Question how do i move windows 10 to another drive without losing data on either drive

[sn0wbit_]

i recently installed windows on a secondary partition on my ssd (it was the only workaround i could find to not lose data) and im trying to figure out how to move the entire contents of that partition back onto the main partition of the ssd, i cant find anything on google that isnt a scam program on some sketchy website or a program i have to pay 30 dollars for, is there any way built into windows i can use to do this? or at-least a trust-able free program?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Honestly, there is no way to do this, period. Not based on your (confusing) description of what you are trying to do.

I think you need to clarify the situation better.

How many actual PHYSICAL drives are involved? How many partitions are there on EACH drive, and WHAT is on each of those partitions?

Is there something on the Windows partition that you can't replace or reinstall?

What are the raw sizes of each drive? Not each partition, each drive. And "C:" is not a drive, it is a partition. The device the "C:" parititon is ON, is a drive. Just to be clear.

 

[sn0wbit_]

its one drive, i made a second partition on said drive which i installed windows on, the other partition is just storage, what im trying to do is move windows (all of the data on the second partition) to the first partition.

edit: i have enough space on the drive

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the size of the partition windows is on, and the size of the partition for storage?

How much ACTUAL space is being used on each of those partitions?

 

[sn0wbit_]

the windows partition has 35 gb's and the one i want to move it onto has 430 gb's

 

[sn0wbit_]

i keep only reading half of your replies, the windows partition has like 31 being used, and the other one has like 341 being used.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, there's no way to do that. You either need Windows to be on a partition with enough free space to move all the data on your other partition TO, or you need another drive to temporarily offload some files to.

There is no way I know of to move the contents of the C: partition to that other partition, and it still be functional. It would completely bork up your boot manager and EFI partitions. Every link in the registry would also likely be broken.

 

[sn0wbit_]

is there anyway i could just combine both partitions or will that not work either

 

[SkyNetRising]

Honestly, there is no way to do this, period.

Not true.

 

[SkyNetRising]

im trying to figure out how to move the entire contents of that partition back onto the main partition of the ssd,

Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

 

[Darkbreeze]

How do you figure?

 

[DSzymborski]

This seems like a crazy amount of work to jury rig a solution in order to avoid simply having proper backups as best practices entail and just do the whole thing properly.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's an exercise in futility.