CraigSca
10-28-2012, 09:02 AM
I used to work on PCs a lot - but I haven't for a long time. I can still build my own PC, but I kind of feel left behind when it comes to knowing some of the current best practices.
Case in point: my current desktop has a single 300GB hard drive with only one partition. The PC itself runs fine - I have a 2-3 year old quad code i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, a 600 series graphics card, etc. The hard drive, however, has about 60+ GB of space left and I'm looking to upgrade where I don't have to think (how much storage will FM2013 take?) before making a software plunge.
So, knowing that SSDs will dramatically improve my performance, I'm thinking of going in that direction and pairing it with perhaps a new 1 TB hard drive. The problem is, I'd like to do this without having my PC down for days trying to figure out what software I had, where the license is, etc., - basically trying to not build this thing from scratch. The problem I have is - that 300GB hard drive is not partitioned at all (never saw the advantages of partitioning...until now).
So...the question is - I assume best practices is to get an SSD - install windows 7 on it and your "main" programs, correct? Next - all data goes to the new HD, correct? Ok, how do I go about taking a 300GB, one-partitioned drive and attempt to clone it to a new HD? Do cloning packages allow you to pick and choose what to clone and separate it by hard drive (e.g. OS goes to this drive, data goes to another), or am I up a creek with this? Should I just start from scratch (ACK!)? If there's a cloning package that can help - are there any recommendations from the groupthink that is FOFC?
Case in point: my current desktop has a single 300GB hard drive with only one partition. The PC itself runs fine - I have a 2-3 year old quad code i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, a 600 series graphics card, etc. The hard drive, however, has about 60+ GB of space left and I'm looking to upgrade where I don't have to think (how much storage will FM2013 take?) before making a software plunge.
So, knowing that SSDs will dramatically improve my performance, I'm thinking of going in that direction and pairing it with perhaps a new 1 TB hard drive. The problem is, I'd like to do this without having my PC down for days trying to figure out what software I had, where the license is, etc., - basically trying to not build this thing from scratch. The problem I have is - that 300GB hard drive is not partitioned at all (never saw the advantages of partitioning...until now).
So...the question is - I assume best practices is to get an SSD - install windows 7 on it and your "main" programs, correct? Next - all data goes to the new HD, correct? Ok, how do I go about taking a 300GB, one-partitioned drive and attempt to clone it to a new HD? Do cloning packages allow you to pick and choose what to clone and separate it by hard drive (e.g. OS goes to this drive, data goes to another), or am I up a creek with this? Should I just start from scratch (ACK!)? If there's a cloning package that can help - are there any recommendations from the groupthink that is FOFC?