Question trying to finish windows 10 install

[cjp1123]

So... I have 3 storage drives on my PC

HDD A (Original Windows 10 install updated from Win8) -Drivers -programs (all part of same partition) - 1 TB
SDD B (New install) 40GB
M.2 chip (256 GB) - key programs + Games

what I am trying to do is link the drivers and users from my HDD; but not the registry and programs (IE Diablo 3, Word or Skyrim ) to my new install on my SDD then remove windows from the HDD

I cant seem to find a way to do it online and in this regard I am not technologically sound so if theres a way to do this (shy of redownloading every driver & so on) I would very much appreciate a hand on this temporarily im going to keep loading the HDD WinX so that i have my full system available until i can effectively transfer

 

[USAFRet]

No, there is not a way to do what you seek.
The drivers will need to be reinstalled with the new OS
The programs, either on the old HDD or the M.2 drive will NOT work with the new install on the SSD.

And...."SDD B (New install) 40GB "
What specific drive is this? Make/model. 40GB is much too small.

 

[cjp1123]

No, there is not a way to do what you seek.
The drivers will need to be reinstalled with the new OS
The programs, either on the old HDD or the M.2 drive will NOT work with the new install on the SSD.

And...."SDD B (New install) 40GB "
What specific drive is this? Make/model. 40GB is much too small.

I cant say I know what model it is at the moment but i think the brand was like avant. Was told 40gb would be perfect for a boot disk


My full ideal thing is to have Windows boot using the ssd but load the user folder off of disk A and write to disk A (using the above naming conventions, I had done something similar with my last windows install on the computer in question but at the time it was WIN 8 and it was the same physical disc but a separate partition: I dont remember how i did it however as it was also an hdd that broke (500gb))
But have all the drivers for like my GPU on the ssd B
The install of winx already successfully went onto the 40gb ssd and has spare space

Wish it was just easier to set up the drivers and not need to redownload them all:

 

[USAFRet]

I don't know who told you that a 40GB drive would be sufficient for a current Windows install, but it is not. That person is badly misinformed.
Even 3 times that at 120GB is marginal.

Will the OS install to that 40GB drive? Yes.
Give it a few months of use, than the semi-annual Win 10 update...and you'll see why it is far too small.

Can you have the OS on one drive and then applications etc on a different drive?
Yes.
But you can't use a new OS install on a drive with old applications on a different drive.

 

[cjp1123]

Should I perhaps then transfer the new OS install to the M2 (disc c, that much i know I can do via a partitioning tool with Migrate OS)
And does that mean that any program installed to Disk A wont run when Windows is booted from either Disk b or c? I would figure it would only need to rewrite the registry to create record of the new app path, then would work normally


Then that also leaves me with the removal of windows from disc a with all its registry and other files without completely wiping the drive

 

[USAFRet]

Should I perhaps then transfer the new OS install to the M2 (disc c, that much i know I can do via a partitioning tool with Migrate OS)
And does that mean that any program installed to Disk A wont run when Windows is booted from either Disk b or c? I would figure it would only need to rewrite the registry to create record of the new app path, then would work normally


Then that also leaves me with the removal of windows from disc a with all its registry and other files without completely wiping the drive

No.
A Migration to "Disk C" (the M.2?) will wipe out what is currently on there.

We need a clearer picture of exactly what drives are involved (make/model/size), and exactly what is on each one.
Along with all the other parts in this system.

From where I'm sitting, it looks like a poor software setup, worthy of starting over completely.

 

[cjp1123]

No.
A Migration to "Disk C" (the M.2?) will wipe out what is currently on there.

We need a clearer picture of exactly what drives are involved (make/model/size), and exactly what is on each one.
Along with all the other parts in this system.

From where I'm sitting, it looks like a poor software setup, worthy of starting over completely.

Well the M2 is empty so no great loss. I haven't put anything on it due to wanting to make sure I can set everything up correctly.

Most of my build can be seen in my signature now because I saw yours looking at that wouldn't be a bad idea to just kind of throw mine down there the only thing that isn't on there is the three storage devices which are listed above the power supply which is just a 450-watt vital the case which is just some generic Gateway case the drive models and everything with the turns out the solid state drive B is an Avant ncsm50af040m4
the one terabyte hard drive A is a Samsung looks like that one is model st1000lm024
And the M2 Chip C is a Samsung nvme model m z - VL w256 a
It's plugged into the ultra M2 port on the motherboard right now the terabyte drive has everything on it the operating system all my programs and everything else all on the same partition because I didn't think about separating it up on separate partitions when I first got the hard drive into this computer the 40gb now only has my fresh install of Windows and the M2 is completely empty

I don't want to start completely over from absolutely nothing because I don't have enough storage space to backup my games and my apps that I had downloaded before that I don't have the disc for anymore and the only way I would be able to re-download them is to probably torrent them and I'd rather not cuz I've got quite a bunch of old programs old games and old versions that I preferred using over the new stuff that are just hard to come by now not to mention some programs that took me hours to configure because of normal incompatibility issues that I would have to reconfigure if I were to start from scratch but I also have to re-download all of the additional tools and add-ons for certain things like eclipse for Java and C plus plus as to be able to practice coding again as I wanted to do in high school.

 

[USAFRet]

Disregarding the 40GB drive, you have a 256GB Samsung NVMe, and a 1TB HDD. Correct?
The HDD has the fully functioning original system with all your applications and games?

How much space is consumed on that drive?

 

[cjp1123]

Disregarding the 40GB drive, you have a 256GB Samsung NVMe, and a 1TB HDD. Correct?
The HDD has the fully functioning original system with all your applications and games?

How much space is consumed on that drive?

91% of the post formatted and system partitioned space. (So about 70 GB FREE. Remaining)
A large chunk is likely Windows and its remaining junk files from previous applications long since removed and or hidden cache files (disregarding the obviously large objects like games IE Saints row 4 (24ish GB) Skyrim (unknown size cuz mods) Path of Exile (unknown size cause constant new content and updates)

As I said though I dont have enough external storage to restart even if I supercompressed everything that I wanted to keep into a single archive. The largest external drive I have is a 160 gb hdd storing movies/tv shows

I felt I needed a fresh windows due to very poor desktop performance ( it has had poor desktop performance since I upgraded computer from win8.1)

 

[cjp1123]

I felt I needed a fresh windows due to very poor desktop performance ( it has had poor desktop performance since I upgraded computer from win8.1)

Building on that when I prepared to be upgraded i also removed about 35gb of duplicate music, ran cccleaner, removed at least 30 gb of old pics and videos I no longer needed, and upgraded the OS as when i installed my Ryzen and such as WIN 8 said I would need to upgrade to get the full potential from my new processor,

 

[USAFRet]

A fresh install, no matter which drive, will also involve a reinstall of everything else.
Drivers, applications, utilities, etc, etc.

Some games (Steam or Origin based) might be movable, but everything else WILL need a reinstall.

And again...please don't try to use that 40GB drive as the OS drive.

 

[cjp1123]

A fresh install, no matter which drive, will also involve a reinstall of everything else.
Drivers, applications, utilities, etc, etc.

Some games (Steam or Origin based) might be movable, but everything else WILL need a reinstall.

And again...please don't try to use that 40GB drive as the OS drive.

Sounds good. I'll use that solely for a game like POE that needs a fast disc

But how can i remove Windows from the other drive without losing everything at once? Doubt its as easy as deleting the WINDOWS folder