Rick's Daily Tips

Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!

  • Home
  • Rick’s Bio
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Rick’s Tip Jar
  • Get My Tech Tips Newsletter
  • Contact Me
You are here: Home / Tech Questions & Answers / Q&A: Why should I convert my old C: drive to an external drive after an SSD upgrade instead of installing it as a D: drive?

Q&A: Why should I convert my old C: drive to an external drive after an SSD upgrade instead of installing it as a D: drive?

Posted on January 29, 2014

810
SHARES
ShareTweetSubscribe

ide-hard-driveQuestion from Gary M.:  Rick, Microsoft is forcing me to get serious about upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 8 (or 8.1). I just finished reading your recommendation to install an SSD drive and convert my XP internal drive into an external USB drive.

I was thinking along similar lines, but figured I would make my existing XP drive into a drive D: after upgrading to Windows 8. Why would converting it to an external USB drive be better?

Thanks, Gary

Ricks answer:  Gary, leaving your current C: drive inside the system as a secondary D: drive is certainly an option, and if that’s what you’d rather do, I say go for it.

That being said, there are some advantages to using your old hard drive as an external drive instead of an internal secondary drive that I think you should consider:

1 – You can use your newly minted external drive as a dedicated backup drive. You could create a System Image on it after you get Windows 8.1 and all of your applications installed on the SSD (I wouldn’t even bother with Windows 8 if I were you).

Then simply disconnect the external drive and store it in a safe place in case the unthinkable ever happens and you have to restore your system onto a new primary drive.

2 – You can always install the old hard drive as an internal D: drive and then create a System Image on it, but if lighting or a major power surge takes out your computer, you could easily lose both your SSD and your backup drive. Using it as an external backup drive that’s stored seperately from the computer eliminates that very real possibilty.

3 – In my opinion, an older hard drive that has already been used for several years is best utilized as a backup drive that can be stored until needed. That way it won’t be subjected to any more daily wear. After all, who knows how long that well-used drive will last if it’s put into daily use as a secondary internal drive?

You can always install a NEW hard drive inside your PC to hold your data files if you wish. Internal drives are dirt cheap these days, and well worth the extra expense when installing a smaller SSD as the primary drive.

Bottom line: I’m not trying to dissuade you from using your hard drive as a secondary internal drive if that’s what you really wish to do. As long as you take steps to create regular backups of both internal drives, you’ll have nothing to fear by setting up your PC as described in your question. I’m just explaining your options.

Whatever you decide, I wish you the very best of luck!


Do you have a tech question of your own for Rick? Click here and send it in!

810
SHARES
ShareTweetSubscribe




Popular…

How do I ask you a tech question?


Step-by-step guide to completely ridding your PC of viruses and other malware


10 reasons why I recommend buying tech gear from Amazon


Advertise

Guest Post Guidelines

Want to ask me a tech question?

Handy Tech Resources

Privacy Policy

Computer Tips
Smartphone Tips
Blogging Tips

Tech Q & A
Reviews
Tech News

Write for RicksDailyTips.com

Scam alerts
Downloads

Copyright © 2023 RicksDailyTips.com

Affiliate Disclaimer


Rick's Daily Tips is hosted by InMotion Hosting. Click here to find out why.