Formatting My Main OS drive.

[Killerdoom14]

Hello, I want to ask this because I am stuck.

I want to format my C drive. I want to clone it so i have everything so I dont regret not saving a certain folder or something.

I cannot do so because if I try to install a program it will not let me, It will not even start installing the program and then I can not close it.

The question is can I copy my entire C: drive? then paste it in my A drive which is my internal HDD, and if I can what is the difference between that and cloning my c drive to my a drive?

My pc is acting up so much so Id really prefer to ask these questions now before it locks up or something, I just hope formatting it will make it "factory new" like I just installed windows and no programs are on it. but my Hard drive still has my programs like skype or something. Idk

If there is anything I should know also please tell me, I have the windows cd so i can install it again but Id love to have this done as simple and as hastily as possible. Thanks!

 

[bgunner]

"The question is can I copy my entire C: drive?" yes but only with a cloning software.
"then paste it in my A drive which is my internal HDD?" No because a copy and pate does not copy hidden and restricted files so this method will not work.
"if I can what is the difference between that and cloning my c drive to my a drive?" the difference is copying the drive will not actually copy all the info where cloning will. Cloning copy's everything exactly as it is.

free cloning software "clonezilla"

 

[USAFRet]

If you make a clone of the drive in its current condition, you are creating a duplicate of the drive in its current screwed up condition.

If you then migrate that to a new drive or the same drive, it will be exactly as screwed up as it is today.

Save your critical data elsewhere.
Full reinstall of the OS and all applications.
Copy your data back. (Data, not applications)

 

[Killerdoom14]

"The question is can I copy my entire C: drive?" yes but only with a cloning software.
"then paste it in my A drive which is my internal HDD?" No because a copy and pate does not copy hidden and restricted files so this method will not work.
"if I can what is the difference between that and cloning my c drive to my a drive?" the difference is copying the drive will not actually copy all the info where cloning will. Cloning copy's everything exactly as it is.

free cloning software "clonezilla"

I would love to use those programs but tbh when i go to install then it hangs for whatever reason. It wont even begin to install... 🙁

 

[Killerdoom14]

If you make a clone of the drive in its current condition, you are creating a duplicate of the drive in its current screwed up condition.

If you then migrate that to a new drive or the same drive, it will be exactly as screwed up as it is today.

Save your critical data elsewhere.
Full reinstall of the OS and all applications.
Copy your data back. (Data, not applications)

What I want to do is just format the drive and reinstall the os on that drive. So its like the first time I built the PC. The only reason I want to clone it is because then I have a back up of everything incase I need to go in and grab my Chrome bookmarks or drivers version check.

I dont want to clone it to another drive for future use what so ever.

 

[bgunner]

Then do what USAFRet suggested to do. Try to save as much Data as you can and do a fresh install.

 

[USAFRet]

If you make a clone of the drive in its current condition, you are creating a duplicate of the drive in its current screwed up condition.

If you then migrate that to a new drive or the same drive, it will be exactly as screwed up as it is today.

Save your critical data elsewhere.
Full reinstall of the OS and all applications.
Copy your data back. (Data, not applications)

What I want to do is just format the drive and reinstall the os on that drive. So its like the first time I built the PC. The only reason I want to clone it is because then I have a back up of everything incase I need to go in and grab my Chrome bookmarks or drivers version check.

I dont want to clone it to another drive for future use what so ever.

Then just save all that specific data. Bookmarks, docs, etc.
It will be far, far easier to get that back than from inside of whatever clone you make.

 

[bgunner]

If you make a clone of the drive in its current condition, you are creating a duplicate of the drive in its current screwed up condition.

If you then migrate that to a new drive or the same drive, it will be exactly as screwed up as it is today.

Save your critical data elsewhere.
Full reinstall of the OS and all applications.
Copy your data back. (Data, not applications)

What I want to do is just format the drive and reinstall the os on that drive. So its like the first time I built the PC. The only reason I want to clone it is because then I have a back up of everything incase I need to go in and grab my Chrome bookmarks or drivers version check.

I dont want to clone it to another drive for future use what so ever.

If you can not install cloning software then you only option is saving data and fresh install.

 

[Killerdoom14]

If you make a clone of the drive in its current condition, you are creating a duplicate of the drive in its current screwed up condition.

If you then migrate that to a new drive or the same drive, it will be exactly as screwed up as it is today.

Save your critical data elsewhere.
Full reinstall of the OS and all applications.
Copy your data back. (Data, not applications)

What I want to do is just format the drive and reinstall the os on that drive. So its like the first time I built the PC. The only reason I want to clone it is because then I have a back up of everything incase I need to go in and grab my Chrome bookmarks or drivers version check.

I dont want to clone it to another drive for future use what so ever.

Then just save all that specific data. Bookmarks, docs, etc.
It will be far, far easier to get that back than from inside of whatever clone you make.

So how do I do that? Am I able to copy those and move them to my A: drive? Or do I not have read write ability on them either? tonight is going to be another long frustrating night of software stuff ;-;

 

[USAFRet]

So how do I do that? Am I able to copy those and move them to my A: drive? Or do I not have read write ability on them either? tonight is going to be another long frustrating night of software stuff ;-;

"A" drive? This is another physical drive, or another partition?

Each browser has its own location and procedure. Google for it
Docs? Copy to another folder on a different drive. The files....NOT the 'Documents' folder.

 

[Killerdoom14]

So how do I do that? Am I able to copy those and move them to my A: drive? Or do I not have read write ability on them either? tonight is going to be another long frustrating night of software stuff ;-;

"A" drive? This is another physical drive, or another partition?

Each browser has its own location and procedure. Google for it
Docs? Copy to another folder on a different drive. The files....NOT the 'Documents' folder.

ok, I will do that but I have a question which may be made easier on the whole thing. I have 4 drives, f drive which is an external 1tb hard drive. A drive which is an internal 1 tb hard drive, E drive which is a unused SSD 120gb, and C drive which is my os and main SSD also 120gb.

Can I use the E drive and put a fresh install of windows on there then boot from that? so I still have any files incase I need them at a later point and if I dont I can just delete the os on my C drive? Is that possible?

 

[USAFRet]

ok, I will do that but I have a question which may be made easier on the whole thing. I have 4 drives, f drive which is an external 1tb hard drive. A drive which is an internal 1 tb hard drive, E drive which is a unused SSD 120gb, and C drive which is my os and main SSD also 120gb.

Can I use the E drive and put a fresh install of windows on there then boot from that? so I still have any files incase I need them at a later point and if I dont I can just delete the os on my C drive? Is that possible?

No, not the way you think. Unless you are going to dualboot with 2 different OS's, there is zero reason to have the same OS installed on two different drives. There is little you can use from one OS to the other.

Save whatever data you want/need to some other drive
Disconnect all drives except the target SSD
Install the OS
Let it do all its updates
Now you can connect the other drives
Install applications and games as necessary.
Retrieve whatever data you saved at the beginning

 

[Killerdoom14]

ok, I will do that but I have a question which may be made easier on the whole thing. I have 4 drives, f drive which is an external 1tb hard drive. A drive which is an internal 1 tb hard drive, E drive which is a unused SSD 120gb, and C drive which is my os and main SSD also 120gb.

Can I use the E drive and put a fresh install of windows on there then boot from that? so I still have any files incase I need them at a later point and if I dont I can just delete the os on my C drive? Is that possible?

No, not the way you think. Unless you are going to dualboot with 2 different OS's, there is zero reason to have the same OS installed on two different drives. There is little you can use from one OS to the other.

Save whatever data you want/need to some other drive
Disconnect all drives except the target SSD
Install the OS
Let it do all its updates
Now you can connect the other drives
Install applications and games as necessary.
Retrieve whatever data you saved at the beginning

So I must go and disconnet the sata cables connected to my mobo? Ok, seems a little over the top but if thats what needs to be done so be it.

Now you say all drives but the target then install the os, do I format the drive then boot with the windows 8 cd in the optical drive? Or is there a better way to do it? Id hate to format the drive and end up making it unbootable.

Alright, Right now I am copying the program files and anything I feel as though I will need to my A drive.

 

[USAFRet]

So I must go and disconnet the sata cables connected to my mobo? Ok, seems a little over the top but if thats what needs to be done so be it.

Now you say all drives but the target then install the os, do I format the drive then boot with the windows 8 cd in the optical drive? Or is there a better way to do it? Id hate to format the drive and end up making it unbootable.

Alright, Right now I am copying the program files and anything I feel as though I will need to my A drive.

With just the one drive connected, just follow the directions when installing.
Delete all the individual partitions
You'll end up with one large unallocated space
Tell Windows to install to that
It will do what is needed

 

[Killerdoom14]

So I must go and disconnet the sata cables connected to my mobo? Ok, seems a little over the top but if thats what needs to be done so be it.

Now you say all drives but the target then install the os, do I format the drive then boot with the windows 8 cd in the optical drive? Or is there a better way to do it? Id hate to format the drive and end up making it unbootable.

Alright, Right now I am copying the program files and anything I feel as though I will need to my A drive.

With just the one drive connected, just follow the directions when installing.
Delete all the individual partitions
You'll end up with one large unallocated space
Tell Windows to install to that
It will do what is needed

Wait, so do I format it? Or are you saying just put the disk in to install and go with it without deleting anything?

 

[USAFRet]

So I must go and disconnet the sata cables connected to my mobo? Ok, seems a little over the top but if thats what needs to be done so be it.

Now you say all drives but the target then install the os, do I format the drive then boot with the windows 8 cd in the optical drive? Or is there a better way to do it? Id hate to format the drive and end up making it unbootable.

Alright, Right now I am copying the program files and anything I feel as though I will need to my A drive.

With just the one drive connected, just follow the directions when installing.
Delete all the individual partitions
You'll end up with one large unallocated space
Tell Windows to install to that
It will do what is needed

Wait, so do I format it? Or are you saying just put the disk in to install and go with it without deleting anything?

During the install, when it asks 'where', select Advanced.
Select each existing partition, and delete
Once all are gone, you have one large unallocated space
Let Windows install to that.

 

[Killerdoom14]

So I must go and disconnet the sata cables connected to my mobo? Ok, seems a little over the top but if thats what needs to be done so be it.

Now you say all drives but the target then install the os, do I format the drive then boot with the windows 8 cd in the optical drive? Or is there a better way to do it? Id hate to format the drive and end up making it unbootable.

Alright, Right now I am copying the program files and anything I feel as though I will need to my A drive.

With just the one drive connected, just follow the directions when installing.
Delete all the individual partitions
You'll end up with one large unallocated space
Tell Windows to install to that
It will do what is needed

Wait, so do I format it? Or are you saying just put the disk in to install and go with it without deleting anything?

During the install, when it asks 'where', select Advanced.
Select each existing partition, and delete
Once all are gone, you have one large unallocated space
Let Windows install to that.

Alright. i will do so and if I need help I will come back and ask you. i want to thank you for the help. You may know a lot and think your just informing people but you are doing a lot more then that. It is very kind of you to do said things and it helps people more then you know. so thanks.

without people like you guys "Also other guy who commented on this post" Id be stuck paying 100 bucks to microsoft for some information that is as simple as you state it.