New SSD

[Rockstaru]

I'm getting a new SSD soon that I was going to put all the essential components on (OS, frequently used programs, etc.) and use my current 500GB HDD as a storage drive. Currently, there's some stuff on there I'd like to keep (primarily AVCHD video for some projects I'm working on, documents, etc.) It's a huge hassle to copy it all to an external and then back; can I load my Windows 7 copy onto the SSD, tell BIOS to boot from that drive by default, then copy those files from the HDD to the SSD, and then format the HDD? I'd just like to avoid backing everything up to an external, if possible.

[octopus]

I have a 3rd option - buy a $10 hdd enclosure and transform your HDD into an external hard drive.

[Mafai]

Yes, hook your SSD in, then reboot with your windows cd in, and just install onto the SSD, then at this point, it should update your boot.ini, and it will give an option of which OS to load from.

After you reformat your old OS drive (which should now just be for storage), go into msconfig in windows, and remove the entry for the old OS in the boot.ini tab so that your not prompted which OS to boot into.

[Rockstaru]

I have a 3rd option - buy a $10 hdd enclosure and transform your HDD into an external hard drive.

I would do that, but I've already got a 500GB external that I keep my music/movie library on, and I've yet to use half the space; doesn't quite seem worth it yet to have a second external.

Thanks for the responses guys!

[donutseeds]

Absolutely you can, that is assuming that you have enough space to store all your backup data with. Alternately, don't format the drive at all. Just install win7 on the SSD and leave the other installation intact. That way if things every blow up you have a backup drive.

[Katlan]

I love my SSD drive as my primary OS, just make sure u by one w/a self healing function. It should be a given w/how far SSds have come, but some still don't. U want it to either support TRIM or have it built into the SSD.... For mine, I just cold boot the computer and let it idle overnight once a month since keeping the computer idle after a cold reboot, for roughly an hr, will start the interal self healing