Windows SSD nearly full, need to buy a new one

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JonBond

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Nov 1, 2013
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My 128gb Windows SSD is nearly full and is affecting my system's performance. I will buy a new 250gb SSD soon and was wondering if it would be best for me to move my files over or to start from scratch. Also, I have a HDD with all of my bulk files on it, would introducing a new SSD affect these files? Also, one issue I had when I first put together my PC is that I only put Windows on my PC, however files such downloads became very large and overloaded my SSD, so I moved them to my HDD and changed the downloads destination. But some files would still dowmload onto my SSD. I still find it extremely confusing as to how to install an SSD and a HDD perfectly without the SDD becoming full so help with that would be much appreciated since I am considering just starting over again. (Only Windows files are on the SSD, although the large files such as documents, downloads and such are on my HDD.)

Sorry this may sound confusing, any help is appreciated and I will answer any questions to the best of my ability.

 
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azaran
The upside to doing it from scratch is any odd problems or old settings/programs that didn't fully uninstall wouldn't carry over to the new drive, the downside is obviously the amount of work involved.

That being said, doing a clone would work just fine. Having done it on personal systems and a weekly basis on the job, I'd say you'd be just fine. Depending on the SSD it may even come with migration software. I just upgraded a system with a new Samsung 850 EVO SSD and the migration software that came with the drive worked like a charm. There are also free tools like Clonezilla that you use on a bootable USB that will do the trick as well.

In theory if you do a direct clone and swap the drives using the same SATA connection on the new...
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gangrel

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The files on your hard drive won't get touched, BUT the drive assignments might change.

The download destination folder...not sure. It might be browser-specific. But as long as you know they're going there...just periodically move them to the hard drive. Or in my case, external drive or NAS. When ya get down to it, Downloads is largely the same as Temp...I don't like keeping stuff in there. Put it somewhere that makes more sense.

A nice tool: TreeSizeFree. https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/ What this does is report your space use, largest to smallest folders. It should help you find out where the space is going. One thing it showed me the other day: my AppData folder had a couple fairly large folders for programs I'd uninstalled.

Run Windows' cleanup tool:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/delete-files-using-disk-cleanup#delete-files-using-disk-cleanup=windows-7

 
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azaran

azaran

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Feb 17, 2010
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The upside to doing it from scratch is any odd problems or old settings/programs that didn't fully uninstall wouldn't carry over to the new drive, the downside is obviously the amount of work involved.

That being said, doing a clone would work just fine. Having done it on personal systems and a weekly basis on the job, I'd say you'd be just fine. Depending on the SSD it may even come with migration software. I just upgraded a system with a new Samsung 850 EVO SSD and the migration software that came with the drive worked like a charm. There are also free tools like Clonezilla that you use on a bootable USB that will do the trick as well.

In theory if you do a direct clone and swap the drives using the same SATA connection on the new as you did the old it "should" keep your drive designations and directory remapping the same. Safest bet would be to make sure you back up any data and settings you have that are customized.
 
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