JayTuut Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Let me run this down in the simpliest way: 1. I bought an SSD 2. I need to remove my steam folder (703 gb) from my hard drive so I can clone my hard drive to my SSD (to keep the windows installation), as the SSD is 250gb and it's best to keep SSD's under 80% full. 3. I will need to copy it off the C drive to my external hard drive (2TB), then put it back once the SSD is cloned from the main old (C) drive. 4. Then I will need to delete it off the C drive, only having a copy of it on my external (2TB) drive. 5. Then once the windows installation is complete, I want to just copy it back off my External drive and put it back into C So my two questions are. 1. I already have a steam folder in my E (the 2TB external) drive for some games since my C is basically full. Will this conflict? Should I just call it steam2 or something so it doesnt conflict? 2. Is there any problems with this? Will I lose any data or game progress or anything? I know some games store data in appdata/my documents.... but will that be a problem? Not sure cause i'll be cloning C drive which will include all that onto the E, so it would just retrieve it from the SSD windows right? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McBro Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Giving it a different name temporarily is a good precaution just in case, "steam2" will work like you said. As for game data make sure you have Steam Cloud Synchronization on. It backs up all game data to steam servers. So say if I have a save on one computer, steam will download it to my other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AwesomeMcCoolName Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 I'd recommend against cloning your HDD -- just do a fresh install. It will avoid potential issues and it's easy enough anyway. I also wouldn't worry too much about filling the SSD -- as long as you don't actually run out of space, it's fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayTuut Posted January 9, 2018 Author Share Posted January 9, 2018 8 hours ago, AwesomeMcCoolName said: I'd recommend against cloning your HDD -- just do a fresh install. It will avoid potential issues and it's easy enough anyway. I also wouldn't worry too much about filling the SSD -- as long as you don't actually run out of space, it's fine. What potential programs? my family has a paid clone, and I asked to do a fresh install and my brother advised not to as it'd be too hard and I'd probably lose some items. I was for a fresh install but my brother and mother who are both computer geeks advise to clone it :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AwesomeMcCoolName Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 1 minute ago, ḎℰѦÐ! Boom said: What potential programs? my family has a paid clone, and I asked to do a fresh install and my brother advised not to as it'd be too hard and I'd probably lose some items. I was for a fresh install but my brother and mother who are both computer geeks advise to clone it :/ Cloning can cause random issues (not guaranteed, but not all that rare either), plus it also means that you're copying over all the crap that you've built up. Alternatively, you do a fresh install which is as simple as making a bootable Windows USB and then waiting fifteen minutes for windows to install on the SSD. Then all you have to do is install updates, download the programs you want, and adjust settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayTuut Posted January 9, 2018 Author Share Posted January 9, 2018 8 minutes ago, AwesomeMcCoolName said: Cloning can cause random issues (not guaranteed, but not all that rare either), plus it also means that you're copying over all the crap that you've built up. Alternatively, you do a fresh install which is as simple as making a bootable Windows USB and then waiting fifteen minutes for windows to install on the SSD. Then all you have to do is install updates, download the programs you want, and adjust settings. But wont I lose files stored in appdata and etc? Like things for games and photos/documents/music/programs in the folders? :/ I also lose any startup programs but idk... :c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AwesomeMcCoolName Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 2 minutes ago, ḎℰѦÐ! Boom said: But wont I lose files stored in appdata and etc? Like things for games and photos/documents/music/programs in the folders? :/ I also lose any startup programs but idk... :c You would be back to your computer when you first got it. So you would have to copy over photos/documents/etc... and any save files that might be in appdata would also have to be copied over. Basically anything that doesn't come with Windows you'd have to do, but it's still not that much work and it's still worthwhile to avoid potential issues and slowdowns from cloning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayTuut Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 2 hours ago, AwesomeMcCoolName said: You would be back to your computer when you first got it. So you would have to copy over photos/documents/etc... and any save files that might be in appdata would also have to be copied over. Basically anything that doesn't come with Windows you'd have to do, but it's still not that much work and it's still worthwhile to avoid potential issues and slowdowns from cloning. Could I just copy the appdata folder itself and the contents of pics/documents etc? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayTuut Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 @AwesomeMcCoolName On 10/01/2018 at 10:41 AM, AwesomeMcCoolName said: Copy shit over We decided against cloning it and will start fresh. But will i need to format or wipe the (old C) drive according to my brother but hes not 100%. Will it be fine just deleting the windows folders after copying everything I need over or will I have to wipe or format the old drive? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AwesomeMcCoolName Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 34 minutes ago, ḎℰѦÐ! Boom said: @AwesomeMcCoolName We decided against cloning it and will start fresh. But will i need to format or wipe the (old C) drive according to my brother but hes not 100%. Will it be fine just deleting the windows folders after copying everything I need over or will I have to wipe or format the old drive? Thanks You don't have to touch the old drive (other than deleting old crap you just want to get rid of). Just make sure to choose the new SSD as the destination for installing windows otherwise it will format whatever drive you select. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aᴜᴛʜᴏᴘɪᴜs™ Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Hello! PC Master Racer here. I encountered the exact conflict as you are having right now when I upgraded my PC. Here's the steps: Go to "Steam" folder Copy the "steamapps" folder to your external hard drive. After the copying process is done, delete the entire Steam Folder Copy ONLY the pictures, videos, music, documents, and your game mod files. Also copy the game data stored anywhere else EXCEPT "steamapps" folder (Ex. Documents, AppData) DO NOT COPY THE FILES OF YOUR OTHER PROGRAMS LIKE YOUR BROWSER (This will cause registry issues later on, that's why I commanded you to delete your "Steam" folder except for the "steamapps" folder) Install your SSD Drive Do a Fresh, Clean install of Windows OS (I highly require you to do this, cloning may be fast and efficient but may cause registry and other internal problems later on and it can corrupt your SSD in which you gonna need to buy a new drive and wait hours to install your games again) After the installation of Windows is done, download the Steam Client. Wait until the Steam Client updates itself, then log in to your account Wait again until your game library pops-up Exit Steam (Click the Triangle symbol on the bottom-right of your screen, near the date & time. Then right-click the Steam icon then press Exit) Transfer the "steamapps" folder from your external drive to the "Steam" folder in your SSD Drive. Open Steam, you will now see that your games are installed and ready to be played again. NOTES: You need to install ALL Microsoft Visual C++ in order for the games to run properly. I recommend this Visual C++ All-In-One Installer (P.S. No Viruses/Adwares) Known Bug: When you create a game shortcut, the icon of the game doesn't appear. This happens on most Steam games. Only Solution is to play the game. If it still doesn't appear, keep playing. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayTuut Posted January 15, 2018 Author Share Posted January 15, 2018 22 hours ago, AwesomeMcCoolName said: You don't have to touch the old drive (other than deleting old crap you just want to get rid of). Just make sure to choose the new SSD as the destination for installing windows otherwise it will format whatever drive you select. Yep all good! Done 11 hours ago, Aᴜᴛʜᴏᴘɪᴜs™ said: Snip Eh... Nah... I think ill just leave my D (old HDD C drive). I dont really want to fill up my SSD so ive really only put PUBG on there. I redownloaded all my other programs like discord and chrome and other things you need to reinstall (steam isnt the case because stream recognises and fixes it, special program ) but yeah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.