[SOLVED] Windows 10 "Migration"

devinascension

Reputable
Jan 22, 2019
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Even though the title might be a bit vague, I'll try to explain this as best as I can.

So I just bought a 240GB Kingston SSD and I plan to add Win10 to it. This part I can do, I know how to do that and I think I know how to get my key for it. The problem is, I do not want to completely wipe my 2TB Seagate Barracuda I have, as it is half full of games with lots of data I want to keep.

This is the problem, I want to know if I can erase all the Win10 files on the HDD without wiping it clean. This way, Win10 is gone from the HDD and ONLY on my SSD.
 
Solution
While you can do what you're trying to do, any programs/games that were installed on the system with the current OS installation will need to be reinstalled (with the exception of Steam games).

Disconnect your HDD and have only the SSD connected to the motherboard.
Install Windows 10.
Reconnect your HDD.

This will likely cause you to have two functioning versions of Windows available at boot time. Go into MSCONFIG and under the Boot tab, you should see two listings. You will need to delete the one that points to your HDD (not sure how to identify that).

Once your system is booting from the SSD, you can open Windows Explorer and delete any of the Windows folders from your HDD. It's not exactly clean, but it should do the job.

-Wolf sends
I think the issue you will have is.....Win 10 is basically all over that hard drive and to selectively remove it would be a pain.

What I would do.

Get Windows 10 loaded and running on the SSD. Do this without the HDD hooked up.

Then I would reinstall the programs I wanted (that are currently on the HDD to the SSD).

Then I would power down, hook up the old HDD, boot to the SSD, and get the data files off the HDD and either put them on the SSD if there is room (I think there probably isn't so I would put them on another HDD).

Then I would wipe the old HDD.
 
While you can do what you're trying to do, any programs/games that were installed on the system with the current OS installation will need to be reinstalled (with the exception of Steam games).

Disconnect your HDD and have only the SSD connected to the motherboard.
Install Windows 10.
Reconnect your HDD.

This will likely cause you to have two functioning versions of Windows available at boot time. Go into MSCONFIG and under the Boot tab, you should see two listings. You will need to delete the one that points to your HDD (not sure how to identify that).

Once your system is booting from the SSD, you can open Windows Explorer and delete any of the Windows folders from your HDD. It's not exactly clean, but it should do the job.

-Wolf sends
 
Solution