Advice Request HDD to SSD...Opinions needed...

[coolcanadiancat]

My 10 year old PC is about to get two long needed upgrades. Ram upgrade and a SSD upgrade.
My main (and only HDD) is a WD Black 1TB 3.5" Internal Drive (HDD is about 5 years old)

I just purchased a WD Blue 3D Nand Sata SSD 1TB

Originally I was planning on cloning (sector by sector) from the HDD to the SSD and using the HDD afterwards as a storage device (wiping the HDD,only after confirming successful SSD operation...)...since both drives are 1TB I figured this would be the way for me to go.

Then, I read that most just put the OS (Win 10 Home X64) onto a smaller SSD and keep all other files etc.. on the larger HDD

Should I stick to my original thought or use the SSD as the OS boot drive, with all else on the HDD?

I'm just doing this now as my understanding is that SSD,s are more reliable now than in the past. (Though my old and trusty WD Black has never let me down or develop bad sectors--well, at least not as of yet)

Last but not least what are your thoughts regarding cloning software? (I have O&O DiskImage 15 Pro, and free versions of MiniTool Partition Wizard 12 and EaseUS Partition Master 14.5 (Macrium Free could also be an option) as could be ???

Thanks in advance for all your thoughts and advice.

 

[roger_m]

Then, I read that most just put the OS (Windows 10 Home X64) onto a smaller SSD and keep all other files etc.. on the larger HDD

There's absolutely no need to do that, unless you don't have enough room on your SSD for everything. SSDs can potentially last much longer than hard drives.

 

[coolcanadiancat]

There's absolutely no need to do that, unless you don't have enough room on your SSD for everything. SSDs can potentially last much longer than hard drives.

Thanks Roger...that helps me... my 1TB HDD has 930.47 GB capacity and still I have free space of 801.18 GB (86% free space)

 

[CyberTech]

What roger_m said or if your HDD has multiple partitions as C:\ D:\ E:\ you can clone three partitions to the SSD it might take a long it depends on the size so in my opinion the OS would be on the SSD and keep the data as important on the HDD if you want, you can use SSD & HDD at the same time. you know what you need to backup OS every month or so on the HDD if your OS would be damaged or something like this you can restore it from the HDD..

 

[Brahman]

What roger_m said or if your HDD has multiple partitions as C:\ D:\ E:\ you can clone three partitions to the SSD it might take a long it depends on the size so in my opinion the OS would be on the SSD and keep the data as important on the HDD if you want, you can use SSD & HDD at the same time. you know what you need to backup OS every month or so on the HDD if your OS would be damaged or something like this you can restore it from the HDD..

+1 to that. its easier and fast to backup a small "C" drive that just has the os and other software installations. If you only have C drive which includes all the data, the backing up becomes a time consuming process. I would keep os and data on separate partitions so that both can be separately backed up for easier management.

 

[South Park]

Last but not least what are your thoughts regarding cloning software? (I have O&O DiskImage 15 Pro, and free versions of MiniTool Partition Wizard 12 and EaseUS Partition Master 14.5 (Macrium Free could also be an option) as could be ???

Thanks in advance for all your thoughts and advice.

Of the three I tried, AOMEI Backupper Pro (link)was the only one that correctly cloned my ailing HDD to a smaller SDD, so that would be my first choice.

 

[Cortex]

I have a SSD & a 4TB spinner - I've partitioned the SSD with OS on one partition & my main data that changed often on the other, this keeps images I do simple & fast, I back up the data partition & spinner to externals using drag & drop - I use the spinner for music, video, photographs - I've used either Macrium or Backupper Pro Clone function - It really don't take long at all, pretty scary the first time though

WD Black, great hard drives

 

[sepik]

Hello,
I'm using macrium to backup my system boot drive, and my backup image is only 11gb(default compression method used). So backing up and restoring won't take long.

Kind regards,
-sepik

 

[ForgottenSeer 67480]

SSD is good for gaming players, HDD is good only in one thing: At work. HDD is cheap, SSD is expensive.

 

[roger_m]

SSD is expensive.

Only for large capacity SSDs. The price of SSDs has fallen a lot in the last few years.

 

[upnorth]

Only for large capacity SSDs. The price of SSDs has fallen a lot in the last few years.

I agree. Even NVMe is nowadays very affordable, but that of course has to be supported by the motherboard.

 

[Cortex]

I hope no one mentions 'Legacy' (hundreds of forum members were killed or maimed in that thread)

 

[[correlate]]

 

[sepik]

Actually, i'm planning to buy external USB SSD drive for backup etc purposes. Anyone here have such a drive and opinions about it?
Is there any transfer speed differences between USB 3, 3.1 and 3.2? I think my PC "only" have standard 3.0 USB ports.

Kind regards,
-sepik

 

[Brahman]

Actually, i'm planning to buy external USB SSD drive for backup etc purposes. Anyone here have such a drive and opinions about it?
Is there any transfer speed differences between USB 3, 3.1 and 3.2? I think my PC "only" have standard 3.0 USB ports.

Kind regards,
-sepik

Even with USB 3.2 the transfer speed will depend on the number of usb controllers in a motherboard. some motherboards only have one controller for front, back and on board and some has 3 or more. Most x570 boards have 3 controllers. So the speed will depend upon the motherboard and what all are getting populated by other usb ports.

 

[coolcanadiancat]

When I originally built my pc roughly 10-11 years ago i really did not know about partitions, creating separate partitions, backing up data etc...
I put it all together, installed the WD Black, then the OS.-Win 7 X64 As far as I recall a partition was created for the OS and I was off and running.

Attached is a screenshot from Disk Management of my WD Black

I like the idea of keeping the OS and data on separate partitions so that they can be backed up for easier management. How would that be easily accomplished with the way my HDD is currently set up??

Once that is done then I would clone the HDD to the SSD and I would be good to go, is that all correct??

 

[show-Zi]

About 5 years ago, my pc moved from an hdd environment to an ssd + hdd environment. It was a small 80 GB ssd, so I only installed the system and a minimal amount of software. Currently ssd has about 40% free space on win 10 (64 bit).

I will introduce the procedure I took at that time. However, I apologize for some vague memories first.
1.Partition the hdd disk in Disk Management. Copy the data required for the new partition (Move)
2.Disconnect hdd from motherboard, boot from install media with ssd only, clean install Windows
3.Connect hdd and boot from the installation media again. Format the partition where the system was installed with hdd
4.Booting from ssd to verify operation

This creates an empty partition on hdd, which you can use to back up your system image. As for the system, I recommend that you use this opportunity to perform a clean installation in order to solve problems that do not cause symptoms.