Upgrading old Rig - any advice on HDD to SSD coversion....
Sup Peeps I just bought the rest of my components for my upgrade and wanted to know the best way of moving system files from HDD to SSD. I know the best option would be to format and start from scratch but I have too many Steam games installed and dont really want to have to reinstall them all. Is it worth imaging my old HDD and reimaging straight to the SSD?
I currently have my OS Win7 Ulti on a partition thats 110gb is it possible to just fromat and fresh install on SSD and then link all my program files to new OS (My program files were not in c: but on another bigger drive seperate to OS) Im pretty much fumbling in the dark and am sure you guys will have better suggestions... Current Build is. 1 Sharkoon T9 Value ATX Midi Tower Red(9Bay,USB3,USB2) 1 Logitech Z623 Speaker System 2.1 THX certified speakers 1 Intel Core i5 3570K LGA1155 CPU 3.4Ghz 6Mb Cache Ivy Bridge 1 G Skill 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600Mhz PC12800 RL 9-9-9-24(CL9D-8GBRL) 1 Corsair 120GB Force GT Series 3 SSD 1 Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO w Transparent 12cm 1 Asrock Z77-EXTREME4 Z77/4 x DDR3/2 x PCI-E3.0/4 x SATA3/6 x USB3.0/HDM 1 GTX 580 1 Western Digital 2 TB HDD internal Any help would be awesome! |
03:05pm 08/10/12 Permalink
...but I have too many Steam games installed and dont really want to have to reinstall them allMost Steam games copy across to another drive just fine. |
03:13pm 08/10/12 Permalink
If steam is the only reason not to do a fresh install you can just copy and paste or do a steam backup.
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03:22pm 08/10/12 Permalink
Yeah actually I remember having to do that when I last upgraded OS...
im just trying to figure out what other programs I will need to resintall...does my head in... I did have the foresight to put all my files into a different drive than the OS ie... downloads, docs and photos, so I guess I might as well make all that work with last install worth it. Just a lazy ass and can't be bothered looking for my OS Disk im pretty sure I have it in a box buried somewhere in my garage.... Feck! I might just use the SSD to install BF3 and Black light redemption until i find my OS or buy a new windows cd.... Actually thats not a bad thought :) |
03:26pm 08/10/12 Permalink
Don't forget this place http://ninite.com/
Makes reinstalling a lot of stuff easier as it always has the up to date versions (mostly always anyway.) |
05:32pm 08/10/12 Permalink
If steam is the only reason not to do a fresh install you can just copy and paste or do a steam backup. I did a steam backup once, went to restore and it told me the backup was corrupt, all games had to be re-downloaded. F*** steam's backup. I just copy / paste now. |
07:22pm 08/10/12 Permalink
I have had no real problems with steam back ups, I also have copy and pasted.
Origin is the real enemy here, I just lost my BF3 install because I had Origin installed to my 2nd drive and a new fresh instal of win7 on my main drive. There were no reg keys for origin or BF3 so I reinstalled over it and it did not recogise my BF3 folder. I tried a few different ways to get it to work but nothing worked. I had to download all 9gb worth again. F*** Origin. I got my copy of win7 ultimate from a site someone here linked. $16 and it worked. |
08:40pm 08/10/12 Permalink
i like that you listed speakers as your second component.
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08:59pm 08/10/12 Permalink
I have had no real problems with steam back ups, I also have copy and pasted. Origin is the real enemy here, I just lost my BF3 install because I had Origin installed to my 2nd drive and a new fresh instal of win7 on my main drive. There were no reg keys for origin or BF3 so I reinstalled over it and it did not recogise my BF3 folder. I tried a few different ways to get it to work but nothing worked. I had to download all 9gb worth again. F*** Origin.I got my copy of win7 ultimate from a site someone here linked. $16 and it worked. I went to install origin because it told me I could use it to "play all my EA games & not require a CD". Installed it, "sorry this game isn't yet supported". F*****s. Also it wants to download everything to my tiny SSD drive, and won't let me tell it otherwise. F*** Origin +1. Uninstalled |
09:15pm 08/10/12 Permalink
Damn EA, wish I could X-fer my BF3 over it it but Nooooooo, they want to challenge steam for market share. Origin should be an option for gaming, not a requirement.
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10:29pm 08/10/12 Permalink
i run my main partition on an ssd and just put on it what ever game i'm currently playing..everything else goes on the normal 2tb hdds
if it was me i would just do a fresh install of all the games etc.. but i'm in NL and we dont pay for data.. haha poor australia |
04:39pm 09/10/12 Permalink
When you first install and before you create a user, you can tell windows to put your /users/ folder onto a different drive:
Press Ctrl+shift+f3 (i think) and you go into a pre-first run environment (basically a temporary user account which is deleted before you get into it even, probably called audit mode). Create an xml file (probably beforehand) which you'll call later with the following info: http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg195/skythra/qgl/foldersxml.png?t=1349762986 Then you'll run that file using sysprep and a few flags eg: sysprep.exe /audit /reboot /unattend:U:\folders.xml So obviously you'll need to change some details in that xml to match your system, processor arch for example should be different if youre only doing 32bit windows etc and D: is where this would shove /users/ and /prgramdata/ anyway it's all searchable on the internet if you want. I've been doing this a bit on some systems which have a small SSD and a few users expecting large user data :) Edit for the NL fan above; how long will it take you to recover the 500gb's of steam games i have currently installed on my PC? |
05:07pm 09/10/12 Permalink
I went to install origin because it told me I could use it to "play all my EA games & not require a CD". Installed it, "sorry this game isn't yet supported". F*****s. Also it wants to download everything to my tiny SSD drive, and won't let me tell it otherwise.F*** Origin +1. Uninstalled You can change where Origin installs games. it's under options. I've used it. It works. |
05:57pm 09/10/12 Permalink
I also upgraded from HDD to SSD
My old HDD became my secondary drive to the primary SSD. At the time, no SSD had the capacity to store all my games. I ended up using Steammover to create junctions to split my steam folder across multiple drives. I installed Steam on the SSD and moved selected games to the SSD through the copy-paste method. http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover So my favourite games that are resource-intensive are on the SSD. S***** games that aren't are on the spindle drive. The only game I have on Origin is BF3, which is on the SSD. I haven't needed to split that so I'm not sure how that will work. |
09:14pm 09/10/12 Permalink
I use the exact same method as above.
SSD's don't hold alot of memory though. What i do is use a USB 3.0 3TB external drive with my laptop for steam games. Then just use Steammover to copy across games i want to play to the 250gb internal SSD. SSD is extremely fast for playing games on though. Skyrim takes about 2 seconds to load. Sadly some games refuse to load on external drives with Steam. I noticed on steam alot of people are putting in forums they get blank screens or spinning cursors trying to load some games from STEAM . I found the same thing if loading off an external drive but using steam mover i have had no problems. One of the worst culprits recently was the HD version of Strangers Wrath which just crashes if run from the external. |
11:24pm 16/10/12 Permalink
WOW thanks for the info...
I ended completing a fresh windows install on my SSD and placed Origin and BF3 on the drive also. Had uber issues with my GTX580 running BF3 here are the issues i had...apparently common with the gtx580 . BF3 would reboot my system - fixed by upgrading the PSU form a s***** 600w Codegen to a 620w Altec 80+... the old PSU was only producing 20amps on the 12v rail!!! no were near enough for my GPU BF3 stopped restarting but was now crashing to desktop - fixed by playing around with the volts and memory via afterburner. Had to increase the volts to 1.35 and drop the memory to 2004. finally stable . Then I started getting artifacts and had to drop the Nvidia drivers to an older version.... many head aches but well worth the effort BF3 is now rocking at ultra settings with no crashes. Very happy with the SSD windows boots up almost instantly and the only lag time i have with BF3 is my s***** ADSL connextion (max 2.9) I also put skyrim on SSD drive and loving it. I added the SSD to my build as an afterthought and very happy with it well worth it if anyone is sitting on the fence re SSD's Skythra thanks for the info regarding changing user folders very handy next time i reinstall! Steam was always on my back up drive and as everyone has been posting very easy to link to the new system and yes way too big to fit on my SSD... Is there a way to move say one of my steam games to SSD?? couldn't find it anywhere? |
11:23am 17/10/12 Permalink
Is there a way to move say one of my steam games to SSD?? couldn't find it anywhere? Steam mover link earlier in the thread. |
11:49am 17/10/12 Permalink
Why are people such pussies about deleting steam? It is the one thing on your computer that is totally safe to delete...
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12:34pm 17/10/12 Permalink
Why are people such pussies about deleting steam? It is the one thing on your computer that is totally safe to delete... Not scared to delete it bro just dont want to have to dl 18gb worth of games again :) Cheers parabol.... I didn't read it right I though it would move all the games and not just the one |
01:16pm 17/10/12 Permalink
Not scared to delete it bro just dont want to have to dl 18gb worth of games again :) Sorry but I don't accept this reasoning. I assume this 18 gb would be spread out over dozens of games? Do you ever really need to play them all again? The answer is no. Just install the 1 or 2 games you intend to play immediately. Infact you may as well just go through your steam games now and uninstall everything except 1 or 2 games. |
01:46pm 17/10/12 Permalink
Hey Thermite well your spot on with that I play probably 2 games frequently at most... My kids are the ones that play the others and only when i have them once a fortnight... So its frustrating but hey I have the space for it and why not save the hours of PC downtime DLing when you needn't have to... I don't see the negative in this at all.
However I must concur with your closing statement I think its high time i asked the kids which games are not used anymore and remove them... Ite never been losing the files i was worried about just having to download needlessly... I hate downloading the same thing multiple times :) Just reminds me of the early 90's ... godam pentiums and windows 3.1 and 95.... |
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