Upgrading to Windows 8 on a Machine with Multiple Hard Drives

[mpitroff427]

I'm looking into upgrading to Windows 8 from Windows 7 (64-bit) as I'm liking the various upgrades that Microsoft is making in 8.1 but I have a few questions before I commit. According to various upgrade tutorials I've seen, Windows 8 will keep any applications that were previously installed on the drive. However, I'm running a rig that uses 3 different drives (SSD for OS and choice applications, 1 HDD for music/documents/photos, 1 HDD for games) and was wondering if I'll have to reinstall or do anything with the applications/files on the non-OS drives.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm looking into upgrading to Windows 8 from Windows 7 (64-bit) as I'm liking the various upgrades that Microsoft is making in 8.1 but I have a few questions before I commit. According to various upgrade tutorials I've seen, Windows 8 will keep any applications that were previously installed on the drive. However, I'm running a rig that uses 3 different drives (SSD for OS and choice applications, 1 HDD for music/documents/photos, 1 HDD for games) and was wondering if I'll have to reinstall or do anything with the applications/files on the non-OS drives.

I'd recommend removing the other two drives. Your OS and applications will (almost certainly) survive the upgrade. Music/documents/photos/static files on the other drive don't matter. The only sticking point might be the games drive. If they are Steam/Origin, the only thing you might have to do is reinstall the relevant client.

Having only the SSD installed prevents Windows from adding the System Reserved partition on another drive.

 

[mpitroff427]

Pretty much all of my games on the games HDD (with the exception of The Witcher 2) are either Steam or Origin based, so that shouldn't cause any issues, correct?

 

[USAFRet]

Pretty much all of my games on the games HDD (with the exception of The Witcher 2) are either Steam or Origin based, so that shouldn't cause any issues, correct?

As said...you might have to reinstall the Steam client. But after that, go into the setting and point the games location to wherever they exist.

See here: Moving a Steam Installation and Game
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

Most of that doesn't apply, because your stuff already exists elsewhere. But the client portion might.