System Transfer

MrPalindrome

Solid State Member
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7
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United States
Hello, firstly, this is my first post on this forum, so hello everyone. So recently one of my old HDDs crashed and died, so I decided it was time to finally invest in getting and SSD for my computer. After struggling to get it to format, I finally installed Windows 10 onto it and it is running now. However, I still have my original hard drive which has most of my programs and things like that on it. It's 2TB and there are a lot of games either through steam or through things like Origin, and I'm pretty much just wondering if there's some way to get the fresh OS install to acknowledge previously installed software, like by indexing it or something like that, or if I just have to reinstall everything to get them usable again. The main reason is there are some codes (and a LOT of software) that I don't have access to anymore, so reinstalling wouldn't be easily possible. I've looked around online but I can't seem to find an answer to this. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
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Is the 2TB drive plugged into the same machine?

If you have the 2TB drive accessible currently, then the origin/steam programs can be reinstalled on a separate folder. Then, move the files for the origin folder into the same directory.

Otherwise, based on the software, you may have to directly install to the existing directory of those games installed.
 
The 2TB drive is plugged into the same machine, both are plugged in via standard SATA cables. I heard that if you use the same directory for steam it'll locate it, but I'd have to do that for all the games in my library (a lot) wouldn't I? Also, what about the programs that aren't installed using steam or something like that. I used my dad's disc and key for Vegas Movie Studio, which I've had on my computer now for probably 2 years or more, so getting the key and disc would be pretty difficult. Any clue as to what to do for that? The speed increase in boot and load times using the SSD is much nicer than using my HDD, and I'd like to use it but at this point it seems like it'd be either too much work or not even feasible to transfer what I need over into a usable state.
 
Steam is easily transferable. I haven't reinstalled Steam in uh....8 years? Origin is a little tricky but also able to transfer over. Just install those programs where they are on the 2TB the way your system is configured (or just launch Steam from the 2TB and it'll do the rest without an install).

The rest won't be so easy. The only thing you can do is try to launch off the 2TB manually to see if they work.
 
I see. Well thank you guys for your help, I guess I'll have to just struggle when using my old programs, since there doesn't seem to be a way to like, index my hard drive for installs. :sleep:
 
I see. Well thank you guys for your help, I guess I'll have to just struggle when using my old programs, since there doesn't seem to be a way to like, index my hard drive for installs. :sleep:

Or just reinstall them on the SSD ;).

Also, if you want to keep using the 2TB for game storage, just point Steam & Origin to those directories.
 
Or just reinstall them on the SSD ;).

Also, if you want to keep using the 2TB for game storage, just point Steam & Origin to those directories.

How do you point Steam & Origin at the other directories, other than doing it game by game (I have like, almost 200 in my library).
 
Okay, actually, I figured out how to get Steam to see the install, however when I booted from my old HDD, I tried to access my SSD from it to look at files and maybe move some things, and the Windows explorer froze when I tried to load the drive, same when I tried to download something to it, steam froze up so I had to reset because task manager couldn't even close them. Is there a reason for this? Maybe because it's a boot drive? Even so, my other drive is a boot drive and I can access it when booted from the SSD just fine, so I'm really confused here.
 
Okay, actually, I figured out how to get Steam to see the install, however when I booted from my old HDD, I tried to access my SSD from it to look at files and maybe move some things, and the Windows explorer froze when I tried to load the drive, same when I tried to download something to it, steam froze up so I had to reset because task manager couldn't even close them. Is there a reason for this? Maybe because it's a boot drive? Even so, my other drive is a boot drive and I can access it when booted from the SSD just fine, so I'm really confused here.

Windows file systems can do that from time to time. Uninstall steam and reinstall to the drive you'd like to keep it on to run from. I do not personally have SSD installed, but I run my installation of steam from the same drive the games are on.

Here is a link with instructions from the steam support team on changing the directory or moving the directory for your steam files. [Link]

Now -- if the 2TB drive is still running a copy of windows, that may explains some of the random crashing in windows. You can dabble in creating a separate partition for steam from the TB drive, delete windows or format the partition completely and re-size the partition.

These recommendations are all based on the description of the issue, you can run steam the client on the SSD and the files from another.
 
Windows file systems can do that from time to time. Uninstall steam and reinstall to the drive you'd like to keep it on to run from. I do not personally have SSD installed, but I run my installation of steam from the same drive the games are on.

Here is a link with instructions from the steam support team on changing the directory or moving the directory for your steam files. [Link]

Now -- if the 2TB drive is still running a copy of windows, that may explains some of the random crashing in windows. You can dabble in creating a separate partition for steam from the TB drive, delete windows or format the partition completely and re-size the partition.

These recommendations are all based on the description of the issue, you can run steam the client on the SSD and the files from another.
Just for reference the last time I tried to do that on another machine Steam wanted me to redownload all the games even though they were already there. Simply booting into the SSD install of Windows then clicking on the Steam.exe on the 2TB should work perfectly fine. Simply make a shortcut of Steam on the desktop or taskbar for easy access.
 
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