[SOLVED] Making a bootable SSD for W10

[cyclops365]

Hello all, I am preparing to install W10 onto my M.2 NVME SSD. I currently have it installed on my HDD.

I have 2 questions at the moment, where I know to disconnect the HDD before I install, but a) What will happen to the Windows install on my HDD? Will is still linger on the disk and if so, what is the best way to go about removing it whilst keeping my files on there?
and b) what will happen to all my files/programmes on the HDD after installing W10 onto my SSD? Will they still be accessible?

Thanks in advance for all help.

Ian

 

[jojesa]

Hello all, I am preparing to install W10 onto my M.2 NVME SSD. I currently have it installed on my HDD.

I have 2 questions at the moment, where I know to disconnect the HDD before I install, but

Yes, make sure to disconnect the HDD

a) What will happen to the Windows install on my HDD?

Windows and all your programs and files will remain on the HDD.
You could later delete the Windows folder and the program folders and just keep your files.

b) what will happen to all my files/programmes on the HDD after installing W10 onto my SSD? Will they still be accessible?

You will have to re-install all your programs, since they will not longer run while booting from the SSD.

If you want to have all your programs to remain, then clone the HDD into the SSD...that way you will keep everything the way is...just faster.

 

[cyclops365]

You will have to re-install all your programs, since they will not run from the HDD.

Install the programs into the SSD or back onto the HDD?

 

[USAFRet]

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[cyclops365]

I can't clone because i have 750Gb of things on my HDD and my SSD is just a 512Gb.

 

[jojesa]

I can't clone because i have 750Gb of things on my HDD and my SSD is just a 512Gb.

Do you have only one partition on the HDD?
Could you move some files to an external HDD then clone it.

 

[jojesa]

Install the programs into the SSD or back onto the HDD?

Into the SSD.

 

[cyclops365]

Do you have only one partition on the HDD?

No there are 4. A Primary Partition (, Recovery Partition, EFI Sytem Partition and a 4th unnamed one of 450Mb