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Getting a SSD for windows, what happens to my old drive?
Squishydew
Member UncommonPosts: 1,107
in Hardware
I'll be getting a SSD later today which will become my primary drive.
I've installed new drives before but never gotten a new primary drive, and i was worried that if i launch windows from the SSD, i wont be able to access the files on my old drive?
I hope this doesn't sound horribly stupid, I'm just wondering if the files will still be there as normal folders or unaccessible because I'd have to run windows from there to get to them.
Comments
You will still be able to access them. You just open up my computer, go to your old drive, Users>User> and then your folder like Documents, Desktop, Downloads, etc. will be there with all the files in them.
If the SSD is big enough then most (all?) manufactures include software designed to copy the entire contents of your old drive to the new SSD - including the operating system. This needs a cable - some packages supply it or you buy it separately for a few $$$. There are videos by e.g. Samsung which explain the process (same for all brands).
The first SSDs were relatively small but they are a lot larger now and the $$$ price fell etc.
If the amount you have will easily fit on a new SSD this makes everything quicker, quieter, less power consumption etc.
If you opt for a direct replacement you can keep your old drive if you think you might want lots and lots of storage going forward you can keep it to put in network attached storage (NAS) from e.g. Synology at some point in the future.
Are you using a laptop or desktop? If you are using a laptop, and it doesn't have two 2.5" drive bays (most don't) then you need a USB to SATA adapter or enclosure to access your hard drive's files.
Are you migrating your OS or installing fresh? Migrating your OS requires special software (like Acronis) and only works if the amount of space occupied on your hard drive is smaller than the capacity of the new SSD. Installing fresh has the advantage of being a fresh install.
In any case, your files should remain on the old drive without issues. You won't be able to run most programs from it. You'll have to reinstall them if you didn't use disk migration software.
For your old drive, I suggest using it as a backup drive. Depending on the size, you might want to leave the OS on there in case your SSD dies early. You may also want to save a drive image of the SSD once you have it set up so you have an easy image to restore from without doing a complete reinstall of Windows. You should save all media (movies, pictures, music, etc.) to the hard drive and save the SSD for your OS and games. Media files don't have any use for the speed SSDs can offer and you'll want the space for your games.
You can still install programs on the old drive, but they will be tied to the SSD's registry and Windows installation. They probably won't work if you move the drive to another computer or have to go back to using it.
Don't worry. Any Windows will be able to read all files and folders on your old hard disk. As long as you keep the old hard disk attached to the computer it'll work and you can access all your data.
Programs and games installed will usually stop working without special tricks because their registry settings will be messed up, but your files and folders won't be affected by this.
If you're planning on updating your computer to Windows 10, I'd suggest waiting with that new SSD a bit. It's a lot of extra effort if you install Windows 7/8 now, then update it to Windows 10 in a couple of weeks, when you could just wait a couple of weeks and then install Windows 10.
Of course the files will be there, Windows will recognise the NTFS file system and all your files and folders should appear once the drive is connected with your SATA cable.
The only thing that can go wrong, is that Windows doesn't immediately recognize the drive, go into disk management and assign a letter to the drive and it will appear.
Many people use an SSD together with a HDD, where the HDD is meant for data storage (movies / pictures / back up).
The only reason your files would be gone is if you formatted the drive or the drive became corrupted. Just connect the drive and Windows should recognize the drive.