SSD installing need help

With a new install of Windows 7 you have to reinstall all programs. During the installation you can direct them towards one of the spinning disks. But that may be pretty awkward and I therefor propose another option.

If the data on your current C fits on the SSD, you can transfer all of C to the SSD. If not, we can see how to reduce the stuff to make it fit.

Give us some idea how much data (size of C) you have on C and what the biggest chunks are. For starters you could get rid of the hiberfile. The command is powercfg -h off. I also recommend to reduce the pagefile to 2GBs. For the rest you may want to run this program which gives you a good graphical overview.

http://windirstat.info/

Here is a tutorial how to transfer the C partition to the SSD. If you have $19.95 to spare, use the Paragon Migration Tool which does the job with 3 clicks.

SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System

If you decide to do it the manual way, I recommend you copy the bootmgr from the 100MB system partition to C before you get started. That makes the transfer job a lot easier because you can forget the 100MB partition.

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

For questions, post back.

Question is whether the OS and the games will fit. Do you have files/folders in Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos - and how much data is that, if any. If yes, those could be easily moved to a seperate partition. If that is an option, let me know and I give you the best way on how to do that.

Do you really want a fresh install... why? You can clone the HDD to SSD very easy without paid software at all! WHS (previous post) knows the tricks (very easy to perform). In short (without details) procedure is as follows:

1. Clone the C drive (assuming only C is on original harddrive and it fits on SSD). Otherwise: Remove or uninstall unused stuff and empty temp folder and recycle bin. Be sure to align the new C partition during clone.
2. detach old HDD and boot from SSD. Not booting? Do a "startup repair" to transfer bootmgr and make a new fresh bootmenu. Successfull? If so continue
3. Attach old HDD again. Be sure to boot from SSD again, so change BIOS "boot device priority"
4. Adjust drive lettering in "disk management"

You may disable the hiberfile to get extra space on SSD. You may decrease pagefile size as well. But not really necessary.

I wouldn't even bother putting the games on the SSD, I run all mine off my Caviar Black. I accidentally installed Crysis 3 on my SSD and notice absolutely no difference whatsoever.

Boozad said:

I wouldn't even bother putting the games on the SSD, I run all mine off my Caviar Black. I accidentally installed Crysis 3 on my SSD and notice absolutely no difference whatsoever.

I think he dreads to reinstall all the games. I can understand that. I try to send him down an alley with the least pain for now. Later he can still sort out what to do with the games - one by one.

The games are really no problem if you have an external drive or somewhere else to put them. Just copy your entire games folder to the external drive and delete them from their current location. Then Install Origin to where you want it, once installed, delete it and copy everything from your external to where you installed Origin. Steam is easier. copy Steam to where you want it. Delete everything except the Steam apps and the Steam exe. Shut down Steam and restart. Go to where steam is and open the Steam.EXE file. It will say installing updates and send youan email with a code, type in the code and you are good to go. When you start a game both will say download, click OK and comtinue. But, it will 'download' the game from where you saved them. It should take about 5 minutes to set the game up.