[SOLVED] Is there a way to boot from a new partition?

[ThinkPCtive]

Hi, thank you in advance.

I installed my OS on a 1 Tb HDD without any partition.

Later on, I allocated the 130 Gb of unallocated memory to a new partition.

Is there a way to install a new OS on the new partition B, without deleting my files on the first partition A.
A much specific question is can I install windows to partition B while still having windows on the partition A?

for reference:
Partition A - 800 Gb (Where OS is currently installed and files located)
Partition B - 130 Gb (Empty New Partition)

I do not have any experiences transferring the OS to a new partition within the same HDD device.

I am asking this since I am about to upgrade my motherboard and CPU unit and I can't afford a new drive. I also do not have a backup storage to backup my files, and a fast internet to reinstall programs that I have.

Any answer will be much appreciated, thank you.

 

[Math Geek]

i am not sure what you are asking here. i don't think you mean you want to dual boot a second OS on that second partition.

so i am not sure what you mean by "transferring the OS".

can you be a little more specific about what you are trying to do and why.

thanks

 

[ThinkPCtive]

I would just like to reinstall or transfer the OS to the 130 Gb partition so that when in case I needed to reformat the OS, there will be no other files deleted.

I should have done this the very first time I installed the OS three years ago when I was new to the PC world.

A much specific questions is if I can boot from a USB OS installation device and choose the 130 Gb partition to install OS. After that, I can delete the OS on the the 800 Gb partition without any reformat needed so that I can keep my files.

Thank you for your help

 

[Math Geek]

your files are still on that first partition, so deleting it will delete your files. this is what you are trying to avoid.

instead, use that 130gb to back-up the files you want to keep. copy whatever you wish to save over to that partition.

then when you move the drive to the new pc and reinstall windows, you can just format that 800gb partition , start over and not lose any data you want to save. this of course assumes you have less than 10gb you wish to save. what exactly are you trying to save?

steam/origin games can be moved no problem, but other programs will have to be installed fresh to the new OS. you can't just move regular programs to a new partition and expect them to work. windows does not work like that.

 

[ThinkPCtive]

I know that programs can't work like that, the files that I am pertaining to are 600 Gb of game files which would take months to re-download due to bad internet connections.

So there is really no option to install windows to partition B while still having windows on the partition A then deleting the old OS after?

I might need to wait another month so I can buy a new drive. Again, thank you for your help.

 

[Math Geek]

you can install windows to the second partition if you wish. this will get annoying real fast but you could actually do it. point windows installer to the second partition and it will create a dual boot menu which you then set to that second partition as default.

then go back and delete the windows folder and anything else that is not your games folder. point your new install's steam app to that folder and it should work fine. won't hurt anything at all. you'll have to keep track of where data is and where it is going when installing new stuff but that's not really that hard to do if you are paying attention. obviously that 130gb of space is not going to hold much so you will need to pay attention.

down the line a new hdd is ideal as sounds like you will be running out of room soon anyway. then you can do a fresh install to the new drive and use this entire drive as a games folder if you wish giving you some extra room. or get a big new drive and move the games to that for even more space and then use the first drive for windows.

but yah, you can install windows to that second partiton for the new hardware and then delete the windows and other useless folders from it. i'd move all your games to one folder and simply delete everything else to make it easy and to not waste space with stuff you don't need.