After Win 8 updated to Win 8.1 the OS moved from 25GB SSD to HDD any idea how to migrate it back?

vilve

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Oct 20, 2011
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So my friend has this laptop he bought about a year ago and it had win 8 installed on it (OEM key, so won't work on retail win 8.1 installing software). The OS was installed on his 25GB SSD, with even 10GB of free space after installation at the time.
Now after he updated to Win 8.1 the OS moved to his HDD now taking up to 79GB of space, while the SSD is completely empty. Any idea why this happened?
Is it possible to migrate the OS back to the SSD anymore, since it's taking up so much space on the HDD, and the SSD is only 25GB?
We tried to make the partion smaller on the HDD, but it didn't seem like it was possible.
Thanks for any help in advance :)
 
Solution
As you said HDD was C: and SSD was D:

If the HDD was "C", possibly the upgrade thought there where it should go.
Or, the 25GB drive was simply too small to hold everything at once, and it installed itself on the HDD.
Or both.

How to fix? I'd suggest getting a larger SSD. This will also have many other benefits.
Why did it happen? Probably because the 25GB SSD is too small.

Are we absolutely sure the actual OS was installed on the small SSD originally? And it wasn't simply a cache drive for the HDD?

Were there two distinct drive letters, C for the SSD and D for the HDD?
Windows 8 install requirements call for a minimum 20GB for the 64bit install, so I guess it's theoretically possible. But that is a VERY bad configuration.
 


Yes, it was originally installed on the 25GB SSD itself. As you said HDD was C: and SSD was D: Oh, i forgot to mention the OS is 64-bit. It came to mind that the reason why this happened was because the SSD was too small, but then again i've seen win 8 installed on a 25GB SSD before, without problems, and if the win 8 install was working fine, with even some free space left on the SSD, why the 8.1 update just moved the OS to the HDD, now taking up to 79GB of space? Any tips? Just leave the SSD to be as is, or is there something to be done? Thanks for the reply :)
 
As you said HDD was C: and SSD was D:

If the HDD was "C", possibly the upgrade thought there where it should go.
Or, the 25GB drive was simply too small to hold everything at once, and it installed itself on the HDD.
Or both.

How to fix? I'd suggest getting a larger SSD. This will also have many other benefits.
 
Solution


Thanks for the help :) I guess he's gonna have to let that SSD dust in a corner somewhere then 😀