Deleting the Operating System but saving the data

[chaosaquarius]

I just finished updating my gaming computer to boot from an SSD instead of my slower HDD. I would like to keep the data from my gaming library as well as my personal files on the HDD intact but delete any system files related to the operating system. What can i safely delete? Is there an efficient way to do this without risking my data?

I greatly appreciate your responses and reconmendations.

 

[CountMike]

Best way to do it would be to temporary copy data to some other media/disk and that repartition and reformat HDD. Some of data may be unusable anyway without reinstalling programs tha made them, like game saves for instance. Since HDD had OS on it, it probably also has several partitions that are not needed now and are just taking space.
Other way would be to remove just Windows folder and some programs from Programs and Programs(x86) folders. User folder may also contain some of your data so removing it would also remove that data.
One other thing, present windows may not let you do that so you may have to do it with live Linux distro on a USB stick.
As an added precaution, try booting and running windows with HDD removed.

 

[USAFRet]

There is no easy "undelete" for the old OS.
As above, copy your personal stuff off to a different drive.
Test the system without the HDD, just to be sure it actually boots up.
Then, wipe the entire HDD. All partitions.

 

[chaosaquarius]

Best way to do it would be to temporary copy data to some other media/disk and that repartition and reformat HDD. Some of data may be unusable anyway without reinstalling programs tha made them, like game saves for instance. Since HDD had OS on it, it probably also has several partitions that are not needed now and are just taking space.
Other way would be to remove just Windows folder and some programs from Programs and Programs(x86) folders. User folder may also contain some of your data so removing it would also remove that data.
One other thing, present windows may not let you do that so you may have to do it with live Linux distro on a USB stick.
As an added precaution, try booting and running windows with HDD removed.

Thanks much for the advice, i think what i will do is get a larger second HDD then get the data i want off. It does seem the best option rather than aimlessly deleting files.