SSD Data migration questions

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Leothelion545

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Feb 16, 2014
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Hey

In the very soon coming future, I will be purchasing some new parts, one of those being a new SSD (Samsung 840 Evo 120GB) and I was thinking, well, the reason I'm buying it is to get a generally speedier computer with better reaction times. But problem is, I'm not very intelligent in this kinda field. I've heard of this Data Migration Software, where you can transfer the files from your HDD to your new SSD, but what does it do? I only need Windows to be transferred to the SS, don't I? How does it actually work? Do I transfer all my data over? Or just my OS? Please help me....

Thanks
 
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WyomingKnott

WyomingKnott

Legenda in Aeternum
Aug 29, 2006
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Well, that totally depends on what you want to do. There are a number of ways to proceed. The most important questions are how much is on your system drive now and is it partitioned into more than one partition?

Simplest solution: All of the files on your current system hard drive add up to less than 120 GB. In that case, you want to clone the hard drive to the SSD while fixing alignment (more later), then just boot up the SSD and have fun. If you have an external drive, you can use something like Easeus ToDo Backup (free) or Acronis True Image (paid) to boot into the backup software, make an image of your drive on the external drive, replace the drive in your machine with the SSD, and restore to the SSD with the option to "optimize for ssd" set on. This will fix the data on the drive to 4k alignment (everything starts on a 4096 byte boundary), instead of the 256 byte alignment of HDDs.

This would be simpler if you used clone software that could fix the alignment. Then it's just one step, no external HDD for the backup image. I personally don't know of software that can do this. Anyone out there know how?

Less simple solution: Do a complete re install of the OS and all your programs and games on the SSD. A little cleaner, but it will take time and patience. Copy data from the old drive as needed, or install it as a data drive.

Less simple solution: Your current HDD has everything in one partition and is too big to clone to your SSD. Then you have to have a third drive, move data files to it until your current HDD is small enough to fit on the SSD with room to spare, and proceed as in the first case above.

So how would you like to proceed?
 
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Leothelion545

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Feb 16, 2014
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Okay, so I'm going to pretend I know everything you just said. But I can tell you SOME information. I've got 377GB free out of 690GB (I'm assuming the other 60 is Windows?) and secondly, what do you mean by 'partitions'? Simplest way to put it, is right now I'm just using ONE hard drive, to store ALL of my games, OS, everything e.t.c And I just thought when you get an SSD you generally just make it your main boot drive, because most of the time they're too small to hold things like games e.t.c. I suppose I purchase two 840 Evo's, what potentially could I do then? Make one my boot drive, the other... what? And the HDD for games, photo's, video's e.t.c?
 
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