Hello all.
I recently bought new motherboard and SSD. I intend to use the SSD as my boot drive, but because of the hdd being my current drive, will windows have to be removed from the old HDD in order for use in my new system?
If so, how would I go about this procedure? In addition, bear in mind I wish to keep the data on it if it's possible to.
Or would it be easier to just backup my important data from my old hdd and wipe/format it?
If you have an external HD I would backup your important info and data onto it. Then I would format the drive and then install windows on your new SSD.
When installing Win 7 on the SSD, be sure and disconnect all other HDD from the motherboard. This is a precaution to make sure no Windows files get loaded on anything except the SSD. Once you get Win 7 on the SSD, it will become your C drive and the HDD will be assigned a different letter.
Unplug all drives, go into the BIOS and make sure SATA is set to AHCI, not IDE. It may be helpful to go to your motherboard manufacturers website and download the newest drivers for your hardware before you start this process though.....put them on a flash drive, just so you have them available. Plug SSD into the Intel SATA III port if you have one and do a clean install of Windows. Install drivers and updates. This would be where I would make an image of your system so if you ever have to reload Windows, you already have a great jumping off point. After all of that is done, you can plug up your HDD and backup your data and wipe that drive clean.
There are many different ways to do what you want, that is just the way I do things.
Quote