Just realized I am stupid.

[Cendlp]

Recently I received an SSD from a friend and decided that I might as well install Windows 7 on it. Previously I only had one drive, which was a HDD. Obviously I had windows installed on that and I figured that I didn't want to format it because I didn't want to have to re-install all of my programs etc.

The SSD has been working wonderfully for the past couple of months and I managed to get everything working correctly. Yesterday I was looking around to see what was taking all of the space on my HDD, and because I didn't format it or anything it still had windows on it along with the winsxs folder, which had grown to 15gb.

I now realize that I was stupid and should've just formatted it. I would like to remove the windows folder from my HDD because now it's booting from my SSD. However, I am worried that in removing the windows folder and the winsxs folder it will screw everything up, including my programs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, however, I do realize that it may be impossible...

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The simplest thing to have done would have been to disconnect the HD data cable and install Windows to the SSD, install all updates and drivers , then shut down and reconnect HD. All you have ti do to make your programs work is reinstall them over themselves to set up the necessary registry entries on the SSD install..... you could then dual boot, selecting the new or old installs in the BIOS at boot time and when satisfied, deleted the Windows install.

 

[Cendlp]

The simplest thing to have done would have been to disconnect the HD data cable and install Windows to the SSD, install all updates and drivers , then shut down and reconnect HD. All you have ti do to make your programs work is reinstall them over themselves to set up the necessary registry entries on the SSD install..... you could then dual boot, selecting the new or old installs in the BIOS at boot time and when satisfied, deleted the Windows install.

Yes, however, I am just wondering if I were to delete the winsxs folder on my HDD now if it would screw up all of my programs that I did not re-install and that are still on my HDD. I assume that it would and am wondering if there is still a way to get rid of it without messing up my programs.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

From your previous post, I can't tell if the installation saw the original OS install and set up the Windows Boot Loader to dual boot. I always take these issues over to the Sevenforums folks who will walk you thru this. I last used MS based boot loading in 1993 (DOS Menu w/ 6 different config.sys / autoexec.bat files) .... after that used Partition Magic and since then BIOS selection so I'd be a bad tutor on this issue.