Upgrading OS from HDD to SSD and keeping storage on HDD

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GamerBro10

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Jun 8, 2014
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I currently have a pc that I built with a regular cheap 1TB HDD which has Windows 8 installed and all my files. I want to put the OS on the SSD and hook up the HDD as a secondary to still be able to access applications and other files that dont need the full speed of the SSD. From browsing around this does not seem so easy so I was wondering how to do it. My 1TB HDD only has 50GB left so cloning does not seem to be an option.

Can I just use the same Windows install disk to do a fresh install on the SSD and then plug the HDD in to act as the D/secondary drive or will I run into problems sense I already used the windows activation code for the HDD?

I read that there are problems with permissions errors for the HDD if I try to access the files from the newly installed os on the SSD so how would I be able to access all of my files once I upgrade?

To make it clear, I dont want to migrate anything from the HDD to the SSD besides the OS. I just want to access the files on the HDD once I have the OS installed on the SSD.
 
Solution
Entomber
Windows is not bound to the storage device it's installed on, but it's bound by the motherboard that it was installed to.

You should be able to clean install Windows onto your SSD and access files on your HDD without issue, BUT you should not expect to be able to run all of your programs off your HDD perfectly, since your system will not have the correct registry entries or background files which are created during initial installation of the programs.

To be 100% safe, you should reinstall the programs on the HDD using advanced installation options in each of your programs.
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Entomber

Entomber

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Apr 21, 2014
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Windows is not bound to the storage device it's installed on, but it's bound by the motherboard that it was installed to.

You should be able to clean install Windows onto your SSD and access files on your HDD without issue, BUT you should not expect to be able to run all of your programs off your HDD perfectly, since your system will not have the correct registry entries or background files which are created during initial installation of the programs.

To be 100% safe, you should reinstall the programs on the HDD using advanced installation options in each of your programs.
 
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GamerBro10

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Jun 8, 2014
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So would just deleting programs and then re installing them on the hdd be enough or would it be better to reformat the entire drive to avoid registry errors and have optimal performance?
 
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Entomber

Entomber

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Apr 21, 2014
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the best course of action to take to avoid errors (as well as free up all the space currently occupied by Windows) is to reformat your HDD, but it's not strictly necessary for you to do so, deleting and reinstalling programs on your HDD would work probably just the same
 
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