New ssd hard drive

DeanEH

Weaksauce
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Apr 23, 2008
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Next week I will be getting a new Samsung 840 pro 256Gbyte ssd. I am going to do a clean install on it. According to the installation of this new drive I have to unplug the old drive that has my operating system on it and plug in the new drive so it is the only drive that will be seen by the bios so I can do a clean install. My question is what happens when I plug in the old drive that still has the operating system on it? Will there be confusion as to which drive my computer will boot to? My old drive has to much on it to fit on the new ssd drive. My old drive is a 3Tbyte drive with 352Gbyte used up space. These are mostly games.:eek:
 
Next week I will be getting a new Samsung 840 pro 256Gbyte ssd. I am going to do a clean install on it. According to the installation of this new drive I have to unplug the old drive that has my operating system on it and plug in the new drive so it is the only drive that will be seen by the bios so I can do a clean install. My question is what happens when I plug in the old drive that still has the operating system on it? Will there be confusion as to which drive my computer will boot to? My old drive has to much on it to fit on the new ssd drive. My old drive is a 3Tbyte drive with 352Gbyte used up space. These are mostly games.:eek:



Those instructions are probably meant to prevent users from accidentally installing Windows onto the old drive (overwriting the data) instead of the intended SSD.

There is nothing wrong or impossible about running multiple drives in a system, whether already loaded with the OS or not, during a new installation on a new drive.

Just have your boot order straight (CD-ROM/DVD > SSD). Go through the installation when prompted. Make sure you choose the right disk. Install. Once you install a new OS on a drive you'll probably have to manually go into Disk Management to turn on the secondary HDD anyways. Windows will only see it when doing a new installation since it'll look for all possible drives. Kind of annoying you have to manually re-activate it, but that's how it is.
 
IIR Windows can split your OS files and your boot manager between drives.
I'm not sure of the exact circumstances for this though.

Can't install stuff to a drive that isn't plugged in though so it is a safe and easy workaround.
 
My question is what happens when I plug in the old drive that still has the operating system on it?

Been there, done that and I can assure you that will have many headaches if you try to boot with the drive connected.

I'm sure there's somekinda boot manager available but for the non technical user it's more trouble that it's worth.
 
Thanks for the input. From what I understand I should go ahead and format the old drive. :)
 
Thanks for the input. From what I understand I should go ahead and format the old drive. :)

You understand correctly. :)

Even if you had games/programs installed on the other drive and plugged it in after boot, you'd have more problems.
 
  1. Pull current OS drive (and all others), place new SSD in, make sure it is on the first SATA port and at top of booting order.
  2. Boot off install media, point at new SSD that should be the ONLY drive attached.
  3. Install OS and drivers as well as patching.
  4. Shutdown system, connect other drives and again, enter BIOS and confirm the SSD is at top of boot order.
  5. Boot into new system and you will be fine, you will have access to the old drive to pull files. If you are on Win7 and staying with it, run the Easy Transfer software built-in and export the file to the drive so you can import to new SSD.
  6. Once done, format old drive, use it for whatever you like.
 
  1. Pull current OS drive (and all others), place new SSD in, make sure it is on the first SATA port and at top of booting order.
  2. Boot off install media, point at new SSD that should be the ONLY drive attached.
  3. Install OS and drivers as well as patching.
  4. Shutdown system, connect other drives and again, enter BIOS and confirm the SSD is at top of boot order.
  5. Boot into new system and you will be fine, you will have access to the old drive to pull files. If you are on Win7 and staying with it, run the Easy Transfer software built-in and export the file to the drive so you can import to new SSD.
  6. Once done, format old drive, use it for whatever you like.

Sounds good except it's never worked for me.

You maybe able to transfer files but programs are a different ballgame.

I've found that any drive that contains an OS will confuse Windows when it attempts to recognize the drive.

Your experience may vary.
 
I guess half the fun is reinstalling every thing be it to the new drive or to the old drive. What else is there to do on cold snow covered days? :D
 
Personally I hate reinstalling and I rarely format drives either (except new ones or ones I'm selling, that is).

The problem when installing multiple drives is that windows, even win7 (and probably 8 but haven't installed that one yet), will pick the first hard drive for its boot files. Not the first drive in the boot order, but the first according to some convention (1st SATA port or 1st PATA port, usually). If you don't plug your intended windows drive on the right port, you're screwed. If there is only the SSD plugged, nothing bad can happen. When it's all installed and you plug back your other drives, if the order is wrong (order that you decide in the BIOS), you will get your "old windows", nothing bad will happen from that, it's common to keep several OS on separate drives and boot from one or another that way, without troubling oneself with boot managers, because with those you can really get headaches.
 
Not to hijack this thread, but when I first got my SSD there were a bunch of recommendations on formatting the drive properly, i.e. block size, what
"cell" to start the partition on, etc. Does this not matter any more?
 
Sounds good except it's never worked for me.

You maybe able to transfer files but programs are a different ballgame.

I've found that any drive that contains an OS will confuse Windows when it attempts to recognize the drive.

Your experience may vary.
I didn't say Programs, I said files. I thought it was pretty basic knowledge that Programs will need fresh loading unless they are games that are in contained areas (Steam + Origin are good for this).

Not to hijack this thread, but when I first got my SSD there were a bunch of recommendations on formatting the drive properly, i.e. block size, what
"cell" to start the partition on, etc. Does this not matter any more?
If using Win7 or Win8, they will set the SSD correctly. No need for the BS. No need for XP either that was more of the issue than the SSD's.
 
You can also safely use diskpart to inactivate the HDD boot partition. It won't delete anything. The BIOS will skip it when booting.
 
I have gotten my new SSD installed and am very happy. The speed is noticeable. I booted up my backup machine which has a HHD and man is it slow compared to the SSD. I was skeptical at first but I have been made a believer. Some day I will have to get an SSD for my backup computer. :cool:
 
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