I Need Help Upgrading My PC!!

[kiwi61402]

If there is anyone out there willing to give me some of their time, I would love if you help me to upgrade some of my PC parts. I have a custom built (I picked the parts) gaming PC from Cyber Power. I bought this PC around 2 years ago, this was when I had no experience with PC gaming or PCs in general. This was also when I had nothing on it. Go back to today, where I have probably thousands of files, including games, on my PC, and it's having a tough time starting up fast, or loading startup apps like Steam and even Google Chrome. I know how to build a computer, but I don't have the money to spend on a brand new one. I just need some help choosing some new parts, either in addition to, or replacing my old ones. I've been told I need an SSD too, and I know what that is, but only on the surface. If you feel my PC is too overkill or shouldn't be what it is, feel free to let me know.

Specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
32 GB DDR3 Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB
64-bit Windows 10
MSI- MS-7922

Thanks so much for your time!!

 

[toshibitsu]

SSD's are faster(some MUCH faster then others) and have a long life span(no moving parts). They are more expensive then standard HD's though. You could find a brand new 1TB standard HD for around $50.... whereas the same thing in an SSD(depending on if it's 2.5" or M.2) can be around $200 - $400.
Normally what people do is have a smaller SSD(around 250GB) & have that as their Windows installation drive, then they'll install a standard HD for backup/game installation. <--- this is actually how all of my desktops and laptops are.

If you upgrade to a current generation CPU/motherboard, you will also have to upgrade your memory as systems now use DDR4 instead of DDR3. You have a pretty nice CPU right now and with 32GB of memory, it's highly doubtful you'll need to upgrade that for awhile.

A side from a possible SSD upgrade... the only other thing to consider may be the video card. Although the only upgrades that would currently be worth it(and show much improvement) would be a GTX 1070 Ti , 1080 or 1080 Ti. These cards are still fairly pricey though due to supply/demand(people who buy up these cards for "mining").

 

[Sedivy]

If your computer is not able to play games you want, that's one thing, but if it's just starting up that's sluggish or opening of basic apps like chrome, get an ssd and fresh install windows. Even just fresh install will speed things up, but ssds are considerably faster than hdds, and you should absolutely make the switch.
As for all your files, the easiest thing to do is to partition your hdd by creating a new data partition out of extra space, and put all your files like games and movies and documents on that. When you do go to wipe, and get a new ssd, install windows on the ssd, and wipe the system partition (and boot and recovery partitions) off of your hdd, but don't touch the data partition. That way you don't have to back everything up.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Since you mentioned no budget, I'm going to assume it might be hard for you to afford a new GPU, CPU, and MB and RAM if you upgrade to DDR4. So I would try the steps below first before buying any new hardware to make SURE it isn't just user neglect out of naivety. Plus, the 980 is still a pretty good GPU, and prices are really crazy from cryptocurrency mining right now.

The problems you're describing are usually due to first time PC users not knowing that boot times, browsers and, OS and program speed in general can slow down from things like an excessive cookie cache (browsers), too much data and/or fragmentation on your HDD, having too many startups that don't need to run at bootup, or even malware.

Browser
It is very quick and easy to clear browsing history in Chrome. You literally just open the tool tree in the very upper right corner (3 vertical dots icon), hover the cursor over More tools, then click Clear browsing data in the little window that opens. This will significantly speed up Chrome if you never clear browsing history. One way to keep cookies under control is to use Chrome Incognito mode, which does not retain cookies. In this mode you can still have Chrome save passwords, but you'll have to login each time, though that is much faster after getting non incognito Chrome to save the password first. As long as you have auto fill enabled in Chrome, which it is by default, logging in with Incognito mode will be just a couple clicks.

You should also make sure Chrome is up to date. You do this by clicking the 3 dot icon, highlighting Help, then clicking About Google Chrome. The page it opens will say if it's up to date, and if it's not, it will update itself. If for some reason it doesn't (rare), you can check the build version against the build version showing on the Chrome download page, and install the new build if necessary.

Bootup speed
On W10 you manage Startups with Task Manager's Startup page. Most programs don't need a startup running, so you can probably disable most in the list as startups. It doesn't mean you're disabling the program. This can significantly improve your bootup speed if you have tons of unnecessary startups enabled. You can also disable auto updates in most programs, as manually updating them is quite easy.

OS and program speed
ALL drives, including HDDs and SSDs, slow down in performance as you put more data on them. The performance can be even worse if you exceed MS' recommended free space guidelines on HDDs, which is 15%. That btw is 15% of the ACTUAL capacity, not the advertised. For instance 1TB HDDs are typically an actual 931MBs, vs 1024. 15% of 931 is 140MB, so that's how much free space you need to keep on a 1TB HDD. This is the amount of space required for proper defragmentation, for SSDs, this does not apply.

Which brings us to another way HDDs can decrease in performance. Think of fragmentation as clutter. Whenever files, games, etc, are installed, those files are not usually sorted well, especially in Windows. Apple is pretty good about their standards for installer software, but MS will license pretty much anyone's installer with little to no standards. This is why PC HDD files get so fragmented. So it's up to the user to periodically defragment the drives (SSDs don't need this, as they have TRIM). It's also healthier on your HDDs. If you let a HDD go without defragmenting it a long time, then do one massive defrag, it can take quite a toll on the drive.

Malware/Viruses
This is another thing that can slow PC performance, or even keep it from running at all in some cases. It's always good to have at least one or two security tools to prevent viruses, malware, trojans, and rootkits. I like Malwarebytes AntiMalware and AdwareCleaner, and even their free versions are pretty good. CCleaner is also a pretty good free registry cleaning tool, and recommended by a lot of sites that diagnose people's DxDiag logs.

 

[kiwi61402]

SSD's are faster(some MUCH faster then others) and have a long life span(no moving parts). They are more expensive then standard HD's though. You could find a brand new 1TB standard HD for around $50.... whereas the same thing in an SSD(depending on if it's 2.5" or M.2) can be around $200 - $400.
Normally what people do is have a smaller SSD(around 250GB) & have that as their Windows installation drive, then they'll install a standard HD for backup/game installation. <--- this is actually how all of my desktops and laptops are.
If you upgrade to a current generation CPU/motherboard, you will also have to upgrade your memory as systems now use DDR4 instead of DDR3. You have a pretty nice CPU right now and with 32GB of memory, it's highly doubtful you'll need to upgrade that for awhile.

A side from a possible SSD upgrade... the only other thing to consider may be the video card. Although the only upgrades that would currently be worth it(and show much improvement) would be a GTX 1070 Ti , 1080 or 1080 Ti. These cards are still fairly pricey though due to supply/demand(people who buy up these cards for "mining").

Thank you so much, I'm keeping my ram and my motherboard, may update my graphics card, and try out an SSD!

 

[kiwi61402]

I appreciate all of your feedback, and I have taken into account all of the things you've said. I appreciate all of your help.

 

[kiwi61402]

If your computer is not able to play games you want, that's one thing, but if it's just starting up that's sluggish or opening of basic apps like chrome, get an ssd and fresh install windows. Even just fresh install will speed things up, but ssds are considerably faster than hdds, and you should absolutely make the switch.
As for all your files, the easiest thing to do is to partition your hdd by creating a new data partition out of extra space, and put all your files like games and movies and documents on that. When you do go to wipe, and get a new ssd, install windows on the ssd, and wipe the system partition (and boot and recovery partitions) off of your hdd, but don't touch the data partition. That way you don't have to back everything up.

If there is any way you could further explain what partitions for my hard drive are and how and what to move onto the data partition?? Thanks

 

[kiwi61402]

Since you mentioned no budget, I'm going to assume it might be hard for you to afford a new GPU, CPU, and MB and RAM if you upgrade to DDR4. So I would try the steps below first before buying any new hardware to make SURE it isn't just user neglect out of naivety. Plus, the 980 is still a pretty good GPU, and prices are really crazy from cryptocurrency mining right now.

The problems you're describing are usually due to first time PC users not knowing that boot times, browsers and, OS and program speed in general can slow down from things like an excessive cookie cache (browsers), too much data and/or fragmentation on your HDD, having too many startups that don't need to run at bootup, or even malware.

Browser
It is very quick and easy to clear browsing history in Chrome. You literally just open the tool tree in the very upper right corner (3 vertical dots icon), hover the cursor over More tools, then click Clear browsing data in the little window that opens. This will significantly speed up Chrome if you never clear browsing history. One way to keep cookies under control is to use Chrome Incognito mode, which does not retain cookies. In this mode you can still have Chrome save passwords, but you'll have to login each time, though that is much faster after getting non incognito Chrome to save the password first. As long as you have auto fill enabled in Chrome, which it is by default, logging in with Incognito mode will be just a couple clicks.

You should also make sure Chrome is up to date. You do this by clicking the 3 dot icon, highlighting Help, then clicking About Google Chrome. The page it opens will say if it's up to date, and if it's not, it will update itself. If for some reason it doesn't (rare), you can check the build version against the build version showing on the Chrome download page, and install the new build if necessary.

Bootup speed
On W10 you manage Startups with Task Manager's Startup page. Most programs don't need a startup running, so you can probably disable most in the list as startups. It doesn't mean you're disabling the program. This can significantly improve your bootup speed if you have tons of unnecessary startups enabled. You can also disable auto updates in most programs, as manually updating them is quite easy.

OS and program speed
ALL drives, including HDDs and SSDs, slow down in performance as you put more data on them. The performance can be even worse if you exceed MS' recommended free space guidelines on HDDs, which is 15%. That btw is 15% of the ACTUAL capacity, not the advertised. For instance 1TB HDDs are typically an actual 931MBs, vs 1024. 15% of 931 is 140MB, so that's how much free space you need to keep on a 1TB HDD. This is the amount of space required for proper defragmentation, for SSDs, this does not apply.

Which brings us to another way HDDs can decrease in performance. Think of fragmentation as clutter. Whenever files, games, etc, are installed, those files are not usually sorted well, especially in Windows. Apple is pretty good about their standards for installer software, but MS will license pretty much anyone's installer with little to no standards. This is why PC HDD files get so fragmented. So it's up to the user to periodically defragment the drives (SSDs don't need this, as they have TRIM). It's also healthier on your HDDs. If you let a HDD go without defragmenting it a long time, then do one massive defrag, it can take quite a toll on the drive.

Malware/Viruses
This is another thing that can slow PC performance, or even keep it from running at all in some cases. It's always good to have at least one or two security tools to prevent viruses, malware, trojans, and rootkits. I like Malwarebytes AntiMalware and AdwareCleaner, and even their free versions are pretty good. CCleaner is also a pretty good free registry cleaning tool, and recommended by a lot of sites that diagnose people's DxDiag logs.

I have no malware. This is a good sign. As for the startup, you were completely right, I had SOOOOOO many things on my startup. For the HDD, I can't seem to understand what you mean my defragmenting it. Is this a manual process or something that a downloadable app can do? As for Chome, I never really had a tough time with it, just the initial startup always seemed to be hard on my PC. Also,I do youtube, and keep A LOT of video files, and they eat up my storage, so I can probably transfer them to another bought drive. Also, I need to know how to clean up my HDD of unwanted files, because I have so many, I never know what I need or I don't need. Thank you so much!

 

[Sedivy]

Defragmenting means instead of having data all over the disc, you organize it. To defrag, Start->Windows Administrative Tools->Defragment and Optimize Drives.
To resize partitions and create a new one: Start->Windows Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management
Your drive and partitions on it should be shown. It should have Efi parition, Primary partition and recovery partition. The primary one with your windows on it will be biggest. Best done after you defragment, right click on the biggest partition and select Shrink Volume. You resize it to something smaller, and you leave enough space for all your data. From the newly unallocated space, right click and select create new volume, format it ntfs and give it a drive letter. More detailed instructions: https://www.howtogeek.com/172580/how-to-create-a-separate-data-partition-for-windows/ look at the second section that says "after installing windows". After you create this new empty partition, move all your data to it, including game installations, email and such (don't forget to change links poitntig to the folders from within the applications like steam, email programs etc. after you reinstall windows, instead of just leaving them on whatever is default). Then when you're ready to install windows anew, and you're booting from a windows cd/usb, delete all partitions except this data one, and let windows create new ones as it needs.

 

[kiwi61402]

SSD's are faster(some MUCH faster then others) and have a long life span(no moving parts). They are more expensive then standard HD's though. You could find a brand new 1TB standard HD for around $50.... whereas the same thing in an SSD(depending on if it's 2.5" or M.2) can be around $200 - $400.
Normally what people do is have a smaller SSD(around 250GB) & have that as their Windows installation drive, then they'll install a standard HD for backup/game installation. <--- this is actually how all of my desktops and laptops are.

If you upgrade to a current generation CPU/motherboard, you will also have to upgrade your memory as systems now use DDR4 instead of DDR3. You have a pretty nice CPU right now and with 32GB of memory, it's highly doubtful you'll need to upgrade that for awhile.

A side from a possible SSD upgrade... the only other thing to consider may be the video card. Although the only upgrades that would currently be worth it(and show much improvement) would be a GTX 1070 Ti , 1080 or 1080 Ti. These cards are still fairly pricey though due to supply/demand(people who buy up these cards for "mining").

Defragmenting means instead of having data all over the disc, you organize it. To defrag, Start->Windows Administrative Tools->Defragment and Optimize Drives.
To resize partitions and create a new one: Start->Windows Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management
Your drive and partitions on it should be shown. It should have Efi parition, Primary partition and recovery partition. The primary one with your windows on it will be biggest. Best done after you defragment, right click on the biggest partition and select Shrink Volume. You resize it to something smaller, and you leave enough space for all your data. From the newly unallocated space, right click and select create new volume, format it ntfs and give it a drive letter. More detailed instructions: https://www.howtogeek.com/172580/how-to-create-a-separate-data-partition-for-windows/ look at the second section that says "after installing windows". After you create this new empty partition, move all your data to it, including game installations, email and such (don't forget to change links poitntig to the folders from within the applications like steam, email programs etc. after you reinstall windows, instead of just leaving them on whatever is default). Then when you're ready to install windows anew, and you're booting from a windows cd/usb, delete all partitions except this data one, and let windows create new ones as it needs.

Should I do this AFTER I buy and receive my SSD? Or should I do it right now?

 

[Sedivy]

If you're buying a new ssd, you're newly installing everything. I am recommending data partition on your old drive so you don't have to migrate your data elsewhere, wipe your HDD, and then migrate it all back. When you want to do it is entirely up to you. You could do it just before you install the ssd, so that when you do put it in and boot from windows install dvd/usb, you can wipe everything off of hdd except data partition, and then install windows on your new shiny ssd. Make sure however that you delete all the old partitions off of the hdd except the data one you kept your files on. That means deleting the efi and recovery partitions as well as the primary system partition.

 

[kiwi61402]

If you're buying a new ssd, you're newly installing everything. I am recommending data partition on your old drive so you don't have to migrate your data elsewhere, wipe your HDD, and then migrate it all back. When you want to do it is entirely up to you. You could do it just before you install the ssd, so that when you do put it in and boot from windows install dvd/usb, you can wipe everything off of hdd except data partition, and then install windows on your new shiny ssd. Make sure however that you delete all the old partitions off of the hdd except the data one you kept your files on. That means deleting the efi and recovery partitions as well as the primary system partition.

 

[kiwi61402]

If you're buying a new ssd, you're newly installing everything. I am recommending data partition on your old drive so you don't have to migrate your data elsewhere, wipe your HDD, and then migrate it all back. When you want to do it is entirely up to you. You could do it just before you install the ssd, so that when you do put it in and boot from windows install dvd/usb, you can wipe everything off of hdd except data partition, and then install windows on your new shiny ssd. Make sure however that you delete all the old partitions off of the hdd except the data one you kept your files on. That means deleting the efi and recovery partitions as well as the primary system partition.

How exactly do I do this?

 

[Sedivy]

I...my previous post kind of lists it all. I even gave you an additional link of detailed instructions:
https://www.howtogeek.com/172580/how-to-create-a-separate-data-partition-for-windows/

 

[kiwi61402]

I...my previous post kind of lists it all. I even gave you an additional link of detailed instructions:
https://www.howtogeek.com/172580/how-to-create-a-separate-data-partition-for-windows/

Thank you, I will be buying a 500 GB SSD next week, and get do what you asked, I appreciate it!!

 

[Frag Maniac]

Sorry for the delay in getting back. I had to spend the last couple days installing and testing some upgrade parts.

As Sedivy said though, defragmenting is a job that Windows can do, but unlike in previous versions of Windows (XP and earlier), you can no longer see a graph or progess while doing so. I also prefer better defrag tools. I used to use Auslogics Disk Defrag, but now use Perfect Disk. Perfect Disk has a background defrag tool that only works when there is no load on the PC.

Defrag tools sort like files together and also fill empty spaces. The reason you want like files sorted and no spaces is because when the HDD read/write arm needs to access say a certain game file or any program, it takes it longer to do so if in the middle of accessing the data it has to search other parts of the drive for the rest of what it's accessing. It makes the drive run slower and causes more wear and tear on it.

Most defrag tools can defrag, optimize, or both. Defrag is when it just sorts like files together. Optimize is when it fills in empty spaces, or compacts the files. Optimizing, and especially optimizing AND defragging simultaneously, takes a long time, particularly if your HDD is VERY fragmented. It is also, as I said above, very hard on the HDD.

This is why if you've let your HDD go for 2 years without defragging and filled it with data, you really should defrag it a little at a time. Just stop the defrag tool after a half hour, hour max, then start again after it cools down.

The easy way to tell if you have too many files on your HDD is in the This PC page of W10 where it shows all the drives, instead of the capacity percentage bar being blue, it will have turned red. If this is case on a HDD you want to defrag, you need to remove some of the files first for the defragging to work properly. You can move them to drives with more space available, burn them to disc, or store them temporarily on a flash drive.

Like I said above, MS' free space rule of thumb is 15%, which is roughly 140GB on a 1TB HDD.

 

[kiwi61402]

Sorry of the late response. So what your saying is I should defrag and optimize my HDD for about a half an hour to an hour? Any good programs to recommend? Also what will be the process in transferring the data I want onto my SSD? Will I be able to put my OS and some of my games on there that I want to load faster? If so, how will I be able to do that? Sorry for any misunderstanding, I'm really new to this stuff and it's very hard for me to learn through threads, I'm more of a visual or audible learner. Thanks for your time again.

Sorry for the delay in getting back. I had to spend the last couple days installing and testing some upgrade parts.

As Sedivy said though, defragmenting is a job that Windows can do, but unlike in previous versions of Windows (XP and earlier), you can no longer see a graph or progess while doing so. I also prefer better defrag tools. I used to use Auslogics Disk Defrag, but now use Perfect Disk. Perfect Disk has a background defrag tool that only works when there is no load on the PC.

Defrag tools sort like files together and also fill empty spaces. The reason you want like files sorted and no spaces is because when the HDD read/write arm needs to access say a certain game file or any program, it takes it longer to do so if in the middle of accessing the data it has to search other parts of the drive for the rest of what it's accessing. It makes the drive run slower and causes more wear and tear on it.

Most defrag tools can defrag, optimize, or both. Defrag is when it just sorts like files together. Optimize is when it fills in empty spaces, or compacts the files. Optimizing, and especially optimizing AND defragging simultaneously, takes a long time, particularly if your HDD is VERY fragmented. It is also, as I said above, very hard on the HDD.

This is why if you've let your HDD go for 2 years without defragging and filled it with data, you really should defrag it a little at a time. Just stop the defrag tool after a half hour, hour max, then start again after it cools down.

The easy way to tell if you have too many files on your HDD is in the This PC page of W10 where it shows all the drives, instead of the capacity percentage bar being blue, it will have turned red. If this is case on a HDD you want to defrag, you need to remove some of the files first for the defragging to work properly. You can move them to drives with more space available, burn them to disc, or store them temporarily on a flash drive.

Like I said above, MS' free space rule of thumb is 15%, which is roughly 140GB on a 1TB HDD.

 

[kiwi61402]

Sorry of the late response. So what your saying is I should defrag and optimize my HDD for about a half an hour to an hour? Any good programs to recommend? Also what will be the process in transferring the data I want onto my SSD? Will I be able to put my OS and some of my games on there that I want to load faster? If so, how will I be able to do that? Sorry for any misunderstanding, I'm really new to this stuff and it's very hard for me to learn through threads, I'm more of a visual or audible learner. Thanks for your time again.

Sorry for the delay in getting back. I had to spend the last couple days installing and testing some upgrade parts.

As Sedivy said though, defragmenting is a job that Windows can do, but unlike in previous versions of Windows (XP and earlier), you can no longer see a graph or progess while doing so. I also prefer better defrag tools. I used to use Auslogics Disk Defrag, but now use Perfect Disk. Perfect Disk has a background defrag tool that only works when there is no load on the PC.

Defrag tools sort like files together and also fill empty spaces. The reason you want like files sorted and no spaces is because when the HDD read/write arm needs to access say a certain game file or any program, it takes it longer to do so if in the middle of accessing the data it has to search other parts of the drive for the rest of what it's accessing. It makes the drive run slower and causes more wear and tear on it.

Most defrag tools can defrag, optimize, or both. Defrag is when it just sorts like files together. Optimize is when it fills in empty spaces, or compacts the files. Optimizing, and especially optimizing AND defragging simultaneously, takes a long time, particularly if your HDD is VERY fragmented. It is also, as I said above, very hard on the HDD.

This is why if you've let your HDD go for 2 years without defragging and filled it with data, you really should defrag it a little at a time. Just stop the defrag tool after a half hour, hour max, then start again after it cools down.

The easy way to tell if you have too many files on your HDD is in the This PC page of W10 where it shows all the drives, instead of the capacity percentage bar being blue, it will have turned red. If this is case on a HDD you want to defrag, you need to remove some of the files first for the defragging to work properly. You can move them to drives with more space available, burn them to disc, or store them temporarily on a flash drive.

Like I said above, MS' free space rule of thumb is 15%, which is roughly 140GB on a 1TB HDD.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I use Perfect Disk, but a good free one is Disk Defrag by Auslogics. You don't need to defrag SSDs btw, as they have TRIM, which is their own version of file management.

 

[kiwi61402]

Thank you! I will try it out tonight. If you have any idea about the other questions that I had about how I will be able to convert my games and OS to an SSD from my HDD, that would be great! I have a future setup as follows:
HDD: Partition for applications I rarely use and games I rarely play, and video clips I make of these games.
SSD: Main drive for my operating system and my main games and apps I use.

Is this setup good and if so how will I be able to manage the apps and games on both drives? Thank you so much!!

I use Perfect Disk, but a good free one is Disk Defrag by Auslogics. You don't need to defrag SSDs btw, as they have TRIM, which is their own version of file management.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Is this setup good and if so how will I be able to manage the apps and games on both drives?

Yeah that setup would work, but I recommend making a 40GB partition on the SSD for just the OS and drivers. that way it's a LOT easier and faster when you have to format the OS. You can get by with smaller space for just the OS, but that will leave you enough to make sure it doesn't fill up.

Just remember when installing programs and other files that you select something other than C: drive for the install path.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Is this setup good and if so how will I be able to manage the apps and games on both drives?

Yeah that setup would work, but I recommend making a 40GB partition on the SSD for just the OS and drivers. That way it's a LOT easier and faster when you have to format the OS. You can get by with smaller space for just the OS, but that will leave you enough to make sure it doesn't fill up.

Just remember when installing programs and other files that you select something other than C: drive for the install path.

 

[kiwi61402]

Ok thank you! How do I create a partition exactly and is there any source I could use to get the information on how to transfer my OS and games from my HDD to my SSD?

Is this setup good and if so how will I be able to manage the apps and games on both drives?

Yeah that setup would work, but I recommend making a 40GB partition on the SSD for just the OS and drivers. that way it's a LOT easier and faster when you have to format the OS. You can get by with smaller space for just the OS, but that will leave you enough to make sure it doesn't fill up.

Just remember when installing programs and other files that you select something other than C: drive for the install path.

 

[Frag Maniac]

When you install Windows, the first thing it takes you through is selecting a drive to install on. There should be no mistake as to which drive is the SSD because it will show it's capacity. Note that actual capacities are a bit smaller than advertised. However I recommend having only the OS drive plugged in during installation.

After the install drive is selected, it asks you to choose the volume. Just set it to 40,000, which is roughly 40GB. The remaining amount will automatically become a 2nd partition for your games you currently play. This you will not need to manually partition.

Note that Windows automatically creates it's own small partition (like 100MB or so), for MBR (Master Boot Record) files and such, in the case the user fills the OS partition too full to avoid these files getting corrupted. However if you are diligent about keeping free space on your OS partition, you can deleted the partition you made and extend the 100MB one to 40GB. This way you'll have only drive letters for drives you can actually put files on yourself, and no extra small Windows specific drive.

I DO NOT recommend trying to transfer the OS from your current drive to the new one. It's always best to do a fresh install.

As for games, you can try copying and pasting each one on your new drive, but that could result in problems because they won't be registered in the registry. Some games will work fine if you just reinstall the redist files in the game directory (DirectX, Visual Studio), but others will need to be reinstalled.

 

[kiwi61402]

So you're just saying I should fresh reinstall my entire PC, and keep some of the files that I want on the HDD that I can take out after putting the SSD in to boot off of? So it would be like I'm running my PC for the first time?

When you install Windows, the first thing it takes you through is selecting a drive to install on. There should be no mistake as to which drive is the SSD because it will show it's capacity. Note that actual capacities are a bit smaller than advertised. However I recommend having only the OS drive plugged in during installation.

After the install drive is selected, it asks you to choose the volume. Just set it to 40,000, which is roughly 40GB. The remaining amount will automatically become a 2nd partition for your games you currently play. This you will not need to manually partition.

Note that Windows automatically creates it's own small partition (like 100MB or so), for MBR (Master Boot Record) files and such, in the case the user fills the OS partition too full to avoid these files getting corrupted. However if you are diligent about keeping free space on your OS partition, you can deleted the partition you made and extend the 100MB one to 40GB. This way you'll have only drive letters for drives you can actually put files on yourself, and no extra small Windows specific drive.

I DO NOT recommend trying to transfer the OS from your current drive to the new one. It's always best to do a fresh install.

As for games, you can try copying and pasting each one on your new drive, but that could result in problems because they won't be registered in the registry. Some games will work fine if you just reinstall the redist files in the game directory (DirectX, Visual Studio), but others will need to be reinstalled.