moving windows to a small 60gb SSD, will this work?

Rhavi Marques

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May 26, 2013
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so i'm trying to move my windows to a small 60gb SSD i got, but sadly i didnt anticipate doing this when i was installing all my stuff, so this is what i did:

i have a 1tb hard drive split down the middle (or about)
on my C: i installed windows along with everything else, games, programs, etc.
on my D: i left for files, music, pictures.

current state:
C: is 500gb in size, with about 200gb used.
D: is 500gb in size, with about 100gb used.

i'm trying to move windows over to the new 55gb SSD, without all the clutter, hopefully the end result will be:
B (SSD): with windows
C: with the programs
D: with the files

i'm using SymMover, which apperantly moves files without altering the registry for them... (http://mobasoftware.com/symmover.php)

i'm moving everything from C: to D: until C: is 50gb or less, then i'll use one of those softwares that clones/moves a drive to another partition, then boot up with the windows disc, "repair" and done, windows will boot into the SSD without destroying my settings/programs.

will this work?
or should i just bite the bullet and install fresh on the SSD?
 
Solution


You won't have to.

Disconnect all other drives
Do the install on the SSD
Verify everything works
Remove the one that used to be C from the boot order, and the SSD is first in boot order.
Plug the other drives back in
Start it up
What used to be "C" will now be something else. The SSD will be C.

Preecher

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Jan 10, 2006
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The most reliable method will be to install windows fresh on the new SSD. 60gb is a little tight but you should be able to do it. You can reduce your pagefile size (or point the pagefile to the non-ssd HDD) to reclaim a little extra disk space if needed. You may run into some storage constraints at some point however.
 

Rhavi Marques

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May 26, 2013
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yeah i think i'm going to just fresh install it... i dont know how to change the letters on an existing drive though
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


You won't have to.

Disconnect all other drives
Do the install on the SSD
Verify everything works
Remove the one that used to be C from the boot order, and the SSD is first in boot order.
Plug the other drives back in
Start it up
What used to be "C" will now be something else. The SSD will be C.
 
Solution

Rhavi Marques

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May 26, 2013
221
0
10,710


you're right, simple enough, off to do it.
 

Rhavi Marques

Honorable
May 26, 2013
221
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10,710
ok, first problem, i unplugged the HDD, left the SSD, installed, ok, now i plugged it back in, and when i go to boot options on my BIOS, WITHOUT the HDD, it states my SSD as first boot, but when i plug in the HDD, the HDD gets first boot and the SSD simply vanishes from the list... what now? swap the cables?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Possibly. Put the SSD in SATA 0.