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Just bought a second SSD. how to transfer everything from current SSD to new one?
hey so i just got a new 240gb ssd. i currently have a 128gb one but wanted to upgrade to a 240gb and put the other one in my older computer for my wife. question is, how do i transfer everything from current ssd to the new one? and then how do i do a full wipe of the old ssd? i want to transfer everything including the windows 7 OS if possible. thx
Comments
Disk cloning
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421302,00.asp
Google disk cloning free software
Clonezilla is free and can transfer the OS and all files from one drive to an equal or larger drive. If you need to go from a larger drive to a smaller one, your options are limited to paid programs. Since you don't you can use Clonezilla. Just be sure to copy all partitions as UEFI needs them all.
You don't need to "wipe" the old drive. Simply delete all the visible files if you feel the need to keep your wife from seeing your old (porn?) files. Secure erase software is very harmful to a SSD and is really only useful for businesses and government.
Many SSDs have a built-in secure-erase feature that isn't "very harmful". Samsung Magician, Intel SSD Toolbox, HDDErase in general.
Not only is generally not "very harmful", it can restore performance to pre-TRIM SSDs.
I'd like to raise the question of whether you should transfer everything. I'm not saying that you shouldn't; it may well make sense for you. But I'd like to raise two other possibilities.
If you're going to keep the first SSD in the computer and not move it elsewhere, then you might want to consider just adding the second SSD and using it for additional SSD storage space. That's the simplest thing to do, and you'll still have access to all of your old stuff. But it's obviously not an option if you want to move the old SSD to a different computer.
Another thing to consider is that it's nice to have a clean install of Windows now and then to clean up old junk that accumulates over the years, and when you're moving to a new drive is the easiest time to do so. You could do a clean install of Windows on your new SSD (using your old Windows DVD and license key--which is legal because it's still the same computer), update Windows, install the programs you need, and so forth. With both SSDs in your computer at once, you can open Windows Explorer and copy over any data that you care about from the old SSD to the new one. Once you're satisfied that you have the new SSD working how you want, you can format the old one and do something else with it. This will transfer over everything that you care about, while leaving behind random junk that accumulated over the years.
Hard drive cloning will move over your partition and is not what you are looking for, although partitions can be grown its not the best way to handle this upgrade. If you are using windows 7 and are not computer literate to the point of knowing how to copy all your files over your best bet is the Windows Easy Transfer utility. So here is what you do.
While booted into windows in your 128g plug up an external or you can use your other drive so that you have a place to store your backup.
Click Start > type in search bar "Windows Easy Transfer"
Go through the wizard on your old drive selecting that this is your old computer and selecting the user accounts you want to back up. Make sure to select your external or your other drive as the place to put the backup file.
After this is done install windows on your new drive. If you don't know your windows key you can use a key finder to get your windows key in most cases.
After windows boots on the new drive install all drivers for your pc, this can take some time,best practice is to use the motherboard cd to get network driver and then use manufacturers' websites to get the latest drivers for all other hardware.
Now that your pc is all ready to go again and just missing your files use windows easy transfer again to bring them back over, make sure to map the old windows account to the new account name if it has changed.
If you have any trouble with this just ask here I would be happy to help.
IMO It's best to just install a new OS onto the new SSD.
Copy files you need over to the new OS. Transfer settings manually.
I agree
This ^.
You will have less headache in the future.
Pardon my English as it is not my 1st language
I have the same exact set up on this computer, both samsung SSD's. My 240gb 840 pro SSD is the windows and most played games and the 12 830 has steam, origin and other games I try out on it.
About once a year I wipe them clean and install everything fresh just because I always have done that lol. I think its the easiest option for me, I only use this comp for web browsing and games so not much had to be reinstalled. I dl and save all the latest drivers onto a usb so I can load them all on and install pretty quick. The thing that takes the longest to updates is windows itself.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Acronis works well. I use it for imagine workstations a few times a month. I actually even managed to take an Acronis backup image from an Exchange server running on some circa-1998 hardware over to a VM, and then a week later to a brand new Dell (around 2008).
Acronis is a really good program.
You make me like charity
Cloning software. My tool is Aomei Backupper. You can use it clone the whole disk.
But I wonder, why you want to full wipe the old SSD? still use it agian?