Question about installing an SSD...

[Orbital-Fetus]

if i do a fresh install of Windows on the SSD and make it my primary boot, what do i do with the old hard drive.
do i keep windows installed on it and just access media that is still on it the same way i do with my external hard drive?

i'm looking at a 250 gig samsung SSD right now for $182 and i'm about to pull the trigger.
i wanna install Steam and a good amount of games on it.
i own many more games than are currently installed, right now my Steam folder is at 113 gigs so i would still have room to install things like photoshop, illustrator etc.

any info would be appreciated.

 

[el_oh_el]

if i do a fresh install of Windows on the SSD and make it my primary boot, what do i do with the old hard drive.
do i keep windows installed on it and just access media that is still on it the same way i do with my external hard drive?

i'm looking at a 250 gig samsung SSD right now for $182 and i'm about to pull the trigger.
i wanna install Steam and a good amount of games on it.
i own many more games than are currently installed, right now my Steam folder is at 113 gigs so i would still have room to install things like photoshop, illustrator etc.

any info would be appreciated.

I just bought two ssds, one of which is the exact drive u mentioned. I installed my OS and the main games i wanna play on the SSD, and everything else goes on the older larger drive. Steam has the capability to install to different paths

 

[Spatial Paradox]

I would just use the older drive for bulk storage (games, movies, music, documents, etc.). Basically, anything that wouldn't really benefit that much from being on the SSD

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

but do i keep windows installed on the old drive?
i would assume so, just not booting from it right?

 

[el_oh_el]

but do i keep windows installed on the old drive?
i would assume so, just not booting from it right?

You can delete that Windows folder when you are sure that you have gotten everything from that installation that you need

 

[MidniteJay]

I recently built a computer with a SSD as OS and HDD as Storage. I recommend following this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

props for the info, i'm gonna get that SSD and enjoy faster everything.

 

[Golayitdown]

but do i keep windows installed on the old drive?
i would assume so, just not booting from it right?

Keeping Windows on a non-boot drive is a waste of gigs and gigs of space. Media drives (essentially what you'll be using the old drive for) shouldn't be bootable and therefore would never use the Windows OS that is installed.

If you don't have your original drive partitioned, and all of the stuff is scattered, I'd suggest copying the stuff to a temp location (i.e. another physical drive) and completely wiping/reformatting the old drive to prevent having to navigate through Windows clutter to find your shyt.... but that's just me.....

 

[Liquid]

I would just use the older drive for bulk storage (games, movies, music, documents, etc.). Basically, anything that wouldn't really benefit that much from being on the SSD

Yeah the only things that really benefits from being on an SSD are games and apps that you frequently load.

Orbital, just make sure you get a high quality SSD even if you have to go for a smaller sized one. Some of those old OCZ SSDs used to be terrible from what I have heard.

 

[MidniteJay]

Yeah the only things that really benefits from being on an SSD are games and apps that you frequently load.

Orbital, just make sure you get a high quality SSD even if you have to go for a smaller sized one. Some of those old OCZ SSDs used to be terrible from what I have heard.

Yeah I hear the Samsung 840 Pros are some of the best SSDs out right now. I went with the new Samsung EVOs though (only a 120gig) but it's replacing the regular 840s with better performance.

props for the info, i'm gonna get that SSD and enjoy faster everything.

Yeah, I'm still getting used to the quick boot time I get on the SSD.

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

Yeah the only things that really benefits from being on an SSD are games and apps that you frequently load.

Orbital, just make sure you get a high quality SSD even if you have to go for a smaller sized one. Some of those old OCZ SSDs used to be terrible from what I have heard.

i'm getting this one: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Samsung-SSD-840-EVO-Series-250GB--1TB-Drives-Tested/?page=9

been looking through customer and tech review sites and it seems to be a good SSD.
after tax i'm paying $199 for a well reviewed 250 gig SSD, i'm happy with my choice.

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

got my joint in the mail today...but i don't have an extra SATA cable laying around.
unhooked my old HD, hooked it up to my SSD, installed, did the drivers and all that.

unhooked the SATA from my DVD drive and hooked it up to my old HD.
booted from my SSD.

now i'm figuring out how to access all my shyt on my old HD from my SSD.


i'm getting some error message when windows is done booting about some ASUS shyt not being found...might have to re-install the the mobo disk.

gotta re-install all of my steam games on this bytch, photoshop, illustrator, etc...but it's running well and the install went way better than i expected.

i got a Samsung 840 Evo and this shyt boots up Windows before the splash screen it done finished making the logo.



i'll report with any progress or problems.
thanks for the info you all dropped.

 

[aXiom]

got my joint in the mail today...but i don't have an extra SATA cable laying around.
unhooked my old HD, hooked it up to my SSD, installed, did the drivers and all that.

unhooked the SATA from my DVD drive and hooked it up to my old HD.
booted from my SSD.

now i'm figuring out how to access all my shyt on my old HD from my SSD.


i'm getting some error message when windows is done booting about some ASUS shyt not being found...might have to re-install the the mobo disk.

gotta re-install all of my steam games on this bytch, photoshop, illustrator, etc...but it's running well and the install went way better than i expected.

i got a Samsung 840 Evo and this shyt boots up Windows before the splash screen it done finished making the logo.



i'll report with any progress or problems.
thanks for the info you all dropped.

Great choice.. and yeah a SSD upgrade is like night and day coming from a mechanical drive. What OS are you running? If you're on W7 make sure to disable Disk Defragmenter and I hope you installed it with AHCI mode enabled in your bios settings.

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

Great choice.. and yeah a SSD upgrade is like night and day coming from a mechanical drive. What OS are you running? If you're on W7 make sure to disable Disk Defragmenter and I hope you installed it with AHCI mode enabled in your bios settings.

i was looking for AHCI mode and could not find it in my Bios.

should i re-install and do it up right?

i did not migrate so i don't know if i have to disable Disk Defragmenter....i could be wrong, i'm new to this SSD game.

 

[MidniteJay]

i was looking for AHCI mode and could not find it in my Bios.

should i re-install and do it up right?

i did not migrate so i don't know if i have to disable Disk Defragmenter....i could be wrong, i'm new to this SSD game.

Disk Defragmenter should not be disabled since it will not defrag a 0RPM disk (i.e. SSD) anyways. It will still defrag your HDDs. If you're worried and not sure just click start and type in Disk Defragmenter, click on that and see if it says "Never run" for you SSD drive.

Mine goes

(C Never run
Storage (E (0% fragmented)
System Reserve Never run