How do I move from HDD to SSD

Did you search? We have some discussions about this going on right now.

But anyway, the easiest way is to reinstall your OS on to the SSD. The not-as-easy way is to clone your drive. This will retain the current file structure and everything you have on your HDD.

I did search, but there really seems to be no definitive answer on what is the easiest way to do this. If I install windows on the ssd and then plug my HDD in. What will happen? What programs will work?

The definitive answer, as stated, is to put a fresh install on your SSD. however, this means you have to spend a lot of time reinstalling stuff.

If you plug in two drives which are bootable, you'll get a choice of which drive you want to run. Once the selected drive runs, you can run all the programs installed with that OS.

If you feel more confident, you can try cloning software.

Look at the forums, a bunch of people are discussing this right now.  

So basically I have to just get it over with, and re-install everything while backing up key files?


One more question... Is it worth it? I know you are going to say "Hell Yes!" but still. I mean what improves besides boot up time? (Because I already boot up fast enough)

The positives are anything that requires disk reads or disk writes (overall speed), as well as lower power consumption.

The negatives are sometimes they can be tricky to configure, there are a number of models that fail early, and some gives you less usable space than you are lead to believe.

I suggest you read the reviews of a model you are interested in and see what people say. If it sounds good to you, go for it!

What about this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Also what do you mean they lie about storage? I mean wouldn't a 250GB hold 220GB or something?

Because of wear leveling across all blocks on SSD drives, they sometimes reserve space on the drive you cant access so when certain blocks die, they can move data to that "extra" space.

So, say you have a 100GB drive, and they save 10G of it as part of their over provisioning scheme, you would only see 90G of space.

Not all drives do it, but some have done this in the past. Now a days, most manufacturers subtract this from the advertised amount, so its OK. Thats why you see a bunch of oddly sized drives, such as 250G instead of 256G.

I managed to get the 500GB version for $140 new! I am going to try to copy my drive to it. Before I do, is there any solid advice you can give me on what program to use and whether it is even worth it?

Best answer selected by CaptainTom.

Captain Tom,

The EASIEST way to copy everything from you existing HDD to the new SSD is to use the software & Hardware that comes with the Crucial SSD. It is made by Apricorn and includes a cd and a transfer cable. All you do is boot up to the cd and follow the instructions. It makes an EXACT replica of your existing HDD on to the new SSD. Then, you remove the old HDD, install the new SSD and you should be good to go. You may can purchase this software and hardware separate from the Crucial SSD, but if you purchase a Crucial SSD with the transfer kit, the apricorn hardware and software is what you will get. Make sure you get the one with the kit.