Re-installing Win10 Question

[Rhaemond]

Hey just got a new SSD for my PC, common knowledge dictate it's much better to transfer the OS to it from my HDD... Do I also need to reformat my other drives? Like a total wipe, then reinstall everything?

[Uptivuptiz]

5 minutes ago, Rhaemond said:

Hey just got a new SSD for my PC, common knowledge dictate it's much better to transfer the OS to it from my HDD... Do I also need to reformat my other drives? Like a total wipe, then reinstall everything?

No, I've re-installed windows without wiping all my drives. I just unplugged them when installing windows.

[Semper]

If any of the drives still present in your system were your previous boot drive, it's strongly recommended. If i'm reading your post correctly though, It's not better transfer (as in clone?) your HDD to your SSD. A fresh start is going to be the more optimal situation.

 

Other than that, it's not an issue. You may have to tell certain applications where to "find" themselves again, though.

[Rhaemond]

3 minutes ago, Uptivuptiz said:

No, I've re-installed windows without wiping all my drives. I just unplugged them when installing windows.

Alright2, what happens if I don't unplug them though?

Just now, Semper said:

If any of the drives still present in your system were your previous boot drive, it's strongly recommended. If i'm reading your post correctly though, It's not better transfer (as in clone?) your HDD to your SSD. A fresh start is going to be the more optimal situation.

 

Other than that, it's not an issue. You may have to tell certain applications where to "find" themselves again, though.

Yea I think I'm going to retire my old 320gb drive in favor of an SSD so I guess I'm going to do a full clean install of it.

 

See that's the thing I have 10+ games and a few apps in already, how do I do that "find" thing?

[Uptivuptiz]

2 minutes ago, Rhaemond said:

Alright2, what happens if I don't unplug them though?

As long as you select the drive that you want to install on and don't format the other drives in the install wizard you should be good. I just generally recommend people to unplug the drives, because you never know if something might happen.

[Semper]

2 minutes ago, Rhaemond said:

Alright2, what happens if I don't unplug them though?

Yea I think I'm going to retire my old 320gb drive in favor of an SSD so I guess I'm going to do a full clean install of it.

 

See that's the thing I have 10+ games and a few apps in already, how do I do that "find" thing?

Nothing directly, unless you accidentally wipe one of them during the installation process. Unplugging any drives you don't intend to reformat is good practice because of this.

For steam, you just add the "old" folder as a directory. For other launchers, they may or may not have a "discover/find games" option. For those that don't, often times attempting to install the game (and setting the install path as the directory on the "old" drive) will usually cause the launcher to pseudo-"discover" the game.

[Rhaemond]

Just now, Uptivuptiz said:

As long as you select the drive that you want to install on and don't format the other drives in the install wizard you should be good. I just generally recommend people to unplug the drives, because you never know if something might happen.

Understood! Hopefully I don't mess anything up... Would 120gb be enough for an SSD boot drive?

[Uptivuptiz]

1 minute ago, Rhaemond said:

Would 120gb be enough for an SSD boot drive?

Yes, 120GB is fine if you only want Windows and a few essential programs on it or a game.

[Semper]

1 minute ago, Rhaemond said:

Understood! Hopefully I don't mess anything up... Would 120gb be enough for an SSD boot drive?

If that's what's in your budget, absolutely. There are advantages to larger capacities though.

[Rhaemond]

10 minutes ago, Semper said:

Nothing directly, unless you accidentally wipe one of them during the installation process. Unplugging any drives you don't intend to reformat is good practice because of this.

For steam, you just add the "old" folder as a directory. For other launchers, they may or may not have a "discover/find games" option. For those that don't, often times attempting to install the game (and setting the install path as the directory on the "old" drive) will usually cause the launcher to pseudo-"discover" the game.

I see, how about the registries though? And how about for the apps?

8 minutes ago, Uptivuptiz said:

Yes, 120GB is fine if you only want Windows and a few essential programs on it or a game.

 

7 minutes ago, Semper said:

If that's what's in your budget, absolutely. There are advantages to larger capacities though.

Alright I'll try to squeeze in a bit more for a 240gb drive then hehe

[Alan G]

3 hours ago, Rhaemond said:

I see, how about the registries though? And how about for the apps?

 

Alright I'll try to squeeze in a bit more for a 240gb drive then hehe

My Win10 install takes up only about 25GB of space and with all the programs (no games but photo editing, office software, etc) adds about another 25GB.  You can get by with 120GB but a larger capacity SSD is always better.  prices are really low these days compared to five years ago.

[Semper]

5 hours ago, Rhaemond said:

I see, how about the registries though? And how about for the apps?

 

Alright I'll try to squeeze in a bit more for a 240gb drive then hehe

Anything that has a registry entry will need to be reinstalled. Games generally don't have registry entries that will cause them to not function properly (to be quite frank, I'm not sure if they have registry entries)

[Rhaemond]

3 minutes ago, Semper said:

Anything that has a registry entry will need to be reinstalled. Games generally don't have registry entries that will cause them to not function properly (to be quite frank, I'm not sure if they have registry entries)

Oh.. I actually thought they have...