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Some years ago I used a related product (same group) but the new versions have not met the grade. Newest version, for instance, does not do NEFs nor CR2s, which are important. What it does, it does well though. I agree.

Oh yes. And I’ve found out a bunch of other things, too.

Okay. Here is another source of great, maybe a bit too detailed, information on the MBR/UEFI/WIN7/GPT imbroglio: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535(v=vs.85).aspx

On the basis of input from here and from ASUS (mobo) and from Samsung (SSD for boot) I have a path forward.
SSD (boot) will be MBR
Any other SSD will be GPT
The two 4TB drives will be GPT
The two 2T and under drives will be MBR
And I have a recipe for which should go with which controllers on the Mobo.

If I were installing WIN 8 there would be differences.

I will say that the Lounge, SAMSUNG, and ASUS have excellent support people but in the case of the latter two, the paper and on-line text & drawings are not complete or are misleading. That said, it has been a trip! Let’s see if I now fetch up at a tranquil destination. For a guy who has built all his PCs himself since 1986, this has been a humbling experience. A whole lot of changes since the last build only 6 years ago.

All my HDs are SATA-3 and the SSD is SATA-6. The mobo has plenty of SATA-3 connectors and one SATA-6 connector. Life is good. But I did check to make sure after reading your post. FYI: there are IDE-to-SATA cables at Monoprice. My other PC has one drive hooked up that way and it has worked flawlessly for a handful of years.

Yep. A legit Microsoft Upgrade disk. (Also a 32-bit Win7 Pro disk for the other PC which will inherit the ‘brains’ of this one.)

Good thought. I had a very long session once over a similar issue with a Microsoft team. No interest in putting another afternoon into the can. Does anybody have a working number to a real Microsoftie for this kind of issue, should it come up?

Re recommendation 3, since I intend to introduce the new SSD into the new set-up as the boot drive and use a DVD to get it started & updated, install all the applications, update them, etc. and THEN hook up the two other existing drives plus the newly ‘demoted’ former boot HD, do I really need to migrate data off it? Shouldn’t I just leave all there and then
1) make the correct assignments for the WIN7 pre-defined folders ( documents, photos, etc) and
2) delete all the system and executables?

Am I overthinking this thing?

The hardware should arrive today.

One more thing. How do I identify what folders should be on the SSD? Or, put in other terms, what folders in a WIN7 PRO 64 bit should/can not be moved, at least not from the BOOT partition or boot drive? Or what folders can be moved? There is no e-mail traffic to/from this machine to speak of.

Another question concerns the best strategy for the Boot drive, the 250 GB SSD. No partitions? If partitions, what is a recommended strategy?

A related question has to do with a Photoshop Elements 12 catalog. PSE 12 hosts a 50,000+ image database. Up to this time I have always kept DB catalogs, since the 1980s and mini-computers and main frames, separate from the data drives and from the system drives. But I wonder if there is now an advantage to moving the catalog to the SSD? Or a partition on the SSD?

Step one, as I understand it, will be to do the backups etc, then swap out the Mobo/RAM/C: drive for SSD. I suspect the new UEFI will allow me to get to the Optical drive to run the Upgrade Diskette. Yes?

I lean toward Clint’s approach so that I get as clean an install as possible although at the cost of more time and care. Clean is good. If UPS & FEDEX stay on their schedules, I should get to the first step, the 64 bit machine, this weekend. Thanks to all!!!!!

used: 857 GB
Free: 0.98 TB

In my last build, 6 years ago, the previous OS would have been Win XP, if there was an OS on the drive.

The new SSD will have 250GB (Samsung). The current boot drive is 2T I can strip the data folders off that drive so I’m fairly certain 250GB will be more than enough space for the OS, the executables, and probably the catalog for a database I run on this system. There is space elsewhere on the system for the data — especially since I can place it back on — or leave it on — the 750 MB drive.

I’m not sure how to technically answer the partition question. Disk 0 is now 1863.01 GB in one partition.

Just a heads-up. I’ve started another thread addressing specifically the recipe for getting the OS and formatting done.

Best possible outcome. We both learn. Thanks a bunch.:cool:

Cool. I’ve used CCleaner for years and never knew!