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josuna123 · ‎03-08-2013

Sorry if I'm a super noob for asking this question, however I did check the sticky threads around several sections of the forums but I still don't understand this concept. I have only upgraded RAM before so I'm clueless.

The G75VX comes with 2 HDD slots and it already has a 1TB HDD with windows 8. My question is how I should go about adding a SSD to the second slot? Should I just throw it in there next to the HDD and boot up of do I have to take out the HDD first and boot up with only the SSD? If such I'd the case, do I need to install a new copy of Windows 8 to my SSD or can I use the same Windows 8 from my HDD?

Once installed, do I have to setup my SSD as the boot drive and how do I go about managing files between them? Is it as simple as just choosing which HDD/SSD as the save location

I'll throw this in while I'm at it. I bought new RAM and its different brand from the stock, should I replace the sticks or add them all together?

Thanks in advance, sorry if these questions are answered elsewhere but I did check the stickies and I formed some ideas but I want to be 100% sure I'm right.

***EDIT***
I found this on another forum step-by-step what I was looking for and probably what you guys are looking for too. Here you go:

Actually, you don't need to backup all your Steam games.
This is the way I'd do it (when I have the cash for a new ssd):

1) Download all the drivers you might need to install windows and save them to a USB stick, also, now is the time to remember what your Steam password is, and maybe give your computer a little clean out.

2) Install the SDD into your case, and plug it into any available SATA port

3) (If you need to install a firmware update on the drive, boot of your HDD and install the firmware now, before you've got anything on it to potentially lose)

4) Temporarily unplug your HDD

5) Install Windows on the SDD.

6) Once you've got Windows installed, turn off the computer and re-plug your HDD back in

7) Go into the BIOS and make sure that the SSD is set as the boot device.

😎 Boot into Windows and check that both drives are showing up (you may wish to name them both to avoid confusion, right click the drive and go into the properties and put the name in the box at the top)

9) Move your Steam install (see below)

10) Now you can safely delete (or maybe just send to the recycle bin just to be safe) the following folders from the HDD: Windows, Program Data (hidden folder) and the Program Files (and the x86 version if you're on 64 bit). *****Don't delete the Program Files directories until you've moved Steam!*****

11) Now if you want to be clever, right click on your new 'My Videos' (eg) folder and go to Properties. In the "Location" tab click "Move" and find the OLD location of your My Videos folder (assuming your HDD is now drive d: it'll be something like "D:\Users\%username%\My Videos"). This will make Windows use your old Videos folder, thus saving you copying them over to the SSD, and you don't really need to store videos on an SSD. You can do this with My Music, My Pictures etc. If you have the "Location" tab on one of the folders in your User\%username%\ directory, then you can safely do this.

12) enjoy your lovely new SSD you lucky *******

How to move Steam without backing up all your games.
If you want to have all of your games on the SSD then you just have to copy/move the whole Steam folder onto the SSD (doesn't matter where as long as you remember where you put it).
In the Steam folder, rename the file "ClientRegistry.blob" to "ClientRegistry.blob.old" (or just delete it), then just run steam.exe (you do remember your Steam login details don't you?), and Steam will work out that it's been moved and set it's self up, and you won't need to re-download your games again.

Now, if you have a huge Steam library, and you only want to have a few games on the SSD to save space then you can do the above but move the Steam folder to somewhere on the HDD and use this program to selectively move certain games to the SSD for a speed boost.

***END OF EDIT***

cl-Albert · ‎03-08-2013

Welcome to the ROG forums!

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of hands-on experience with these upgrades myself, but hopefully can still help and others will jump in.

Anyway, just wanted to make sure you checked these 2 threads if you haven't already.

1. By rewben (has some information about backing up and installing Win8 to your SSD drive): http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?28758-GUIDE-G55-G75-Upgrade-Notes&country=&status=
2. By Marshall for disassembly: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?14583-Upgrading-the-G75VW&country=&status=

3. Also, I haven't checked them carefully to see which are better, but search 'G75VW upgrades' on YouTube and you'll find some videos.

4. Anyway, from what I have reading, you normally would want to set up your SSD drive as the boot drive since it is faster and you want your notebook to access it instead of your slower hard drive to speed things up.
The other issue is that Win8 apparently doesn't let you install your Windows programs where you want (like Win7 and earlier versions), so this is another reason to use your SSD as the boot drive where all your Windows programs will be installed.
If you happen to have a lot of programs that don't need to be installed in Win8 and can be run as *.exe files (I doubt it?), then you might consider installing your SSD drive as a data drive if you don't want to go through the trouble of making it a boot drive right now.

5. While you are trying to figure this out, you may want to try just installling the SSD drive as a second hard drive along with your 1TB HDD as long as you have a spare HDD caddy to use. Use Disk Manager to partition and format the SSD data drive and it should just show up as another drive letter you can copy files to.
Sooner or later you probably want to back up your Win8 image to install the SSD drive as a boot drive and if you have a Windows installation disk, you might want to try this out just for testing to make sure there aren't any problems to recognize the brand of SSD drive you have and boot to it before it's too late to return/exchange, etc.

Well, hope this helps and others correct any information that I don't have right, but wanted to give you some things to think about for the weekend at least.

josuna123 · ‎03-08-2013

cl-Albert wrote:
Welcome to the ROG forums!

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of hands-on experience with these upgrades myself, but hopefully can still help and others will jump in.

Anyway, just wanted to make sure you checked these 2 threads if you haven't already.

1. By rewben (has some information about backing up and installing Win8 to your SSD drive): http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?28758-GUIDE-G55-G75-Upgrade-Notes&country=&status=
2. By Marshall for disassembly: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?14583-Upgrading-the-G75VW&country=&status=

3. Also, I haven't checked them carefully to see which are better, but search 'G75VW upgrades' on YouTube and you'll find some videos.

4. Anyway, from what I have reading, you normally would want to set up your SSD drive as the boot drive since it is faster and you want your notebook to access it instead of your slower hard drive to speed things up.
The other issue is that Win8 apparently doesn't let you install your Windows programs where you want (like Win7 and earlier versions), so this is another reason to use your SSD as the boot drive where all your Windows programs will be installed.
If you happen to have a lot of programs that don't need to be installed in Win8 and can be run as *.exe files (I doubt it?), then you might consider installing your SSD drive as a data drive if you don't want to go through the trouble of making it a boot drive right now.

5. While you are trying to figure this out, you may want to try just installling the SSD drive as a second hard drive along with your 1TB HDD as long as you have a spare HDD caddy to use. Use Disk Manager to partition and format the SSD data drive and it should just show up as another drive letter you can copy files to.
Sooner or later you probably want to back up your Win8 image to install the SSD drive as a boot drive and if you have a Windows installation disk, you might want to try this out just for testing to make sure there aren't any problems to recognize the brand of SSD drive you have and boot to it before it's too late to return/exchange, etc.

Well, hope this helps and others correct any information that I don't have right, but wanted to give you some things to think about for the weekend at least.

Thanks for the info. What I want to do is setup the SSD as the boot drive and the 1TB HDD as the slave(if that's the correct term). But like you said in Point 5, I can just throw the SSD into the second slot and format it so that it's treated like a second hard drive and then I transfer all my games onto the SSD? Booting them will automatically launch them from the SSD?

But from what you just said, I can't choose the location to save on my HDD if I set it up as secondary and this is because of a Windows 8 flaw? Does this mean I would have to setup a dual boot, one for everyday use and the SSD for gaming? Or am I making this more complicated than it seems?

Thach · ‎03-08-2013

This is a interesting read as I too have been thinking about doing this. My buddy said something about getting a SSD and cloning my HDD to it but thats as much as I remember at this point. I will ask him more about it and post what I find out. In the mean time I hope you are able to find the answers you are looking for and able to get things running.

josuna123 · ‎03-08-2013

Thach wrote:
This is a interesting read as I too have been thinking about doing this. My buddy said something about getting a SSD and cloning my HDD to it but thats as much as I remember at this point. I will ask him more about it and post what I find out. In the mean time I hope you are able to find the answers you are looking for and able to get things running.

This was originally my plan, but I read from a website that when you clone a HDD to an SSD you can mess up the partition and the SSD would not function to its full potential.

GottiBoi55 · ‎03-08-2013

You should try this program macrium reflect free
You can clone your stock drive, then move to your SSD.
This new version supports "GPT", so this would be ideal for you

PS: The process is pretty easy, just follow the step by step.
many here has used this with great success!

GottiBoi55
Asus G750JZ-DS71 Windows 10 Pro (x64)
Intel® Core™ i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz)
Samsung 24GB Memory DDR3 1600 MHz SDRAM
SanDisk M.2 SSD 2x128GB in Raid 0 / WD-HGST-1TB HDD 7500-RPM
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 880M 4 GB GDDR5 VRAM
Second Monitor: Sharp Aquos 32"

josuna123 · ‎03-08-2013

GottiBoi55 wrote:
You should try this program macrium reflect free
You can clone your stock drive, then move to your SSD.
This new version supports "GPT", so this would be ideal for you

PS: The process is pretty easy, just follow the step by step.
many here has used this with great success!

Sounds like a much faster method than the one I edited above. Thanks.

Lawgical · ‎12-07-2013

Is there a step by step tut for this?

GottiBoi55 · ‎03-10-2013

You welcome my friend!

PS: Welcome to the Rog Forum!

GottiBoi55
Asus G750JZ-DS71 Windows 10 Pro (x64)
Intel® Core™ i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz)
Samsung 24GB Memory DDR3 1600 MHz SDRAM
SanDisk M.2 SSD 2x128GB in Raid 0 / WD-HGST-1TB HDD 7500-RPM
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 880M 4 GB GDDR5 VRAM
Second Monitor: Sharp Aquos 32"

Taklimi · ‎12-11-2013

Hi everyone,
I know that most of you have a lot of problems for migrating from preinstalled Windows 8 (HDD) to your new SSD in ASUS G75VW-AH71. I had it too and I think I solved it. This is the way that works for me and hope it will be useful for you guys too.
1. Belarc Advisor is one of my favorite free system information tools, and you can find the product key of your Windows 8. Download and install it and then Run it. It gives you and HTML file that can be opened by any Explorer and you can see your Windows 8 Product Key. (Honestly, you don’t need this key because your key has been saved in your BIOS too. But it is a safe way to have your key and write it in a place. You can download Belarc Advisor v8.4 from here.
2. Also, you need to have a Windows 8 (RTM) Build 9200 (32bit + 64bit) MSDN. Here is the link that you can download it by torrent.
Windows 8 (RTM) Build 9200 (32bit + 64bit) MSDN
Don’t worry about Serial number or anything. We use or serial number that comes with our laptop and it is legal.
3. Put this Windows 8 (RTM) Build 9200 (32bit + 64bit) MSDN DVD in DVD write.
4. Now you are ready for Process.
5. Remove the 750GB HDD from computer. (I am sure you can do it easily)
6. Install your New SSD in other place for hard in back of your laptop.
7. Now is the part that you should be careful: We should change BIOS and UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)
8. Start computer and press Delete button many times to go to your BIOS screen.
9. Go to Advanced menu and then check SATA Configuration menu. Now you should see only your SSD and DVD Writer.
10. Now go back to Boot menu and disable Fast Boot.
11. Enable Lunch CSM.
12. Enable Lunch PXE OpROM.
13. In Boot Option #1 select DVD Writer.
14. Go to Security menu, and then select Secure Boot Control and Disable it. (Important)
15. Go to Save & Exit menu and click on Save Changes and Exit.
16. Now your system tries to install Windows 8 from DVD.
17. You should not have any problem with installation of DVD. It doesn’t require any Key for windows because the key of your original windows has been saved in system and it automatically add to your windows. Later when you connect to internet, the windows will be activated. (It is simple and you shouldn’t do anything)
18. After finishing Installation of Windows 8, you can download and install all software and drivers of ASUS G75VW from manufacture site. (Driver and Support Link)
19. Your process is finished now and you can enjoy your windows
20. For adding you other original 750GB Hard, you will go to your BIOS again and go to Save & Exit menu. Then select Restore Defaults and later select Save Changes and Exit.
21. Now check your windows again. Everything should work fine.
22. Shut Down the computer.
23. Remove Battery
24. Install your original 750GB Hard drive.
25. Put back the Battery.
26. Restart your Computer.
27. Now you should see your new hard drive in My Computer.

I didn’t delete or format my original 750GB hard, and base on that, I have the ability to Dual boot to my original preinstalled Windows 8 and my new one that I installed it in SSD. (Definitely I usually use my SSD one because it is extraordinarily fast near 5 sec for reaching to my Desktop screen!!!!!)

For selecting which OS boot first you should go to your BIOS and then Boot menu and under Boot Option Priorities, select Boot Option #1 and then select your OS from (SSD or HDD)

Help Me Understand How to Upgrade to 2 HDD/SSD's for Asus G75VX