Looking to install a 1TB SSD in my desktop and retain the HDD for general storage. Is there a way I can copy everything over from the HDD to the SSD so that it will boot from that without reinstalling the operating system ?

Many thanks.

Some SSD come with cloning software and a lead

EDIT: you can get cloning software separately as well

WHy do you need a 1TB one if you using the hdd as storage?

If you can get Linux on a USB drive and boot from it you can issue the following command in a terminal (this is probably the easiest, and cheapest, way to do it):

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

Where sda is your HDD and sdb is your SSD. This command will copy your HDD contents EXACTLY, bit for bit. This should work, but due to SSD multi-level flash this could be a little risky (as in data integrity, not bricking SSD (as far as I’m aware)) so make sure the data is ok before you wipe the HDD.

Also; if you’re using the HDD for general storage you’ll probably get away with saving some money by buying smaller. I’ve got a 256GB SSD and have only used about half for general OS and programs (games are stored on a 4TB RAID config) after about 2 years of use.

If you can get Linux on a USB drive and boot from it

I did pretty much this for a project I was working on, except I used a hacked about version of winPE that I built to boot from. One note of caution – be very confident that you know which disk is which. I’ve seen it happen on many occasions that support guys will clone the blank disk to the disk with all the data on.

One note of caution – be very confident that you know which disk is which. I’ve seen it happen on many occasions that support guys will clone the blank disk to the disk with all the data on.

Plus one – there are safer and easier options, even for free – Clonezilla, Easeus etc.

Not what you want to do, but I’d just install the new disk, re-install the OS then chuck the old drive in and copy/move stuff around at your leisure. Re-installing the OS takes no longer than cloning or whatever (IMO), and is definitely safer 🙂

Yep. Reinstall new OS then plug your old drive in as an external and browse from it.

You’ll have to reinstall all your software too though – this might not take long or it might take forever depending on what you use 🙂

If its WIn7 up then the settings and transfer wizard would just pull your profile off your old disk saving you a bit of bother too.

I’d still clone it myself if that was all I was changing though.

The Samsung 840 Evo seems to be the one that a lot of people go for – best perfomance for the money (get 5 -10 % more speed for double the price, sort of thing)

Great reviews all over, most popular by far on amazon, loads of 5 star reviews, not many negative.

The migration software that comes bundled with it is pretty easy to use too – you just need an enclosure to plug the SSD into the machine with during cloing, then you can swap your HDD over into the enclosure, and your SSD into the machine when it’s cloned.

Edit – I had a bit of a mare cloning mine, but that’s because my old HDD was a bit buggered. Easy peasy once I’d been told what to disable/change though, thanks to someone on here – page file or something?