Storage What to do with HDD after installing SSD

[Jimmy6]

Hi all,

I have a 256Gb M4 arriving tomorrow and have searched the forum for the best way to do a clean Win7 install on it - I think I am fairly happy with that.

So, after installing Win7, what do I do with my current (Samsung 1Tb) HDD? Does it just get plugged into the next SATA port on the motherboard? I assume it will get a drive letter assigned by Windows?

Do I then need to delete the old Win7 data from it? I need to keep all the files such as videos, music and photos which I am happy with, but will all my Steam games remain usable on the new system?

Cheers for your time,

J6

[ninjaplease]

It doesn't matter what it's plugged into, just make sure your M4 is plugged into a SATA-III port then select your cd drive as a boot disk on your bios and when you put the windows installation disc in, make sure you select the SSD as install location.

Then just leave the HDD in there and use it for storage. None of your programs installed on there will be accessible when you boot from your SSD, but if you leave everything on there then you'll be able to boot from your HDD if something were to go wrong with the SSD.

Also you will want to use the HDD for file storage, as it would be a waste of space putting them on the SSD.

[Deders]

If you plug it in the next port whilst you are installing Win 7 on your new disk, you can delete the entire disk from within the setup. I think it's under Advanced options. This should avoid any confusion when the Bios is presented with 2 bootloaders.

[feathers]

Originally Posted by Jimmy6

Hi all,

I have a 256Gb M4 arriving tomorrow and have searched the forum for the best way to do a clean Win7 install on it - I think I am fairly happy with that.

So, after installing Win7, what do I do with my current (Samsung 1Tb) HDD? Does it just get plugged into the next SATA port on the motherboard? I assume it will get a drive letter assigned by Windows?

Do I then need to delete the old Win7 data from it? I need to keep all the files such as videos, music and photos which I am happy with, but will all my Steam games remain usable on the new system?

Cheers for your time,

J6

You need to go to each game in the steam library and back it up. Then when you install the new windows on SSD and then install steam on it, you restore your steam games and that way you don't lose your game saves. I did this last week. I wanted to move steam from C: drive to new SSD so I backed up my steam games, uninstalled steam, then installed it on the new SSD, restored the games and my game saves were restored.

[Jimmy6]

Ok, so if I install Windows on the new SSD, then plug in the old HDD when everything's setup, will I be able to access all my media files as before?

What does backing up Steam games actually do? If I just leave the games on the old HDD will they not work as before?

[phuzz]

Actually, you don't need to backup all your Steam games.
This is the way I'd do it (when I have the cash for a new ssd):

1. Download all the drivers you might need to install windows and save them to a USB stick, also, now is the time to remember what your Steam password is, and maybe give your computer a little clean out.
2. Install the SDD into your case, and plug it into any available SATA port
3. (If you need to install a firmware update on the drive, boot of your HDD and install the firmware now, before you've got anything on it to potentially lose)
4. Temporarily unplug your HDD
5. Install Windows on the SDD.
6. Once you've got Windows installed, turn off the computer and re-plug your HDD back in
7. Go into the BIOS and make sure that the SSD is set as the boot device.
8. Boot into Windows and check that both drives are showing up (you may wish to name them both to avoid confusion, right click the drive and go into the properties and put the name in the box at the top)
9. Move your Steam install (see below)
10. Now you can safely delete (or maybe just send to the recycle bin just to be safe) the following folders from the HDD: Windows, Program Data (hidden folder) and the Program Files (and the x86 version if you're on 64 bit). *****Don't delete the Program Files directories until you've moved Steam!*****
11. Now if you want to be clever, right click on your new 'My Videos' (eg) folder and go to Properties. In the "Location" tab click "Move" and find the OLD location of your My Videos folder (assuming your HDD is now drive d: it'll be something like "D:\Users\%username%\My Videos"). This will make Windows use your old Videos folder, thus saving you copying them over to the SSD, and you don't really need to store videos on an SSD. You can do this with My Music, My Pictures etc. If you have the "Location" tab on one of the folders in your User\%username%\ directory, then you can safely do this.
12. enjoy your lovely new SSD you lucky *******

How to move Steam without backing up all your games.
If you want to have all of your games on the SSD then you just have to copy/move the whole Steam folder onto the SSD (doesn't matter where as long as you remember where you put it).
In the Steam folder, rename the file "ClientRegistry.blob" to "ClientRegistry.blob.old" (or just delete it), then just run steam.exe (you do remember your Steam login details don't you?), and Steam will work out that it's been moved and set it's self up, and you won't need to re-download your games again.


Now, if you have a huge Steam library, and you only want to have a few games on the SSD to save space then you can do the above but move the Steam folder to somewhere on the HDD and use this program to selectively move certain games to the SSD for a speed boost.

[Cerberus90]

You may want to unplug your mechanical Hard drive while installing windows onto the SSD, then plug it back in when you've finished installing.

Otherwise, you may find that it puts the MBR onto the mechanical HDD. Which would then mean the MBR isn't on your main windows drive, which can cause problems later on should you remove the mechanical drive, or if it fails.

I had windows put the MBR onto the external drive I had plugged in (the drive I'd backed up everything to) while installing windows, so the PC would then never boot unless the external drive was turned on.

[Jimmy6]

Thanks for all your replies guys. I have bought and installed the M4 and kept my old HDD as a storage drive after deleting the old windows install (thanks phuzz).

Phuzz - not sure I followed your step 11 - I tried it and have 2 "my documents" folders on the SSD now. Or am I reading it wrong - is one just a shortcut to the my docs folder on the HDD?

How do people generally manage life with 2 separate disks? I plan on only using the SSD for the OS, Steam with a few select games and some system files (graphics drivers and the like). For example, if I were to install iTunes on the HDD and point it to the music folder on the HDD would it work as before? I suppose there's no point installing it onto the SSD as it wouldn't really need the speed benefit.

Is there anything else that should really go on the SSD in your opinion people?

Thanks again,

J6

[Jaysonw23]

Originally Posted by Jimmy6

Thanks for all your replies guys. I have bought and installed the M4 and kept my old HDD as a storage drive after deleting the old windows install (thanks phuzz).

Phuzz - not sure I followed your step 11 - I tried it and have 2 "my documents" folders on the SSD now. Or am I reading it wrong - is one just a shortcut to the my docs folder on the HDD?

How do people generally manage life with 2 separate disks? I plan on only using the SSD for the OS, Steam with a few select games and some system files (graphics drivers and the like). For example, if I were to install iTunes on the HDD and point it to the music folder on the HDD would it work as before? I suppose there's no point installing it onto the SSD as it wouldn't really need the speed benefit.

Is there anything else that should really go on the SSD in your opinion people?

Thanks again,

J6

I have just my os installed on my SSD and everything else is on a 500gb HDD. Everything works just the same as before.
I'm going to have my steam folder on there as soon as I get around to it (minecraft on the Xbox has pretty much made me unproductive the last two weeks. Lol)

[phuzz]

Hmm, yes, I've just looked in my user folder and found the original, empty My Doc folder, so you can delete that once you're sure it's empty.
As for pointing iTunes at the music on the HDD, yep, that will work fine.
Stuff I'd put on the SSD would be any programs you use often (or just all programs), perhaps if you're working on very large files in photoshop or something, you might want to work on them on the SSD, to speed up loading times and stuff. Although, in that case more RAM would be good as well.
Oh, and games obviously, you probably won't see much change in your FPS rates, but loading times should be nicely reduced.

Damnit, I wish I could afford an SSD in my home computer