Windows 10: WD Black HDD - Want to move OS to new SSD

I have a 1 TB WD Black (1003FZEX) in a Dell XPS-8700 (Not Special Edition). Only 50% of HDD is full and that's all I plan to keep it.
I want to buy a new SSD and put my OS on it for faster starts, etc.

I back up every day (Full / Verify) using Macrium (Paid).

What steps do I do to "transfer" OS to SSD ?? Some sort of partial Clone ??

Thanks

:)

 

If I chose to do a Clean Install...

I am using Windows 7 Pro. If I upgraded to Windows 10, and then wanted to do a clean install, is there any way to save all the apps/programs/games installed currently on my HDD? I may even switch to a SSD soon for just the OS. Though for example, if I move
all my Photos, music, videos, Program Files, Program Files x86, etc..to my other drive and do a clean install to my hdd/sdd, and then move them back to the drive they were on, would they still work?

Basically, all i want to know is if there is a way to do a clean install, but save everything I currently have installed! Thank you

Currently I have 2 HDDs.

-1TB WD Black with OS, programs, apps, and games installed.

-2TB WD Black with Videos and some games.

 

Windows 10 Upgrade +SSD

I have windows 7 home premium installed on my WD Black 1TB HDD, and I got a 120GB SSD to install windows 10 on. I don't care about keeping windows 7 after the upgrade but I was wondering if I would be able to install the new OS on my SSD and keep all of
my files on my terabyte drive.

 

Install the new SSD. Boot from the Macrium Reflect Rescue drive. Restore your backup image to the newly installed SSD. No different than replacing the HDD if it failed. It really doesn't do much good to make backups if you can't restore them.

 

HDD has OS plus many Programs. 240 GB used total. I just want WINDOWS OS on SSD and keep programs, pictures, docs on HDD. I'm sorry now I didn't buy the Dell XPS-8700 Special Edition which comes with SSD and receptacle on Mother Board. My 8700 is bare bones.

 

You will have to re-install your programs - but just curious - why have the SSD if you are going to keep your programs running from the slower HDD? Isn't the purpose of moving to an SSD to increase performance of the computer? Why intentionally bottleneck that?

If you want to go that way, though, you would start with a clean install of Windows 10 to the SSD.

 

I don't recommend splitting Windows operations and 3rd party programs' operations by having Windows on C and all else on D. Unintended consequences can happen -- especially when it comes time to do an OS partition restore. Many 3rd party installs still place material in Users...AppData Local and/or Roaming, ProgramData due to default installer settings.

 

I am living on SS and can't afford to buy expensive Computer Hardware. Recently I purchased the WD 1TB Black to replace the old Dell Seagate 1 TB. I used MR to Clone. My Brother bought (three years ago) the Dell XPS-8700 SE. I bought my basic XPS-8700 the same time. He always bragged about the SSD which holds the OS, and regular HDD for all the rest, and how much faster his boots because of the SSD. I thought I can get the same type SSD as he has, until I found out the SE Motherboard is bigger and has a socket for the SSD, unlike mine. For lack of funds and not looking for any "trouble" I'll just be satisfied with my new WD 1 TB Black HDD, with the 5 year warranty. It was simple to Clone from old Seagate, runs just fine, and back-up every day with MR and Verifies with NO Errors.

 

I always find that humorous when people use the SSD only to boot from. OK - so you reduced your boot time from 45 seconds to 15 seconds. Then after they shave off that 30 seconds of boot time they just go back to running all the programs off the HDD. That does not pass the common sense check to me. Some people even move their pagefile - the file that Windows uses to swap data and programs in and out of RAM with - to the HDD where the very file that is one of the biggest parts of overall performance is hindered by the slower HDD performance and fragmentation. SSDs are not affected by fragmentation.

 

This was Dell's concept in the XPS-8700 SE about 3+ years ago. Somehow I thought the Windows 10 OS was on the SSD ??

 

You are already using Reflect so your upgrade should be easy - see my enclosed guide which you may find helpful. I install all programs on the SSD except very large games files which I install on a HDD since my SSD is only 180GB.
SSD Transfer.docx

 

"...I found out the SE Motherboard is bigger and has a socket for the SSD..." Can youse guyse educate me about this, I thought the sockets, connections, for almost all SSDs are the same as the sockets, connections, for almost all internal hard-drives? I.e., my Acer Aspire will take either an internal laptop SSD or a laptop platter-driven hard-drive.

 

NO, Dell XPS-8700 (std.) has NO SOCKET for any type of SSD, just an open 3.5" HDD bay.
The Dell XPS-8700 (special edition) same year, has much larger motherboard for more RAM, SSD Card (socket on board) plus much more.
Two very different Motherboards.
The Dell full XPS-8700 Manual shows all the (special edition version) items and instructions. Quite misleading for (std.) XPS-8700 users.

 

You would be mistaken @wen. You can connect a standard SATA SSD and mount it in a 3.5 HDD bay with an adapter:
SanDisk 240GB Internal SATA Solid State Drive Plus for Laptops Black SDSSDA-240G-G26 - Best Buy

Standard SATA, plugs into the standard SATA port on the motherboard like adding a HDD or DVD drive, and the standard power supply cable.

Mounting adapter - you can get these even cheaper on EBAY - for about $3 total:
Amazon.com: 2.5 to 3.5 Inches Internal Hard Disk Drive Mounting Kit by Sabrent: Computers & Accessories

 

I was just responding to ROLANDJS about the big difference between Dell XPS-8700 Special Edition and XPS Standard Motherboards.
I Know I can put a 2.5" SSD (with adapter) in anyone of my four extra HDD "slots" !!