Add New Drive and Keep the Old One as Storage

Banshee87320 · Jul 6, 2015

I'm running Windows Vista. I want to buy a new HDD, or possibly SSD, and use the new one as my main drive and the old one as storage. How can I install Windows on the new drive without formatting the old one? Will I have to uninstall Windows from the old one afterwards? Will programs on the old drive still be listed under the start menu?

Hawkeye22 · Jul 6, 2015

Do you mean use the new drive as the windows/boot drive? If so, Install the new drive, disconnect all other drives. Insert the win8 install disk and install to the new drive. You will need to reinstall all drivers & software. Reattach other drives once the new win8 drive is functioning as expected. At this point, you can reformat the old drive and use it as secondary storage.

Other option: In order to keep the OS, programs, & configuration, clone the old drive to a new drive. Use the bios to assign the new drive as the boot disk Once you're satisfied all has gone well, you can reformat & reuse the old drive. Search the forums for cloning a drive. There are plenty of topics about it.

Banshee87320 · Jul 6, 2015

Correct, I want to use the new drive as the boot drive. However, I'd like to avoid formatting the old drive. Can I, or will I need to, uninstall Windows from the old drive after the new drive is set up?

Hawkeye22 · Jul 6, 2015

Once you install windows on the new drive (and boot from it), the windows on the old drive will be useless.as will any programs on the old drive.At this point you may as wel format the old drive after having copied any necessary files from it, or at least delete the windows folder. As I stated, you will need to reinstall all drivers and software. The only way to avoid this is to clone the old drive to the new drive that way it will be an identical copy of the old drive (windows and all), then you can format/resuse the old drive.

comandoed · Jul 8, 2015

You can install on the new drive without formatting old drive.
Progs on the old drive will not be listed in the start menu.

I assume you will maintain old drive attached so you can access your old data.
Which is fine.

jsmithepa · Jul 8, 2015

Banshee87320 :

You don't need to do anything to your old drive. Of course the old Windows+Apps stuff will still be sitting there taking up space but you can take your time getting rid of them, eventually.

Banshee87320 · Aug 10, 2015

Thanks guys. I finally ordered an SSD today. So-

Unplug current HDD
Connect SSD
Boot Windows from disc and install to SSD
Reinstall motherboard drivers

Am I missing anything? I can't find the drivers disc for my motherboard, but I found the drivers listed online here: http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3976#dl I'm assuming I should download and install everything that's listed?

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