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As title. I will be moving over to a SSD from my single F3 500GB which is my current and only HDD. Is it possible for me to create a partition on this drive, say, 100GB for me to store some documents so I can wipe the rest of the drive and then restore it back too 500GB once i have Windows on the SSD ?
Yes you can create a new partition, if Windows does not let you then you can use a linux distro or a partitioning app.
Ok which drive do you wish to create the partition on? I am assuming the 500GB one, which as you call it your C: drive I assume its just one big formatted drive with windows on it. It is somewhat unclear what you want to move to where...
The first thing I would suggest is copy your valuable data to your SSD, disconnect it to make sure its safe.
Now you need to shrink your C: drive, this can be done in a number way if you have windows 7 or vista it is built in otherwise you need to use a boot disk like gpartd Here is a good summary
When you have strunk your C: drive you will have space to add another partition at the end of the device.
Format the D: drive, copy your data to it....
Now you can do your SSD install, (I would disable your other drive while you do this)
then you can format your OLD c:
Postscript I am amazed the number of people who have one bit massive C: drive then get into problems when the want to reinstall as they have no were else to put stuff... Don't do it!
Why would you want to do that? Unless I've misunderstood you, surely the logical thing to do is:
Get the SSD, and install Windows on it.
Plug in the 500GB F3, delete all unnecessary Windows files leaving only the documents that you wanted to keep originally.
Defragment 500GB F3.
Job done?
What snooty said! Just pop the SSD in and install windows on it - you'll be able to access all your documents on the 500GB drive from that! No need to reformat the 500GB drive at all...
@ Scary & Snooty. I have done it that way before but its a pain in the anus to go through and delete everything - especially when there is those stubborn ones that say you need the other users admin rights ;) So I would just rather nuke the mofo! :)
Fair enough, but partitioning is a real pain in the arse.
My quality of life has improved by at least 27% since I stopped mucking around with it ;)
Alternative: buy a cheapy external hard drive and back everything out to that? You can grab up to 500GB for ~ £50 and it'd serve as a useful backup drive once you've got everything reinstalled - you could easily image your SSD to it so you'd always have a full drive image in case the worst happened...
Maybe I'll pick one up eventually (external HDD), I've decided I'm just going to nuke it anyway the majority of my stuff was music which I've copied onto the Zune so should be all good - when the City-link guy gets here...