Question Uninstalling OS and programs from old C: after cloned to SSD (Bonus question: Can WUDownload Cache folder be cleared out from D:?)

[mikeg1251]

I have two partitions on a 2TB HDD currently. The C: has the OS, which is the one I will be cloning to the SSD. I just want to double check that my steps and logic are correct before I storm ahead.

1. Backed up my entire HDD to external hard drive as a backup file using Toshiba's stock software.
2. Clone C: (which is about 50GBs smaller than the blank SSD I'm cloning to) to the SSD. In the same process, clone the "System Reserved (None) NTFS Active" which is 261.4MB and the "(None) NTFS Primary" which is 390.4MB to the SSD with the C:
3. Disconnect the HDD and attach SSD to the same SATA cable as the HDD was.
4. Boot a few times to make sure it boots from SSD now

Once this is hopefully successfully complete, I plan to remove all photos and other random files from the new C on the SSD and just leave the OS and the programs there. Then on the old C: on the HDD, I will uninstall the programs from there. I have a couple questions about this part:

• Are there any issues with uninstalling these programs from the old C: now that they are cloned to the SSD?
• Can you delete the OS from the old C: on the HDD? How would you do that?

Finally, I found that almost 200GB of my second partition on the HDD, the D:, has this WUDownloadCache. From what I looked up, it seems to just be the cache for when windows updates. This is odd since my OS is on the C: so I'm not sure what this folder is doing on the D and why is it so big??

I know there's a lot of questions/confirmations here, but any help is much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[mikeg1251]

In case this helps answer the question, I'm attaching a screenshot of my Macruim Reflect.

https://imgur.com/XXaT8ud

View: https://imgur.com/XXaT8ud

 

[USAFRet]

You can't "uninstall" the programs from the old OS drive. This uninstall routine will not speak to them, because they are now on the "D drive".

The way to properly clean that 2TB drive is to move everything you wish to keep, off to some other drive. ALL of it, across all partitions on the physical drive.
Then, delete ALL partitions on it. This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.
This leaves you a blank drive with one large blank space.

Then, you can do whatever you like with it. Give it the same drive letter as the previous secondary partition, copy stuff back to it, whatever.

 

[mikeg1251]

So once you clone over, the C would become the D? Then the D would become E? And then everything on my new D and E would not be able to be modified? Am I understanding that correctly?

I have an external hard drive with a full backup, but I'm still a little nervous about wiping everything.

The only other option it seems is just leave the OS where it is now and just initialize the SSD as the E drive, and install programs as I want to the new drive. I'm not sure if I'm missing something.

 

[USAFRet]

So once you clone over, the C would become the D? Then the D would become E? And then everything on my new D and E would not be able to be modified? Am I understanding that correctly?

I have an external hard drive with a full backup, but I'm still a little nervous about wiping everything.

The only other option it seems is just leave the OS where it is now and just initialize the SSD as the E drive, and install programs as I want to the new drive. I'm not sure if I'm missing something.

Once you do a clone operation, the new drive and its OS sees itself as the C drive. Whatever other drives and drive letters it talked to before, will still work after.

A clone, if successful, is a 100% exact copy, just on a different physical drive.
You remove the old drive, and everything works exactly as it did before.

 

[mikeg1251]

Once you do a clone operation, the new drive and its OS sees itself as the C drive. Whatever other drives and drive letters it talked to before, will still work after.

A clone, if successful, is a 100% exact copy, just on a different physical drive.
You remove the old drive, and everything works exactly as it did before.

So that makes sense that the new drive sees itself as the new C, but what happens to the C drive partition of my HDD which I would want to keep using? My assumption was that the old C would get reassigned to D. But then would the D partition of that HDD get reassigned to E in that case? Was your second to last message saying that if the drive letter of my old partitions of the HDD change, then I won't be able to uninstall anything?

 

[USAFRet]

The old Windows partition on the old drive will have some other drive letter...probably D.
And you can't really keep using that, nor would there be any real reason to.

But basically, whichever WIndows instance you boot up from will see itself as the " C drive". Anything else will be some other drive letter.
And there is no good reason to keep 2 mostly identical bootable Windows instances in the same system, and several good reasons not to.

You can't "uninstall" applications from the old hard drive, because there is no reference for those in the Registry that lives on the new drive.
They would exist in the D partition, or whatever drive letter gets assigned to what used to be the C (windows) partition on your original drive.
The Registry in the OS on the new drive cannot find those.

Other partitions on the old physical drive also get 'other' driver letters.
Assuming your old drive was a C and D partition, C being Windows...that may now be a D and E partition.

 

[mikeg1251]

So it sounds like my only two options are either:

A) 1. Put all files I need from old HDD C: on external storage. Backup entire D: partition to external storage.

1. Clone C: and recovery and OS from internal HDD to new SSD
2. Disconnect HDD to ensure SSD boots correctly
3. Wipe entire HDD
4. Restore the D: from the external HDD and expand D: to take up the entire internal HDD (not positive how to do that but I can look it up)
5. Transfer files from the old C: on the external HDD to the internal HDD’s D:
6. Manually delete duplicate files on the new C: on the SSD and uninstall programs I don’t want
7. Reinstall programs on the HDD’s D: that I didn’t want on the new C:

OR

B) Keep everything the same and just initiate the new SSD as an E: drive and install programs/games I want there to run faster. The only thing I miss out on is the faster OS (which is kind of the biggest improvement of getting an SSD but oh well)

Does that make sense? Are those the two options? And thank you for your continued help, it’s been super appreciated.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

This is one of the reasons partitions are a hassle, and particularly if you have applications installed in that second drive or partition.
Games from Steam is easy. Regular applications turns into a hassle.

 

[mikeg1251]

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

This is one of the reasons partitions are a hassle, and particularly if you have applications installed in that second drive or partition.
Games from Steam is easy. Regular applications turns into a hassle.

Thanks so much for all your help on this. Question answered. Next up, decision by me!

 

[mikeg1251]

You’ve already been super helpful, but I have to ask one more thing. A new idea came to me, and I’m not sure if it’s possible (I think it is)

After I clone and boot from ssd, could I just format the old C: (now reassigned a new drive letter) on the HDD and keep the other partition (old D I have? Then I could just copy what files I need from the new C: to the newly formatted partition without having to restore the entire uncloned partition.

Thoughts?

 

[USAFRet]

You’ve already been super helpful, but I have to ask one more thing. A new idea came to me, and I’m not sure if it’s possible (I think it is)

After I clone and boot from ssd, could I just format the old C: (now reassigned a new drive letter) on the HDD and keep the other partition (old D I have? Then I could just copy what files I need from the new C: to the newly formatted partition without having to restore the entire uncloned partition.

Thoughts?

Done carefully, and as long as you're not trying to copy "programs", yes, you can do this.

ANd it's not just the old C partition, but also the other boot partition. Basically, ALL partitions except for the original D.

 

[mikeg1251]

Done carefully, and as long as you're not trying to copy "programs", yes, you can do this.

ANd it's not just the old C partition, but also the other boot partition. Basically, ALL partitions except for the original D.

Yes, so referring to the screenshot above, I’ll format the 1, 2, and 4th partitions leaving just the D: . I’ll have a backup of it on an external just in case. Also, if I want to move a program, I’ll uninstall from the ssd and reinstall, instead. Awesome, I think that’s what I’m going to do!

 

[mikeg1251]

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

This is one of the reasons partitions are a hassle, and particularly if you have applications installed in that second drive or partition.
Games from Steam is easy. Regular applications turns into a hassle.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if I only format the other partitions and keep the original D:, I’ll still be stuck with one big partition and the two smaller ones.

Could I instead delete the old recovery, system reserved, and original C: partitions. Then merge one of the small partitions with the original C, then clone the original D to the new unallocated partition. Then expand to the final partition to the right. The screenshot above shows the order since I know you can’t expand “to the left”

Alternatively, I could delete all but original D:, then use third party software to move the D to the left in front of all 3 now unallocated space, then expand to the right. Any recommended third party applications to do this?

Would either of these work?

 

[USAFRet]

When messing with partitions like this, there is a greater than zero chance of something going wrong.
So, you really need a full copy of the data in the D partition.

But if you have that, then you just wipe the entire physical drive, format and call it D, then copy the data back.

Either of your two scenarios would work, but I wouldn't do it without a full copy of that entire partition.

And since this is a secondary space, you don't even need to "clone". Straight copy/paste would work.

 

[mikeg1251]

Ok, I have an external HDD, and used the stock Toshiba backup software to backup both the original C and original D from the HDD. If I go the full delete method in disk manager of all partitions, do I need to do anything before I do the Toshiba restore of D?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok, I have an external HDD, and used the stock Toshiba backup software to backup both the original C and original D from the HDD. If I go the full delete method in disk manager of all partitions, do I need to do anything before I do the Toshiba restore of D?

Using the Tosh software was not necessary, and a lot more work than actually needed.
Personally, I wouldn't have. Just adds an extra point of fail.

Have you already done the clone to the SSD?

 

[mikeg1251]

Using the Tosh software was not necessary, and a lot more work than actually needed.
Personally, I wouldn't have. Just adds an extra point of fail.

Have you already done the clone to the SSD?

Well the software was preloaded onto the external HDD so it was really just one click to do. I’m just hoping the restore function on the Toshiba application will work correctly on the reformatted internal HDD (if I do the full wipe)

I have already done the initial clone of all partitions but the original D: to the SSD. Haven’t done anything else yet.

 

[USAFRet]

The Tosh restore may try to restore the whole thing, including the C partition you don't want.

You've verified the system works 100% with only the SSD connected?

 

[mikeg1251]

Thankfully, it looks like I can select just one partition when I say restore.

And no, I didn’t have time, but will be checking as soon as I get home tonight. That’s when I’ll swap the SATA, boot a few times (hopefully works fine) then I’ll have to decide what to do with HDD.

I think I will use mini partition wizard (recommended in other threads) to move my Original D: to the front (or left) of the HDD, delete the other partitions and expand all the way to one partition. Then if that fails or something happens, my backup will be delete all partitions, reformat, and restore just the D: from my external HDD.

 

[USAFRet]

Don't delete anything until you have 100% verified the system works with only the SSD.
Continue on after that.

 

[mikeg1251]

Don't delete anything until you have 100% verified the system works with only the SSD.
Continue on after that.

Agreed! If all goes well with that, my game plan outlined in my previous post sounds feasible, though? Try selectively deleting, moving, then expanding with mini partition wizard with a plan B of wipe and restore?

 

[USAFRet]

Personally, I wouldn't go 'selective'
Have the entirety of the D partition elsewhere, wipe the entire HDD, format and give it the D drive letter.
Copy the data back.

But your way would probably work.

 

[mikeg1251]

Don't delete anything until you have 100% verified the system works with only the SSD.
Continue on after that.

Ok I might end up doing your way to be safe. First things first, though...first attempt to boot up new SSD (swapped SATA and unplugged the HDD) saw the windows 10 logo with a spinning wheel briefly but now just a black screen. Pointer appeared when I moved mouse but nothing else. Looks like unsuccessful. Not sure if it’s safe to shut down to try again.

 

[USAFRet]

All you can do is try it.

At the end of the clone operation, the very first thing you need to do is disconnect the old drive, and allow the system to try to boot up from the new drive.
The very first thing.