SSD into new laptop?

[sy534534]

Can I just remove an SSD I installed in one laptop and install it in a new laptop, keeping all the programs intact? It's not the boot drive and just has games and documents on it, so I can't see any reason it wouldn't work. I want to keep the files and the extra storage is always useful.

The drive is a NVMe M.2 P5 from Crucial. The games are not linked to any service ( steam, epic etc ) or any other programs ( oculus etc ) so would it be fine just to install it and off we go?

The new laptop has it's own SSD for the operating system and other bits and bobs.

Thanks for reading.

[MikeGTi]

Not exactly, as you'd need all the registry entries etc to tell the OS that the games are installed.

That said, you could possibly use the repair function in the game setup program to sort that out.

Files/folders etc should all be fine.

[dundarach]

Try it, give it the same drive letter and see what happens.

Entries should be pointing at something like D:\Games\EASports\FoxyBoxing\Go.exe

However like the last poster suggested might be more complex.

I'm assuming when you copy everything over, it'll change from say D to E.

[ecs0set]

If you have anything installed from the Microsoft Store (Xbox App), then don't bother. You're lucky if it works even before you start changing hardware.

I can't remember how it works (symlinks plus some sort of DVD image of the game?) but it's capable of hiding many tens of gigabytes of disk space from the OS if you break it.

[eeLee]

The SSD if it shoe-horns in will have some permission issues but largely you will be able to read content and should be able to take ownership.

Executable content will likely misbehave. If you have the installation sources then installing over the top will likely fix some or all of the problems.

[andyhawes]

Much the same as has been said - the SSD swap *may* work, but if it doesn't the drive may not go sweetly back into the donor PC as the new one may change/update drivers etc as it tries to adapt to it, and overall generally you are just always better with a clean installation anyway.