[SOLVED] OS only from HDD to SSD(what files?)

[Tom1996]

Ive got a new ssd 111gb of space. Deleted loads of games and whatever but my HDDn still is very full. Ive found a spare HDD which is 500GB. I want to transfer everything but the OS to the spare secondary HDD so i can the clone the OS from the HDD to the SSD and make it the primary boot. Make sense?

 

[USAFRet]

Ive got a new ssd 111gb of space. Deleted loads of games and whatever but my HDDn still is very full. Ive found a spare HDD which is 500GB. I want to transfer everything but the OS to the spare secondary HDD so i can the clone the OS from the HDD to the SSD and make it the primary boot. Make sense?

To clone into a 120GB drive, you must get the actual consumed space to below 85GB.
How you get to that number is all up to you.

Uninstall applications.
Move your personal files. Doc/music/video/downloads.
Steam games...move the entire SteamApps folder.
etc, etc, etc.

There is no magic pill to "move everything but the OS". Or conversely..."move only the OS".
You have to do this manually.

 

[Tom1996]

Ive got a new ssd 111gb of space. Deleted loads of games and whatever but my HDDn still is very full. Ive found a spare HDD which is 500GB. I want to transfer everything but the OS to the spare secondary HDD so i can the clone the OS from the HDD to the SSD and make it the primary boot. Make sense?

To clone into a 120GB drive, you must get the actual consumed space to below 85GB.
How you get to that number is all up to you.

Uninstall applications.
Move your personal files. Doc/music/video/downloads.
Steam games...move the entire SteamApps folder.
etc, etc, etc.

There is no magic pill to "move everything but the OS". Or conversely..."move only the OS".
You have to do this manually.

So i've uninstalled all my games, pictures, music and videos moved to the other HDD but still got 450gb on there. What files are linked to the OS that i need?ill copy them over to ssd then mvoe everything else over to the spare hdd then clone

 

[USAFRet]

So i've uninstalled all my games, pictures, music and videos moved to the other HDD but still got 450gb on there. What files are linked to the OS that i need?ill copy them over to ssd then mvoe everything else over to the spare hdd then clone

Doesn't work that way.
You can't "copy to the SSD" and then "clone to the SSD".

In your existing C drive, you need to reduce THAT actual consumed space to below 85GB.
And the SSD needs to be *empty*.
Then, given your actual used space on the C drive (the HDD) to be below 85GB, then you clone that entire thing to the 120GB SSD.

Any files you created, or any programs you installed...all those can be deleted or uninstalled to get to that 85GB number.


What actually consumes your space?
Be as detailed as you can.

 

[Tom1996]

So i've uninstalled all my games, pictures, music and videos moved to the other HDD but still got 450gb on there. What files are linked to the OS that i need?ill copy them over to ssd then mvoe everything else over to the spare hdd then clone

Doesn't work that way.
You can't "copy to the SSD" and then "clone to the SSD".

In your existing C drive, you need to reduce THAT actual consumed space to below 85GB.
And the SSD needs to be *empty*.
Then, given your actual used space on the C drive (the HDD) to be below 85GB, then you clone that entire thing to the 120GB SSD.

Any files you created, or any programs you installed...all those can be deleted or uninstalled to get to that 85GB number.


What actually consumes your space?
Be as detailed as you can.

Main C drive: 381GB
Program files(x86) 227GB
Users: 47GB
Program files: 30GB
Amd: 27.5GB
Windows 23GB
<files> 15GB
Program data: 11GB

Which of these can i move to the spare HDD?

 

[USAFRet]

Main C drive: 381GB
Program files(x86) 227GB
Users: 47GB
Program files: 30GB
Amd: 27.5GB
Windows 23GB
<files> 15GB
Program data: 11GB

Which of these can i move to the spare HDD?

As a whole folder, none of them.
They all have ties to the operating system.

There is no one part of that drive that you can call "the OS" and move everything else.
Your "Program Files" of 227GB. What's in there? Games, I presume?
Your Users folder of 47GB. Find your personal files in there and move those. Not the whole folder(s), just the actual files.

But from what I'm seeing, you're going to have to remove almost everything, to get to a size where you cn clone it.
And if that is the case, you might as well just do a clean install on this 120GB SSD and start over.

You have too much stuff, and too small a drive.

 

[Tom1996]

Main C drive: 381GB
Program files(x86) 227GB
Users: 47GB
Program files: 30GB
Amd: 27.5GB
Windows 23GB
<files> 15GB
Program data: 11GB

Which of these can i move to the spare HDD?

As a whole folder, none of them.
They all have ties to the operating system.

There is no one part of that drive that you can call "the OS" and move everything else.
Your "Program Files" of 227GB. What's in there? Games, I presume?
Your Users folder of 47GB. Find your personal files in there and move those. Not the whole folder(s), just the actual files.

But from what I'm seeing, you're going to have to remove almost everything, to get to a size where you cn clone it.
And if that is the case, you might as well just do a clean install on this 120GB SSD and start over.

You have too much stuff, and too small a drive.

How would i do a clan install on the SSD? would that delete my work/files etct?

 

[USAFRet]

How would i do a clan install on the SSD? would that delete my work/files etct?

Currently, the new SSD has nothing on it.
An install on that will delete nothing.

All of your applications will need to be reinstalled, but your personal files willb e OK.

Applications need to be reinstalled after you do a new OS install, because the new OS knows nothing about the old program and their info.
When an application is installed, it creates dozens (sometimes thousands) of entries in the Registry and elsewhere.
That is why you're having the problem above, of just moving those folders. There is nothing you can point to that is "only the OS". It's all intertwined.
Move one of those folders, and the whole thing breaks.

A clean OS install is starting over.

Which OS is this? Win 7/8.1/10 ?

 

[Tom1996]

How would i do a clan install on the SSD? would that delete my work/files etct?

Currently, the new SSD has nothing on it.
An install on that will delete nothing.

All of your applications will need to be reinstalled, but your personal files willb e OK.

Applications need to be reinstalled after you do a new OS install, because the new OS knows nothing about the old program and their info.
When an application is installed, it creates dozens (sometimes thousands) of entries in the Registry and elsewhere.
That is why you're having the problem above, of just moving those folders. There is nothing you can point to that is "only the OS". It's all intertwined.
Move one of those folders, and the whole thing breaks.

A clean OS install is starting over.

Which OS is this? Win 7/8.1/10 ?

I've stgarted moving things to the new HDD lol - is that bad? Only documents, downloads, pictures, program files etc.

Windows 10

 

[Tom1996]

How would i do a clan install on the SSD? would that delete my work/files etct?

Currently, the new SSD has nothing on it.
An install on that will delete nothing.

All of your applications will need to be reinstalled, but your personal files willb e OK.

Applications need to be reinstalled after you do a new OS install, because the new OS knows nothing about the old program and their info.
When an application is installed, it creates dozens (sometimes thousands) of entries in the Registry and elsewhere.
That is why you're having the problem above, of just moving those folders. There is nothing you can point to that is "only the OS". It's all intertwined.
Move one of those folders, and the whole thing breaks.

A clean OS install is starting over.

Which OS is this? Win 7/8.1/10 ?

Update - I've moved everything back to my C drive. I've deleted a lot of stuff from steam backed up games so my total of GB on my C drive is now only 262GB. My SSD and HDD(spare one) are now free to do whatever. What would you advise doing - if advising to do a clean install, could you link me to a video? Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Update - I've moved everything back to my C drive. I've deleted a lot of stuff from steam backed up games so my total of GB on my C drive is now only 262GB. My SSD and HDD(spare one) are now free to do whatever. What would you advise doing - if advising to do a clean install, could you link me to a video? Thanks

Assuming Windows 10:
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

 

[Tom1996]

Update - I've moved everything back to my C drive. I've deleted a lot of stuff from steam backed up games so my total of GB on my C drive is now only 262GB. My SSD and HDD(spare one) are now free to do whatever. What would you advise doing - if advising to do a clean install, could you link me to a video? Thanks

Assuming Windows 10:
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

Hi, yes windows 10. Would you suggest making an image backup of the c drive and then doing the clean install on the SSD? My spare drive is in multiple partitions and has 2 separate drives :H and :G - not sure why.

 

[USAFRet]

Update - I've moved everything back to my C drive. I've deleted a lot of stuff from steam backed up games so my total of GB on my C drive is now only 262GB. My SSD and HDD(spare one) are now free to do whatever. What would you advise doing - if advising to do a clean install, could you link me to a video? Thanks

Assuming Windows 10:
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

Hi, yes windows 10. Would you suggest making an image backup of the c drive and then doing the clean install on the SSD? My spare drive is in multiple partitions and has 2 separate drives :H and :G - not sure why.

An image backup can't hurt, but not really necessary, because the original OS still lives on the HDD. Which you will have disconnected during this install on the SSD.

 

[Tom1996]

Update - I've moved everything back to my C drive. I've deleted a lot of stuff from steam backed up games so my total of GB on my C drive is now only 262GB. My SSD and HDD(spare one) are now free to do whatever. What would you advise doing - if advising to do a clean install, could you link me to a video? Thanks

Assuming Windows 10:
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

Hi, yes windows 10. Would you suggest making an image backup of the c drive and then doing the clean install on the SSD? My spare drive is in multiple partitions and has 2 separate drives :H and :G - not sure why.

An image backup can't hurt, but not really necessary, because the original OS still lives on the HDD. Which you will have disconnected during this install on the SSD.

Can't seem to find any of my documents, videos, pictures or downloads :s

 

[USAFRet]

Can't seem to find any of my documents, videos, pictures or downloads :s

Can't find them...where?

 

[Tom1996]

Can't seem to find any of my documents, videos, pictures or downloads :s

Can't find them...where?

Anywhere. i moved them to my spare drive and tehy aren't there. I've restored the image backup as well and nothing

 

[USAFRet]

Can't seem to find any of my documents, videos, pictures or downloads :s

Can't find them...where?

Anywhere. i moved them to my spare drive and tehy aren't there. I've restored the image backup as well and nothing

Do a search for one of the file names?
You're the only one who knows where you put them.

 

[Tom1996]

Can't seem to find any of my documents, videos, pictures or downloads :s

Can't find them...where?

Anywhere. i moved them to my spare drive and tehy aren't there. I've restored the image backup as well and nothing

Do a search for one of the file names?
You're the only one who knows where you put them.

Is there any chance they could of been deleted?

 

[USAFRet]

Is there any chance they could of been deleted?

There's always a "chance".
You're the only one with eyes on the situation.