[SOLVED] Deleting OS without formatting hdd. Can it be done?

[BiskutX]

Hi..
I'm currently using win7 on my pc. Planning to upgrade to win10 which i will be installing on a new ssd. I still have a lot of files on my current hdd as i plan to still use it but i don't want to format it to clear out my OS. Can i do so or there is no other way than format. The hdd is also partition. Hoping to get some answers. Thanks

 

[Hellfire13]

Take out the HDD and install Win10 on the SSD. Make sure you give priority to SSD as boot drive in BIOS. Now attach the HDD again and you can use it as a normal storage drive without any formatting required.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

If you have an external hard drive, first thing, create an image of your existing drive. Also, if memory serves, although they officially ended free upgrades from windows 7 or 8 to windows 10 a few years back, the last times I’ve tried it in the last few months, it still worked.

Usually you can go and download the windows 10 media creation tool, and tell it to upgrade your pc and keep all your files and apps.

Here’s a guide to a windows 7 image backup, just in case you need it.

https://www.passfab.com/windows-7/create-disk-image-windows-7.html

What you could do, create an image onto an external hard drive, when your ssd arrives, pull out your hard drive and install the ssd, then boot up with the repair disc you created from the article, and restore the windows 7 image onto your ssd.

Once you do that, you should be able to boot up from the ssd and it look just like your windows 7 install. Then run the windows 10 media creation tool, tell it to upgrade this pc, and keep all your files and apps.

If all goes well, after the upgrade, you should have the ssd running with windows 10 installed and activated, and all of your programs and files as they were in windows 7.

Also if you unplugged the other drive after creating the image, then you’ll have it to pull files from.


You could also unplug your hard drive and do a clean install of windows 10 on your ssd, then plug your old drive in later. Personally though the clone method is handy if you don’t want to tinker much.

 

[BiskutX]

Take out the HDD and install Win10 on the SSD. Make sure you give priority to SSD as boot drive in BIOS. Now attach the HDD again and you can use it as a normal storage drive without any formatting required.

What about the windows system in the HDD?how do i delete it?

 

[BiskutX]

If you have an external hard drive, first thing, create an image of your existing drive. Also, if memory serves, although they officially ended free upgrades from windows 7 or 8 to windows 10 a few years back, the last times I’ve tried it in the last few months, it still worked.

Usually you can go and download the windows 10 media creation tool, and tell it to upgrade your pc and keep all your files and apps.

Here’s a guide to a windows 7 image backup, just in case you need it.

https://www.passfab.com/windows-7/create-disk-image-windows-7.html

What you could do, create an image onto an external hard drive, when your ssd arrives, pull out your hard drive and install the ssd, then boot up with the repair disc you created from the article, and restore the windows 7 image onto your ssd.

Once you do that, you should be able to boot up from the ssd and it look just like your windows 7 install. Then run the windows 10 media creation tool, tell it to upgrade this pc, and keep all your files and apps.

If all goes well, after the upgrade, you should have the ssd running with windows 10 installed and activated, and all of your programs and files as they were in windows 7.

Also if you unplugged the other drive after creating the image, then you’ll have it to pull files from.


You could also unplug your hard drive and do a clean install of windows 10 on your ssd, then plug your old drive in later. Personally though the clone method is handy if you don’t want to tinker much.

Thanks. Will try this out.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi..
I'm currently using win7 on my pc. Planning to upgrade to win10 which i will be installing on a new ssd. I still have a lot of files on my current hdd as i plan to still use it but i don't want to format it to clear out my OS. Can i do so or there is no other way than format. The hdd is also partition. Hoping to get some answers. Thanks

Copy your "files" to some other location.
Wipe the drive.

You should copy those files out anyway, to prevent any permissions issues.

And of course, you should ALWAYS have a backup, especially when doing something like this.
The 'oops' potential is pretty large.

 

[Hellfire13]

What about the windows system in the HDD?how do i delete it?

It will show up as a separate folder. You can simply delete the folder. There might or might not be some remnant files though.
Better backup your important data before trying anything.

 

[USAFRet]

There's more than just the "Windows folder".

Program files
Program Files x86
ProgramData

Probably Users...

And of course the old boot and Recovery partitions.


This is why it is better and easier to extract your personal files first, then simply wipe the whole drive.
Copy the data back.

 

[BiskutX]

Copy your "files" to some other location.
Wipe the drive.

You should copy those files out anyway, to prevent any permissions issues.

And of course, you should ALWAYS have a backup, especially when doing something like this.
The 'oops' potential is pretty large.

Thanks for the advise

 

[CountMike]

There's more than just the "Windows folder".

Program files
Program Files x86
ProgramData

Probably Users...

And of course the old boot and Recovery partitions.


This is why it is better and easier to extract your personal files first, then simply wipe the whole drive.
Copy the data back.

Those plus several hidden and system folders which normally can't be seen but can take a lot of disk space.
$SysReset
$Windows.~WS
$WinREAgent
Recovery
MSOCache
PerfLogs
and more some of which are difficult to delete from new windows installation as they are deeply protected even from secondary disk.
I usually just boot from a live Linux and delete them from there.

 

[Hellfire13]

Those plus several hidden and system folders which normally can't be seen but can take a lot of disk space.
$SysReset
$Windows.~WS
$WinREAgent
Recovery
MSOCache
PerfLogs
and more some of which are difficult to delete from new windows installation as they are deeply protected even from secondary disk.
I usually just boot from a live Linux and delete them from there.

As mentioned above, there might be remnants and this should help delete them...
https://unlocker.en.uptodown.com/windows