Clean OS reinstall w/ programs working in a 2 drive setup?

[R1C3]

Here is a list of all of my drives because only the drives are really relevant in this problem:
OCZ Vertex 60GB
OCZ Vertex 30GB
Seagate 1TB
Western Digital External 500GB

Okay, so I recently acquired the 60GB Vertex and attempted to clone my OS to it from the 30GB one because I was starting to run out of space. Unfortunately, I was stupid and messed around with the drive letters and ended up clearing out all of the data on the 30GB drive before I was sure that the 60GB one would work. It didn't. There was some trouble with whether Windows was actually genuine and it wouldn't show me anything except a black screen.

I ended up copying all the data from that drive into the WD External, installing a clean version of Win 7 on the 30GB drive again for manipulation purposes and re-copied the data to the 60GB. It didn't work so well so I ended up merging bits of the clean install from the 30GB drive into the files and then putting it on the 60GB. I booted it up and it worked with some minor easily fixable shortcut errors that I took care of.

Then I noticed that the drive was taking up 10GB more space than necessary (i.e. than it did before I cloned my info and proceeded to mess everything up) So now I'm looking to either find a way to clean that extra stuff out, or even more preferably, learn how to perform a clean install on my SSD while keeping my user customization (including how I set it up so all of my user files -- documents, music, desktop, recycle bin, etc -- were on my Seagate) and with working programs.

I've found that if I just reinstall the OS on the SSDs, the programs don't show up on the Add Remove list and while some of them work when I click the shortcuts for them in my Seagate's folders, others don't. For example, Acronis basically tells me that it's not installed even though I made sure to install it on my Seagate drive.

 

[mcnumpty23]

personally i would just clean install everything to the ssd --its so fast it doesnt take long

disconnect all the other hard drives while installing --it saves complications like all drives being written to the mbr etc

then to make extra space on your ssd follow these steps



delete hyberfil.sys file

Go to Start menu, type “cmd” open up command prompt
Type “powercfg.exe -h off” [make sure you are an Administrator]
ENTER
Type “exit”
ENTER

this still allows using sleep

if you have 4gb or more ram lower page file to 512mb

turn off system restore--recommended on a ssd

these will gain you a lot of gbs--saved me about 30gb becuase i have 16gb of ram the pagefile and hyberfil.sys are larger the more ram you have

run ccleaner to gain a bit more

 

[R1C3]

Thanks for the helpful tips on saving space! I have a 4GB stick of ram, so I'll definitely try some of that stuff out, but please explain what you mean by clean installing everything to the SSD? My SSD doesn't have enough room for all of the programs I have on the Seagate and I really only want to reserve it for the OS and drivers.

 

[nukemaster]

Some programs that do not have registry entries or install random files on c: can be used after a reinstall, while other programs will give errors after a fresh install of windows(missing file ect).

Reinstalling the programs in place by just installing them over there existing copies on the hard drive will generally fix this issue(because those entries will be remade and any files on c: will be re added).

With a fresh install of windows, you would have to reset your custom folders(desktop/docs/pics/movies ect). It does not take much time, but if you installed programs on the hard drive , it may or may not work right.

 

[mcnumpty23]

as nukemaster says some will work some may not

its one disadvantage of using a second drive to put programs on when your ssd is the main os drive--if you need to reload windows some programs wont work

ideally i would sell your 60gb and 30gb ssds and get a 120gb ssd

i have all my programs and games on a 120gb ssd easily by using the tips mentioned and still plenty space left

kind of defeats the point of an ssd when you are running programs and games off a second drive--games especially the load times are much quicker on the ssd

as is everything else

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Pit windows on the new SSD....do the WU thing 5 or 6 times, whatever it wants.

Install the programs over themselves in the same folders as they exist on what I guess is now D:\

Everything will work fine and all customizations will be retained

 

[R1C3]

Best answer selected by R1C3.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr.