Moving OS
- Thread starter SimenT
- Start date
jamesd1981
Active Member
the easiest way is to use a whole drive copy program, acronis is the best but its costly, you could try ****** drive copy, or paragon drive copy.
mrjack
VIP Member
I suggest installing a fresh copy of your OS. At least Windows 7 (not sure about other operating systems) should then automatically optimize itself for use with an SSD (enable TRIM etc.).
Do your games use Steam? If so, then all you need to do is delete everything in the Steam folder except for "Steam.exe" and the "steamapps" folder. Then you can move the "Steam" folder (if you need to), run "Steam.exe" and it'll install itself on your computer. You may have to delete the old .NCF files in the "steamapps" folder and then reinstall the games via Steam. It'll seem like it's downloading the game's files again, but it's just going through the files you already have in your "steamapps" folder and builds a new .NCF file.
.NCF files are basically indexes for games that don't use the .GCF files for content like Source games do. If you don't rebuild the .NCF files, then you may have trouble getting the games to run.
Do your games use Steam? If so, then all you need to do is delete everything in the Steam folder except for "Steam.exe" and the "steamapps" folder. Then you can move the "Steam" folder (if you need to), run "Steam.exe" and it'll install itself on your computer. You may have to delete the old .NCF files in the "steamapps" folder and then reinstall the games via Steam. It'll seem like it's downloading the game's files again, but it's just going through the files you already have in your "steamapps" folder and builds a new .NCF file.
.NCF files are basically indexes for games that don't use the .GCF files for content like Source games do. If you don't rebuild the .NCF files, then you may have trouble getting the games to run.
jamesd1981
Active Member
no you can set them up to copy just the partions or files you want
jamesd1981
Active Member
yes as long as you have left the old drive connected you will be able to access it
Benny Boy
Active Member
What's the os?
I'm going to assume your ssd supports TRIM.
You wouldn't want to copy everything if you did have room because it would decrease the ssd perf. rather quickly unless you were able to manage all the writes, and you didn't fill it up to/close to/ capacity.
I agree with mrjack. A fresh install is the best, and imo the only, way to go. If it's Windows, copying it certainly isn't best for the ssd as you could loose performance.
7 is ssd friendly, will recognize the ssd and make some adjustments @ installation from disc. 2 examples of things that happens from disc: the alignment of the flash cells are diff from that of a hdd-and the 'format' equivelent for ssd is diff.(altho there are some tweaks that I would recommend that 7 doesn't do)
If you managed to manually do all the tweaks beforehand for your copy, you'd still have a copy and not fresh. If anything goes wrong, and you have to uninstall and/or secure erase, that degregates ssd perf. as well. I can't say 1 time or 2 times or how many times before the loss is noticed,,,I just know that uninstall, erases, and benching it, drops performance a little each time, with benching being the most harmfull of those. So after a few years you want that to be a low number and not chance starting with it from the new get go.
So, things aren't always as easy as they seem. It's well worth the investment of a disc with a reusable license not only to protect your ssd, but for future upgrades or new pc.
EDIT: vista and xp aren't friendly like 7 is, so in that case, allll the tweaks will need to be done manually.
I'm going to assume your ssd supports TRIM.
You wouldn't want to copy everything if you did have room because it would decrease the ssd perf. rather quickly unless you were able to manage all the writes, and you didn't fill it up to/close to/ capacity.
I agree with mrjack. A fresh install is the best, and imo the only, way to go. If it's Windows, copying it certainly isn't best for the ssd as you could loose performance.
7 is ssd friendly, will recognize the ssd and make some adjustments @ installation from disc. 2 examples of things that happens from disc: the alignment of the flash cells are diff from that of a hdd-and the 'format' equivelent for ssd is diff.(altho there are some tweaks that I would recommend that 7 doesn't do)
If you managed to manually do all the tweaks beforehand for your copy, you'd still have a copy and not fresh. If anything goes wrong, and you have to uninstall and/or secure erase, that degregates ssd perf. as well. I can't say 1 time or 2 times or how many times before the loss is noticed,,,I just know that uninstall, erases, and benching it, drops performance a little each time, with benching being the most harmfull of those. So after a few years you want that to be a low number and not chance starting with it from the new get go.
So, things aren't always as easy as they seem. It's well worth the investment of a disc with a reusable license not only to protect your ssd, but for future upgrades or new pc.
EDIT: vista and xp aren't friendly like 7 is, so in that case, allll the tweaks will need to be done manually.
Last edited:
jamesd1981
Active Member
i would keep the ssd solely as a boot/os drive for speed, and use your tb drive as file storage, you can either drive copy you current windows install onto your new ssd, or do a clean install on your ssd and try to streamline your software ditch any programs you dont use much, shut down any services you dont need or use.