Transfer Windows 7 from HD to SSD

[jcb51]

I'm interested in getting a SSD. Is there a step by step guide on the forums somewhere on how to migrate your OS from a HD to a SSD?

And also, if I were to have my OS on the SSD and all of my games and large applications on my HD, would this cause for my computer to run slower because of both OS and applications being on different drives?

Thanks!

 

[Mark56]

This guide will show you how to make the switch. Switch from HD to SSD

Any software that you continue to use from the old hard drive will still run as before, only software that is on the SSD will run at higher speeds. Having the OS on one drive and the software on another will not slow things down.

 

[Leeky]

Having an OS installed on an SSD and games/applications on a mechanical disk will not cause any issues, and is perfectly acceptable practice.

However, software loading from the mechanical disk will be slower to load than the same identical software installed on an SSD. This is because the SSD is considerably quicker. Games generally speaking from my experience benefit very little from loading on an SSD, because most are not disk intensive anyway. The same goes for software in the most parts, but any heavy usage software like Photoshop etc are best run from an SSD if you have spare capacity.

Many of us on the forum use multiple disks for OS and software/games/data. I for example use a 60GB SSD for W7, then a 1TB Spinpoint F3 for games and applications/software. As Mark said above, plus the computer doesn't care where you install stuff to, as long as the OS can find it.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Personally, I use an SSD (OCZ Vertex 3 240GB) for my OS and main applications. In fact I install EVERYTHING originally on the SSD but then "hard link" stuff to my HDD that I want to keep on the HDD (using the dos command "mklink"). That way you can move apps to your HDD and vice versa at will. Suggest googling for more info.

E.g. For SSD as C: and 1TB HDD as D:
1) Start with C: containing OS, Microsoft Office, Game1, Game2, Game3 etc
D: empty.

2) Move Game3 to D: then create a "hard link" to it. That makes windows think it hasn't been moved but physically it is now on the HDD. Result is SSD has more free space.

If I installed Game3 originally to D:, I couldn't move it back to the SSD if I wanted Game3 to run fast. Pretty much would have to reinstall as an alternative...

Anyway, that's just what I do and I find it works fantastically. Imagine if you have 50 games. It allows you to move the ones you play to the SSD and keep the others on the HDD until you need them.

 

[jcb51]

Thanks everybody for your comments. It's been a while since my initial post. I just bought a SSD and installed it on my desktop as a second HD. The first being a 1T optical HD with Windows 7 and all my files and games. Wanting to try Windows 8 RP, I installed it on my SSD. While in Windows 8, how do I run my games located in my HD? Is it just a matter of going into the Explorer on Windows 8 and click on the .exe files?

 

[cliffordcooley]

You should re-install all your games for proper game functionality. However with that said, there are games that wouldn't require installation (usually small generic game) and running the "game.exe" will work fine.

P.S.
I noticed you referred to an HDD as an optical drive. HDD's are not optical drives, they are magnetic drives. CD's, DVD's, and Blu-ray's are optical drives.

 

[jcb51]

Yes, thanks for the correction. I guess I meant to say mechanical drive? Regardless, thanks for you help. Will probably stay away from Win 8 for a while. Have a good weekend!