Hard drives
Hard drives
Random PC question here, going to put an SSD in my PC but keep my existing hard drive for data storage. Existing drive has windows on it, if I move it to SATA port 2 and plug the SSD into 1 will it be ok or will the PC try and boot from my old drive if it still has windows on it? (was planning not to format it until I've got the SSD installed and up and running)
When you install the new one, you can change your bios setting to read the ssd hard drive first, if it finds a OS on it then it will load, if not then it can try your second HD to find an OS.
Thats my thinking?
Saraj When you install the new one, you can change your bios setting to read the ssd hard drive first, if it finds a OS on it then it will load, if not then it can try your second HD to find an OS.
Thats my thinking?
Saraj When you install the new one, you can change your bios setting to read the ssd hard drive first, if it finds a OS on it then it will load, if not then it can try your second HD to find an OS.
Thats my thinking?
parthiban That's the part I'm not sure about, as I don't want it to boot the second drive.
I suppose it might be simplest to just remove the other drive completely until I have installed windows on the new drive.
parthiban That's the part I'm not sure about, as I don't want it to boot the second drive.
I suppose it might be simplest to just remove the other drive completely until I have installed windows on the new drive.
one think thats easy to miss but handy to remove is account passwords. if you remove any from windows( login etc) then all your files( docs / pics /music) saved in your docs folders will be easy to access without a password, then you just copy them over to your new ssd windows folders
Removing a password won't make any files any easier to access. You will just have to reset the permissions on the files or folders the first time you access them from the new installation (which it will prompt you to do anyway).
Saraj was right - you press F1/F2/Del to go into the BIOS when the computer boots up, go into Boot Options and set the order so it boots the SSD first. Simples
ok well i did this a while back and after my new install all i needed to do was copy them over then once they are in the new docs folder they come under the new install password. just easy to do it before than doing it after imo
if you install windows 7 on an existing HD with an windows OS, then it gives you the chance of locating your files under "windows.old" in the main "C" drive.
Ive done this quite a few times without backing anything up, and then copying it across.
Well you better off setting up separate partitions on the main HD with your personal files, so if you do need to reboot, you dont need to back up your files each time !
he's going to do a clean install on a new ssd. so all the files will be left in the windows on his old drive.
Thanks for the replies everyone.
All my files are backed up on an external hard drive anyway so I'm not too worried about what's on the existing drive (planning to do a full format of that drive once it's all up and running anyway as I want that drive just to be a data drive).
So basically planning to install SSD, put windows on it, and then format my old drive and just copy all my data from the external drive back on to that drive.
The only thing I wasn't sure about is whether on the first boot, if the SSD has nothing on it will it then try to boot from the second hard drive but it sounds like if I adjust it in the BIOS it should all be ok? I suppose I actually need to set the BIOS to boot from the DVD drive so it boots into the windows disc?