondary storage.

As it looks right now, the cost of the MS 8.1 upgrade will be free, if you like the new (or prior) features coming later this year.

If you haven't used a SSD before, you are going to be very pleasantly surprised!

 
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mad-max79

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There are to options:
1. Move as much data needed to an external drive. Then use Samsung Data Migration Software to migrate your OS to the SSD.
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/samsungssd/downloads.html
Go to BIOS and change HDD boot priority to the SSD.
Be sure using AHCI and IDE mode.

2. Unplug your HDD and do a fresh install of your Windows 8 update.
To activate the copy use Workaround 3.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media-and-product-key-on-formatted-or-empty-blank-hard-drive/
 
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