Moving OS from my HDD to SSD?

timnswede

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Apr 26, 2012
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Hey guys, I'm kind of confused as to what I should do. So I got a Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB, but I have all my stuff and several games on my 500 GB C drive. I also have a 1 TB E drive that barely has anything on it.
Now my question is, should I move Steam with the games to my E drive and completely wipe my C drive and then install the OS and programs on my SSD or should I keep my C drive the same, but remove all the programs and the OS (not sure if that'll actually work) from it and install them on my SSD?
 
Solution
Backup anything you want to keep, then wipe your os drive with an aftermarket drive wiper, at least 2 passes. If your ssd is brand new then no need to update firmware, if it is not brand new, update the ssd firmware. Then, unplug your storage drive, plug in your clean ssd for fresh os, and re-install windows. After windows install is complete, plug in storage drive and hopefully everything will be okay. As long as you have steam and steam games working on your storage drive before the os drive swap, you should be okay. Let me know what happens.

Suferbus

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Jul 1, 2013
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Most likely you will lose playability of your games. You cannot just drag and drop the games onto a new drive and have them still work. Even though the files/games will be there, steam will show that the games need downloaded. There are all types of solutions in forums all over the web, but I have yet to find one that works flawlessly. I build around 10 gaming p.c.'s a month, and everytime I add or swap out a drive, especially when the o.s. is involved, I have to uninstall steam/origin/uplay, and then uninstall all folders containing any parts/installers of games, and then re=download. Your best bet anytime you do an o.s. drive swap is to just back up your data, and do a fresh o.s. install. There can be all types of issues with drive cloning, you have to make sure that the new drive is aligned exactly the same and correctly as the first drive, and even then it does not always work/boot correctly. My advice, back up all user data/pics/files/music, do a fresh o.s. install, re-download steam and your games to your 1tb drive and keep it off of your o.s. drive so you don't have this issue in the future with new o.s drives. Good Luck!!! :)
 

Suferbus

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Jul 1, 2013
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My above comments regarding o.s. drive cloning are especially true when upgrading to an ssd. Even if your clone drive works, you will most likely lose some performance and the great performance is the whole point of an ssd. Once you get this going, I would only use the o.s. drive for the o.s., anti-virus, prime 95 etc. You do have a fairly large ssd, so you could put some games on there, but be warned, having steam games on more than one drive will require some settings to be adjusted in steam for the games to be recognized by steam so they are playable.
 

timnswede

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Apr 26, 2012
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Well on Steam's official page, it says that I can remove everything except the steamapps folder and the steam.exe and move those two things to the new drive (my 1 TB drive) and then start up steam and it will work. It also says I can move my saves there too and it will work. BTW Steam also supports using multiple drives now, but i know how to use symbolic links anyways. So since I can do that, do you recommend moving that stuff to my 1 TB drive and then wiping my C drive and installing my OS on the SSD? I don't really have anything that I care about on it since it's my gaming computer.
 

Suferbus

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Jul 1, 2013
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Ya give it a shot. I have not had much luck with it, no matter what steam says, although I did a mobo swap and steam recognized the new hardware and just did an update, but I did not perform a hard drive swap at that time. Last time I had just one ssd, and added another larger ssd for storage. All I did was move steam over to my new larger ssd, then I attempted to move the games following steams instructions, but to no avail, none of my games were recognized, so I had to do a re-install. I still think you might run into a few issues, but give it a shot. At worse, you re-download. Yes, steam supports multiple drives, Origin and Uplay are less forgiving.
 

timnswede

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Apr 26, 2012
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OK, one last question. Should I clean my hard drive with the OS on it before I install the OS on the SSD? Also do I leave the HDD that (hopefully) has steam and my games plugged in while I install the OS on the SSD or do I plug it in after everything is set up on the SSD?
 

Suferbus

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Jul 1, 2013
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Backup anything you want to keep, then wipe your os drive with an aftermarket drive wiper, at least 2 passes. If your ssd is brand new then no need to update firmware, if it is not brand new, update the ssd firmware. Then, unplug your storage drive, plug in your clean ssd for fresh os, and re-install windows. After windows install is complete, plug in storage drive and hopefully everything will be okay. As long as you have steam and steam games working on your storage drive before the os drive swap, you should be okay. Let me know what happens.
 
Solution

Suferbus

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Jul 1, 2013
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Basically you need to get rid of the 500gb drive. Transfer over everything you want to keep to your 1 tb drive. Pull out the 500 gb with os on it. Unplug the 1 tb. Install the Samsung ssd. Do a fresh os/drivers install. Plug in the 1 tb. Use the 500 gb for backup. Happy GAming!! :)
 

timnswede

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Apr 26, 2012
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Sorry for asking so many questions lol, but are there any programs you recommend for wiping the hard drive? Or can I boot from my windows 7 disc and format the hard drive to remove everything?