Deleting windows from drive

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LordVile

LordVile

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Loading an SSD for boot and programs that require a lot of loading and keeping my 1TB HDD for mass storage but it still has windows and intel drivers on it where the boot ssd has windows and AMD drivers. Is there a quick way to wipe all but the programme data off of the 1TB drive?
 
Solution
R0GG
Dude you're giving as hints about your system switch as a slow ICU infusion drips !
It will DEFINITELY take you less time to install ALL your programs and TRANSFER your files than if you try any of the suggested work arounds I mentioned earlier.
Hook up your 1 TB HDD as a second drive ( make sure it's not the boot drive in the bios) and do a methodic organized and patient copy -paste of your personal DATA= files pictures documents vidz etc to a separate folder on an external drive preferably.
Modern games have cloud back up of gaming profile and progress so no need to try to search for games saves and profiles on your older disc, just reinstall and connect to steam or origin and you'll be good to go.
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stdragon

stdragon

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There's multiple ways of clearing out an SSD. One way for sure is to create a bootable USB thumb-drive that contains the utility for a secure erase. The Samsung Magician utility contains such a utility. Alternatively, you can use Windows 10 bootable media to clear off the drive using the DISKPART command. Be careful not to tag the wrong drive ;)

https://winaero.com/blog/securely-wipe-disk-diskpart-windows-10/

Note, your 1TB drive will be fine. However, if you pointed to that volume to install applications to, then you'll have to reinstall those applications after you reinstall Windows. If it's just being used to hold user data, then you're fine.
 
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k1114

k1114

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What's on the hdd doesn't affect what's on the ssd. You can do a quick format to delete everything on it. If you just want to delete certain stuff then you have to do it yourself. Software isn't going to know what you want to keep or delete. Everyone should have an external backup so take off what you need and formatting it would be the best choice.
 
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R0GG

R0GG

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quick way to wipe all but the programs data off the 1TB Hard drive?
You actually DO NOT NEED to wipe data off your drive in order or prior to boot onto your NEW SYSTEM SSD,you could have your 1 TB HHD hooked still to your motherboard and all you have to do is point your Motherboard BIOS to boot from your SSD, then when your new SSD new system is running you could go ahead and selectively delete older system folders and keep files you need , THERE IS NO QUICK WAY to do that I am aware of,
Of course there is always the option of erasing the HDD contents while avoiding having it hooked to the the system at the same time as the new SSD ( if you fear file interaction or conflicts which should not happen) using some third party bootable USB tools:

Here are guides about few bootable or within windows disk wiping tools: COMPLETE DISK ERASE ONLY
8 Tools to Wipe a Hard Drive
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/wipe-your-hard-disk-before-lending-or-giving-away/
Five hard disk cleaning and erasing tools
https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-hard-disk-cleaning-and-erasing-tools/
 
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LordVile

LordVile

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@10tacle I mean wipe all drivers and OS data off the HDD and keep programs like games along with Pictures, music etc.

@stdragon It’s a new SSD I’m swapping my HDD from boot to mass storage for games that don’t take long to launch like rocket league, Overwatch etc and using the SSD my OS and science programs and games that have loading times for days or are open worlds I just need to remove windows from the HDD.

@K1114 I have a backup but I took apart my PC in a rush (swapped platform) and didn’t have time to backup the about 20 gigs of photos I’d just transferred from my phone.

@all

I’m on ryzen now so once I install windows onto my SSD and assign it as the boot drive will plugging in my HDD mess anything up as it has intel drivers on it? And will the drivers appear in the uninstall programmes list?
 
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LordVile

LordVile

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@dragon

2. The SSD is brand new and will be my new boot. My HDD was my boot but I’m moving it to secondary because to get it working on the new MoBo and CPU I would have to format it and lose data I really want to keep like work for my degree and photos of holidays etc.
 
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stdragon

stdragon

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No. Once you set the SSD as the primary boot drive in BIOS, and installed Windows 10 on it (in that order), the existing Windows directory on the 1TB drive will no longer be referenced for any settings or drivers. Essentially, that directory is safe to call deprecated unless you think you will boot of the 1TB drive again anytime in the future.
 
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R0GG

R0GG

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NO, there will be no interference from your HDD older system files onto your new SSD system, the easiest way to do it is to make a new folder onto your HDD 1TB where you'll be gathering all data files, then go through your drive transferring data to it from known locations and searching for all your documents pics, videos data etc and gather them into that folder ( a good tool that might help you is a little program called search everything >> https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/ , once it has indexed your target drive it will find quickly any files with specific extension )

As for the games you probably need to reinstall each one of them, but you shouldn't have to worry about transferring your game progress since newer games store them in the cloud and would recover them automatically upon online login, if not you could try salvaging your games profiles and achievements stored usually in " my documents\ my games folder" or within the specific game folder itself (program files) etc .
 
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stdragon

stdragon

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If you wish to re-purpose the 1TB as a boot volume for a new system, then yes, you're looking at reinstalling Windows more than likely as you could run into a driver conflict. If that's the case, you're best backing up the data you want to another drive, then formatting the 1TB before reinstalling Windows. Once completed, restore the files back to it. It's not required to do it this way per se, but it's a rather straightforward common process. Besides, it's safer as you've already backed up the data prior to making any destructive changes to what would otherwise be your only copy of data (unless you do have it backed up elsewhere, and I'm not aware)
 
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R0GG

R0GG

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- Boot onto your older HDD 1TB (unhook SSD From mobo)
- Perform windows built in file back-up (does not allow programs buck- up otherwise it would be a fulll system image back up then), usually asks for a different drive to save data onto ( not sure)
- Re-attach your new system SSD to mobo, boot onto it and use windows built in file restore to get back your general data ( pics, videos, etc) in their respective previous layout as long as it's the same version of windows.
An adventurous alternative:clone workstation system hard drive to different hardware:
__ Can You Move a Windows Installation to Another Computer? https://www.howtogeek.com/239815/why-cant-you-move-a-windows-installation-to-another-computer >>>https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html
___ Use specific software to move windows to a dissimilar hardware >>>https://www.easeus.com/todo-backup-resource/transfer-system-to-dissimilar-hardware.html like easeus or paragon drive copy pro or laplink PCmover or Macrium Reflect : Far from being guaranteed to be with no difficulties !
___ Virtualize your older system HDD as a VHD ( virtual Hard Drive)>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415 then recover that virtual image onto your SSD : tested successfully on previous system but was quiet painful process, but seems to be the best solution.
 
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LordVile

LordVile

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My HDD won't boot into windows because I've switched from Intel to AMD
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Bottom line - Your "applications" that exist on the HDD will not work anymore.
You need to reinstall them.

Steam games are a bit different. We can probably work around those.

But you really need to just delete EVERYTHING off that drive and use it as one large blank space.
 
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LordVile

LordVile

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Would I be able to extract files like word docs, pictures and mp3 files?
 
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stdragon

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Extract? - Yes, Windows can extract ZIP files natively.

I'm thinking you ment "Execute", as in run those files. MS Office files for example (Word, Excel) would require reinstalling the MS Office suite as it has to make registry entries into the Windows OS. Simply transferring the program directory will NOT work. The days of DOS are gone :)
 
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stdragon

stdragon

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@LordVile - Just to be explicitly clear here. If you don't already have a backup of your data to another drive, I highly recommending not doing a single thing until you FIRST make a backup.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I suspect you're very new at this when it comes to managing your own data. This could all go south on you and risk complete data loss. Again, BACKUP FIRST to another drive. Once done, you'll feel better knowing that if you mess something up, your data is still safe elsewhere.
 
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R0GG

R0GG

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Dude you're giving as hints about your system switch as a slow ICU infusion drips !
It will DEFINITELY take you less time to install ALL your programs and TRANSFER your files than if you try any of the suggested work arounds I mentioned earlier.
Hook up your 1 TB HDD as a second drive ( make sure it's not the boot drive in the bios) and do a methodic organized and patient copy -paste of your personal DATA= files pictures documents vidz etc to a separate folder on an external drive preferably.
Modern games have cloud back up of gaming profile and progress so no need to try to search for games saves and profiles on your older disc, just reinstall and connect to steam or origin and you'll be good to go.
 
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Solution
LordVile

LordVile

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Right a few points just to finish the thread. I've installed the SSD as my boot drive. I can actually boot to the HDD even though it was from an intel platform and it works perfectly so I just booted to the HDD took everything off onto an external drive, booted back into my SSD and then formatted the HDD so I have 2 clean drives and only my SSD is bootable now.

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Just "formatting" the original HDD does not get rid of everything.
You need to go into Disk Management, and actually delete all the original partitions.
Sometimes, you even need to use diskpart at the commandline, with the clean command.
 
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LordVile

LordVile

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Not cared if it's deleted everything, all the space is shown as free so I'm not too fussed.
 
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R0GG

R0GG

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I avoided suggesting booting older drive on the different hardware out of fear of confusion, but I always try it on my systems and it works most of the times !
Glad everything worked out well for you, thanks for bearing with our at times overzealous suggestions.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Yes, usually it's worth a try.
But only after you've fully prepared for it to fail completely.

I've seen it work. I've seen it fail. I've seen it fail so bad it won't even boot up in the original hardware.
 
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R0GG

R0GG

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I've seen it fail many time as well USAFRet, and even when it works it usually not that well and needs just like you suggested system prep prior, and a lot of tweaking after, but definitely worth the try!


 
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