I just built a PC (frankensteined from of two other PCs and some scraps). I was having an issue with the SSD I was trying to use as my local drive, so I ended up having to us an HDD. It’s not terrible, but definitely noticable. I’ve done a fair bit of setup, and I don’t really want to have to do it all again on a new SSD. Is there a way to sort of just drop Windows as is onto another drive? It’s mostly just programs and settings, but I have a 2nd drive with some Steam games on them, while Steam is installed on the local drive. I don’t mind if I have to redownload games, but I really don’t want to have to do it all over again if I can avoid it. Thanks.
If you’re moving from HD to SSD, I’m not sure if a cloning program would work all that well. I’d need to hear from people who have more experience with them. Even then, I’m pretty sure Windows recognizes SSDs and treats them differently. I’d perform a fresh install just so that I knew Windows was property configured to use the hardware (the SSD) to its best capabilities.
If you have any games on your boot drive in Steam, just go into their Properties, into the Installation Files section, and move them to the Steam library on your other drive. When you reload Steam, you can just point to that library on the other drive and your games will be loaded.
don’t forget to not plug in the old hd. at least not untill after you have it booting up on the new drive since it can screw up a fresh install by changing drive letters around.