[SOLVED] split Linux and windows to new hard drives?

[Gaogier]

Hello

Some of you may know that I had built my Gaming pc, on advice from you guys, and I now have what I think is a good PC, the price of which I brought slightly better hardware and ran out of money for windows 10. So I installed Linux, so I can at least use my PC and play some Linux Games. I had one hard drive, of which I brought when upgrading my MacBook Pro some years before, it is only 120GB SSD. I was then given a windows 10 key from an old online friend, so I installed windows, but I didn't have another hard drive so I partitioned the hard drive so that I could run windows and Linux on the same systems hard disk.

Since then, I brought a 1TB HDD, and installed some halo games from the Xbox game pass, and then my nan died and she had a mini PC where I took her old hard drive and deleted everything on it via command prompt? I am used to calling it terminal as I am a mac user over windows by heart. Anyway its now installed into my pc with nothing on it.

Here is a list of my Hard Drives
120 SSD split into windows (80GB with 14GB free) and Linux (the other half of the hard drive, some 30GB)
1TB HDD, with my games on, currently 750GB free
500GB HDD, with nothing on it. 465GB free

Should I get another small SSD for windows, put Linux on a new small SSD, keep it together, put windows on the 500GB HDD or move Linux to the 500GB HDD? Is this an easy task or not?

 

[USAFRet]

Windows on the 500GB, Linux on the 120GB.

You're thinking of a full reinstall of Windows, correct?

 

[Gaogier]

I was hoping not to reinstall or delete anything.

 

[USAFRet]

I was hoping not to reinstall or delete anything.

How you get there depends on what you want the end state to be, and how it is configured now.

Given an 80GB Windows partition, there can't be a whole lot in there.

 

[Gaogier]

If I have to, I am happier to delete Linux and reinstall it on a different hard drive, but that would leave windows on a smaller hard drive

 

[USAFRet]

If I have to, I am happier to delete Linux and reinstall it on a different hard drive, but that would leave windows on a smaller hard drive

Windows on the 120GB is suboptimal.
It really needs to be on a larger device.

 

[Gaogier]

What do you guys think of this, https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/free-transfer-windows-10-to-new-hdd-ssd.html

what size ssd should I get?

 

[USAFRet]

I use Macrium Reflect for this cloning operation.
Works just great.

Or, the Samsung Data Migration if using a Samsung SSD.

What size?
250GB min.

 

[USAFRet]

Your situation is a bit different, in that you're trying to plit out only the Windows portion of the drive.


-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

 

[Gaogier]

Would it be easier to move Linux Ubuntu to the 500gb hard drive and keep windows on the 120gb ssd until I can get a much bigger ssd?

 

[USAFRet]

1. Please show us a screencap of the current Disk Management wind
2. When you boot up, how do you choose which OS? What specific function shows you the choice?

 

[Gaogier]

screenshot found here https://ibb.co/bHWmLv3

 

[USAFRet]

screenshot found here
https://ibb.co/bHWmLv3

Link does not work. Goes to "here.com"

 

[Gaogier]

try this
https://ibb.co/bHWmLv3

 

[USAFRet]

try this
https://ibb.co/bHWmLv3

That works.
And when you boot up, what is displayed to allow selection of Windows vs Linux?

What drive is Linux on?

 

[Gaogier]

linux is on the same hard drive as windows the 120GB SSD

I have linux boot up first, with a text menu saying do I want windows or linux, I then press the down button on my keyboard and chose which one I want, I have windows there selected by default so if I dont respond within 10 seconds it auto loads windows.

So linux is first OS to be booted, doesn't boot into linux just a menu where I select which os I want.

 

[USAFRet]

linux is on the same hard drive as windows the 120GB SSD

I have linux boot up first, with a text menu saying do I want windows or linux, I then press the down button on my keyboard and chose which one I want, I have windows there selected by default so if I dont respond within 10 seconds it auto loads windows.

So linux is first OS to be booted, doesn't boot into linux just a menu where I select which os I want.

Your Disk Management shows the Windows partition of 78.12GB, and another partition of 33.17 that is 100% empty. That may just be a case of Windows not being able to read that.

What would I do?
Leave Linux on the 120GB.
Do a clean install of Windows on the currently blank 500GB HDD.
Edit the Linux GRUB menu to remove the reference to Windows.

In this starting config, cloning the Windows to the 500GB will be problematic, if possible at all.

 

[Gaogier]

What about deleting linux, as its not used that often, Keep windows on the 120GB hard drive, Reinstall linux on the 500GB hard drive later, or until I get a new SSD, where I would move windows over to, and reinstall linux to the 120GB ssd?

 

[USAFRet]

What about deleting linux, as its not used that often, Keep windows on the 120GB hard drive, Reinstall linux on the 500GB hard drive later, or until I get a new SSD, where I would move windows over to, and reinstall linux to the 120GB ssd?

The complication comes in with the current boot up process.

Can you take a pic of the boot up screen?
Is this a Windows thing or a Linux GRUB thing?

 

[Gaogier]

its a linux grub thing, I can easily change it to boot windows first no problems,

It looks just like this, except I have windows boot up first.

 

[USAFRet]

Right.
But if you remove Linux, GRUB goes with it, right?

 

[Gaogier]

Yes, but in bios I can select to load windows, and not linux, currently it loads linux (which loads the menu to switch to windows)

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, but in bios I can select to load windows, and not linux, currently it loads linux (which loads the menu to switch to windows)

OK then.

Personally, I would probably start over.
Linux on the 120GB, a fresh install of Windows on the 500GB.
Later, clone that Windows to a new 500GB SSD.

Or, just leave things as they are now until you DO get the 500GB SSD.
Then a clean install on that.

 

[Gaogier]

Here are some pictures of how I have things setup.

pic 1
pic 2
pic 3

I have pic one as a default, which loads pic 2, I then select what OS I want.

If I use pic 3, it loads straight into windows.

So, based on that I can easily delete ubuntu, and easily load windows right?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes.
Windows Boot Manager is the key thing here.

I would, however, be prepared for a full fail.
A backup Image of the entire drive, just in case.