I am about to install an SSD... few questions

I have an existing TB hard drive I would like to keep using for storage, I also do not want to lose whats already on the existing hard drive. I currently do not have a TB external to back up all my data saved. SO I was wondering if there were any risks involved in installing the SSD as by boot/main drive... then connecting back by original HD as a storage device.

Is it as simple as disconnecting the original... installing the SSD and OS... then hooking back up my existing HD. Do I risk losing all my stored data? SHould I wait until I get a external to back up before I try?

thanks

If you remove the original drive first then install the SSD and OS attaching the old drive afterwards, there should be no problem and you won't lose any data. You can even get an external enclosure for your old drive and connect it via usb if you want.

Same here last year, i just unplugged my WD blue 1tb hdd and installed the ssd, put the OS on it. after that , install all the necesary drivers and be sure to look for firmware updates for your ssd. one of the first thing i did.

After that i plugged in my hdd and everything in there was normal, and organized it to my liking, now i use it as storage for games and where i put my fraps video's i dont even lose a single fps when recording :D

if you have windoze 7 you don't need to remove/unplug the old hard drive, i just put in the new drive and tell windoze which drive to install to. works fine. older versions of windoze got a bit more confused about which drive to install to, but 7 is fine. metacritical

[QUOTE="metacritical"]if you have windoze 7 you don't need to remove/unplug the old hard drive, i just put in the new drive and tell windoze which drive to install to. works fine. older versions of windoze got a bit more confused about which drive to install to, but 7 is fine. YoshiYogurt

if you mistake a 120GB SSD for a 1TB hard drive then you should have gone to specsavers.metacritical

[QUOTE="metacritical"]if you mistake a 120GB SSD for a 1TB hard drive then you should have gone to specsavers.heretrix

You can do it that way. But you can also just go into your Bios and tell which drive is priority/boot drive... and it will obviously not detect a OS. I do it this way, cause I don't want to open my case two times for actually nothing.

some of us have more than two hard drives so unplugging all of them (i currently have 11) just to reinstall windoze is very annoying. metacritical

other than the SSD they're all 1TB WD blacks or more, most are 2TB WD blacks with a couple of 3TB WD greensmetacritical

some of us have more than two hard drives so unplugging all of them (i currently have 11) just to reinstall windoze is very annoying. metacritical

I have more than 2 as well- He doesn't. Like I said, from reading his first post, I take it he probably isn't as familiar with setting up multiple drives, so better safe than sorry...I also never said he HAD to do it, it's just an option. It's like you aren't reading anything he nor I have said here. Your configuration is a different as it can be from his, maybe you shouldn't try to use your system and your expertise as an example and you know, help the guy. It would be completely idiotic to disconnect several HDs just to install windows, most likely because if you have several drives you wouldn't be asking a basic HD question like that.

Again, it's just A solution, not THE solution.

[QUOTE="heretrix"]

[QUOTE="metacritical"]if you mistake a 120GB SSD for a 1TB hard drive then you should have gone to specsavers.Bebi_vegeta

You can do it that way. But you can also just go into your Bios and tell which drive is priority/boot drive... and it will obviously not detect a OS. I do it this way, cause I don't want to open my case two times for actually nothing.

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

[QUOTE="heretrix"]Not everyone is PC proficient. If you aren't paying attention you can easily install windows on the wrong drive. Also, what's wrong with being careful? More than likely you are going to move stuff around in the drivebays so why not remove the drive until you are done then but it back in? I'm guessing the TC is probably not all that familiar with doing something like this (due to the basic nature of the question) so why be careless?

heretrix

You can do it that way. But you can also just go into your Bios and tell which drive is priority/boot drive... and it will obviously not detect a OS. I do it this way, cause I don't want to open my case two times for actually nothing.

I guess... It's just my case is not very accessible... lol

[QUOTE="heretrix"]

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

You can do it that way. But you can also just go into your Bios and tell which drive is priority/boot drive... and it will obviously not detect a OS. I do it this way, cause I don't want to open my case two times for actually nothing.

Bebi_vegeta

I guess... It's just my case is not very accessible... lol

thanks for all the replies in here... it seems like its a pretty straight forward process. Just for a precautionary measure I will unhook my original 1 TB HD before I start, I only have one of them.

I was really worried about windows trying to overwrite my existing data, but it seems no one here has run into this issue.

Same here last year, i just unplugged my WD blue 1tb hdd and installed the ssd, put the OS on it. after that , install all the necesary drivers and be sure to look for firmware updates for your ssd. one of the first thing i did.

After that i plugged in my hdd and everything in there was normal, and organized it to my liking, now i use it as storage for games and where i put my fraps video's i dont even lose a single fps when recording :D

danygo1996

ok so I did install the SSD and OS and got all the updates I needed.... Very pleased with the overall performance windows now, it is a lot snappier now...

I am about to go ahead and put the old WD 1TB HDD back in tonight.... a few quesitons: do I need to run through the Disk Management options from start menu to get the old, existing HDD to be reconized? and if so, will the HDD be reformatted on me? or because it already has an operating system installed on it, will it just be reconized immedeatly with all files in-tact?

thanks to all that have already replied

just plug it in. it should show up without needing to do anything. however if it doesn't then you just need to initialise the drive in disk management, not reformat it. you'll need to go to disk management anyway to change the drive letter, assuming you don't want the old drive rather than the DVD-ROM to show up as Dmetacritical

great! thank you.... so it should just notice the HDD, and if not I initialize it and not format it... got it

fully installed and operational.... works great... all my old files are in tact on my now storage drive HDD... this board is great, thanks a lot!!

now can I delete all the windows files on the old (G) drive HDD? or should I keep them even tho I am not booting from them?

also, how do you install firmware updates to the SSD? I have the Intel 520 series 128GB SSD... it seems Intel wants me to copy the firmare update to a CD-ROM and install that way... is this correct??

I may just skip the updates... seems to be working great... let me know if you think I should do otherwise

fully installed and operational.... works great... all my old files are in tact on my now storage drive HDD... this board is great, thanks a lot!!

now can I delete all the windows files on the old (G) drive HDD? or should I keep them even tho I am not booting from them?

also, how do you install firmware updates to the SSD? I have the Intel 520 series 128GB SSD... it seems Intel wants me to copy the firmare update to a CD-ROM and install that way... is this correct??

I may just skip the updates... seems to be working great... let me know if you think I should do otherwise

enzyme36

I just joined this thread, but had I seen it earlier I would have told you to apply the firmware updates prior to installing the OS to your new SSD. Depending on the nature of the firmware update, some of them are destructive to data and require that you wipe your drive (although many do not). When using a new SSD you should always apply any available firmware updates BEFORE using the drive, particularly if it's an OS drive.

As for the Windows files on your HD, you can delete them if you like. Personally, I would leave them if you have the room since that OS will still boot in the event that you run into any issues with your SSD. It doesn't hurt to have a backup installation of Windows floating around on your second drive if you run into any problems. If you blow it away and find later that your SSD it failing, your computer will no longer have a working version of Windows that you can boot into in order to troubleshoot the issue.

-Byshop

[QUOTE="enzyme36"]

fully installed and operational.... works great... all my old files are in tact on my now storage drive HDD... this board is great, thanks a lot!!

now can I delete all the windows files on the old (G) drive HDD? or should I keep them even tho I am not booting from them?

also, how do you install firmware updates to the SSD? I have the Intel 520 series 128GB SSD... it seems Intel wants me to copy the firmare update to a CD-ROM and install that way... is this correct??

I may just skip the updates... seems to be working great... let me know if you think I should do otherwise

Byshop

I just joined this thread, but had I seen it earlier I would have told you to apply the firmware updates prior to installing the OS to your new SSD. Depending on the nature of the firmware update, some of them are destructive to data and require that you wipe your drive (although many do not). When using a new SSD you should always apply any available firmware updates BEFORE using the drive, particularly if it's an OS drive.

As for the Windows files on your HD, you can delete them if you like. Personally, I would leave them if you have the room since that OS will still boot in the event that you run into any issues with your SSD. It doesn't hurt to have a backup installation of Windows floating around on your second drive if you run into any problems. If you blow it away and find later that your SSD it failing, your computer will no longer have a working version of Windows that you can boot into in order to troubleshoot the issue.

-Byshop

nice post man... thanks for the intel... i certainly did not DL any updates pror to the SSD OS intallation, I hope I didnt miss something important, but it would explain why it doesnt seem to want to update...

and you make a good point why I should keep the Windows on the HDD

As others have already stated, installing an ssd is no biggie. I was kinda concerned about it myself and how well it would work, but it was far easier than I originally anticipated. Disconnected old drive, installed os, set a few things up, and popped old drive back in as storage. Night and day difference for sure.