Some House Cleaning after Switching OS drive to SSD

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  1. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #1

    Some House Cleaning after Switching OS drive to SSD


    Hello! New to this forum, but done my fair share of reading through everything this weekend! Looking forward to the help, thanks in advance!

    So I recently built my first computer, with a 3TB HDD as my only drive. I haven't done much with it because I knew I was getting an SSD and didn't want too much of a headache switching to it as my OS drive, though it seems to be inevitable. I installed a few programs and started digitizing my blu ray collection. I just hooked up my SSD this weekend. Here was my process:

    1. Disconnect HDD, Connect SSD (AHCI verified)
    2. Clean install of Windows 7, drivers, updates, security
    3. Reconnected HDD (both drives have bootable Windows 7 installs)
    3. Transferred some data to the SSD and uninstalled all programs from the HDD

    Herein lies my problem. It's a similar situation to this poster: Removing Win 7 from HDD after clean install on SSD though I'll try to do a better job explaining it.

    Both of my drives have bootable versions of Windows 7 still. I'm prepared to commit to the SSD. I'm trying to do this as clean as possible, and I really have no need for keeping Windows on the HDD. I would just format the HDD, but I have around 900GB of video files I don't want to lose, and no drive large enough to store them on (I have a 500GB externall HDD as well). From what I read, simply deleting the Windows files is not sufficient. I believe the process I need to take is to partition my HDD, transfer the video files to that partition, and delete/format the rest? I just don't know the step by step on how to do that, although it sounds simple enough. Currently, my HDD is one large partition plus the 100mb reserve. Do I need to keep the reserve if my SSD also has a 100mb reserve?

    In case that's not clear enough, my intent is to only have Windows on my SSD plus the programs I've installed already. I do not need anything on my HDD except for the 900GB of video files. Once my HDD is reformatted, I will go about determining what to have on my HDD vs SSD, but obviously the video files need to remain on the HDD. I can post screenshots if necessary, just let me know what you need to see. Thanks!!
      My Computer

  2.    #2

    You're correct that the best way is to move the files to another partition in order to correctly delete the OS and System Reserved partitions from Disk Mgmt on the HD. Then you can create a new partition in the space, or extend the old partition using Disk Mgmt (if to the right), or if to the left here's How to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help.

    This is not to say you cannot delete the OS piecemeal using a program like Unlocker for the Windows folder which may balk. The boot files are on System Reserved which can have its partition deleted. And the code which makes the HD bootable will remain inert in the boot sector until it is wiped anyway.
    Last edited by gregrocker; 05 May 2013 at 22:25.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 6,330
    Multi-Boot W7_Pro_x64 W8.1_Pro_x64 W10_Pro_x64 +Linux_VMs +Chromium_VM
       #3

    Hi Greg,

    Do you have a typo in your response where you stated SSD, and it should be HD ?

    You're correct that the best way is to move the files to another partition in order to correctly delete the OS and System Reserved partitions from Disk Mgmt on the SSD.
      My Computer

  4.    #4

    Yeah, thanks David.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Thanks guys. So i created a partition on my HDD for the videos. Do I just delete the other partition in disk management? And to clarify, I am safe deleting the reserve partition off the HDD correct? After deleting those partitions, will they return to "unallocated space?" And then how do I go about returning the HDD to one large partition?

    On a side note, my ssd shows up as disk1 and my hdd shows up as disk0, is that normal?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
       #6

    Hi,

    Can you post a screen capture image of the existing partitions so we can be sure of the layout, and provide the correct advice?

    Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

    The SSD showing up as DISK1 and the HDD as DISK0 is fine - it just means that the SSD is connected to SATA port 1 and the HDD is connected to SATA port 0, on the motherboard. Thats no problem at all.

    Regards,
    Golden
      My Computer

  7.    #7

    bostonhokie said:
    Do I just delete the other partition in disk management? And to clarify, I am safe deleting the reserve partition off the HDD correct? After deleting those partitions, will they return to "unallocated space?" And then how do I go about returning the HDD to one large partition?
    I just wrote all of this out for you above. Did you miss my post?

    gregrocker said:
    You're correct that the best way is to move the files to another partition in order to correctly delete the OS and System Reserved partitions from Disk Mgmt on the HD. Then you can create a new partition in the space, or extend the old partition using Disk Mgmt (if to the right), or if to the left here's How to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help.

    This is not to say you cannot delete the OS piecemeal using a program like Unlocker for the Windows folder which may balk. The boot files are on System Reserved which can have its partition deleted. And the code which makes the HD bootable will remain inert in the boot sector until it is wiped anyway.
    If you want specific steps to do this then post back the Disk Mgmt screenshot requested.
    Last edited by gregrocker; 06 May 2013 at 12:40.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Apparently I stopped reading after the first half haha. Sorry about that. I'll give that a shot when I get home tonight and hopefully that's the end of my problems! Thanks again everyone!
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Okay here's my disk management screenshot. I right clicked on the V: drive and went through the extender wizard and at the end it said doing so would convert it to a dynamic disk. Is that what I want?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Some House Cleaning after Switching OS drive to SSD-capture.png  
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 13,576
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #10

    No you DO NOT want your disk dynamic. NO NO NO NO NO

    What exactly are you trying to do now ?
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