Adding SSD as boot drive and wiping the old drive?

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Gamer94

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Jan 5, 2014
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Hi,

I'm looking to buy an SSD as an upgrade to my current desktop, but I will still be using my current 1TB HDD as mass storage. I am looking to configure my SSD as a boot drive for windows 8.1 and the hard drive for almost everything else.

I currently have windows 8.1 installed on the Hard Drive, so really my question is, what's the best way to wipe the hard drive in order to prepare it for the new upgrade (I want a fresh windows install, I wish to back up no data)

I've had a bad experience before with wiping a laptop drive using "Darik's Boot & Nuke" as it caused all sorts of problems. I'm not looking for complete destruction of data etc, I just want a clean drive.

Thanks in advance
 
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You are saying you do not wish to backup any data and that you want a complete re-installation of Windows 8.1. I would firstly wait for the SSD to come, once done i would remove the old hard drive from the system, install the SSD to insure that the SSD is set to primary boot, the BIOS will recognize that your SSD is not formatted you will most likely have to set the DVD/CD drive to boot as primary in order to launch a fresh install of Windows 8.1, do an install of the OS on the SSD, once the installation is completed, install the old drive insuring that the old drive is NOT made primary again and then just reformat the drive using the disk management tool provided by windows. Once a format is done all the data on that drive will be gone...
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kenrivers

kenrivers

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Dec 29, 2010
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Remove the HDD and install the SSD. Install Windows and then add the HDD back into the system. Since the HDD has an OS on it you want to make sure the SSD is set as the first boot drive. You could connect the HDD as an external drive to format it before adding it back to the system. Just use the format options in Windows to format the drive. A quick format should do the trick.
 
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niroshido

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Jan 15, 2012
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You are saying you do not wish to backup any data and that you want a complete re-installation of Windows 8.1. I would firstly wait for the SSD to come, once done i would remove the old hard drive from the system, install the SSD to insure that the SSD is set to primary boot, the BIOS will recognize that your SSD is not formatted you will most likely have to set the DVD/CD drive to boot as primary in order to launch a fresh install of Windows 8.1, do an install of the OS on the SSD, once the installation is completed, install the old drive insuring that the old drive is NOT made primary again and then just reformat the drive using the disk management tool provided by windows. Once a format is done all the data on that drive will be gone and there wont be any way for you to revert (to explain this, by deleting a partition your effectively telling the system to write zeroes over the disk platters, (1's are used to suggest that the space is occupied and will be read).

HEXiT suggested using the migration software provided, i don't know if all SSD's include migration software but i know some do specifically the upgrade kits, the software is effectively migrating all data from one drive to another, that could be hazardous if there is more data stored on your HDD than your SDD it may start and be unable to complete due to lack of storage on the SSD or it may not start at all if the software includes a test to check the amount of data being migrated vs the storage.

Keep in mind the following
You need a full windows 8 disk, if the disk is only a repair disk you're not going to be able to re-install the full OS, i believe OEM's only allow 1 install

You need to be sure that you don't care about any data on your HDD as you wont get it back after reformatting the drive.

if you decide your best option is to migrate, insure that the SSD has enough storage for a full migration, i don't believe you can migrate specific folders.

I may be wrong with some of this but i hope that if i am, someone will correct me on it.
 
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