Will old installs on a different drive work with a new Windows install?

[Spork829]

I finally saved up some money and ordered a boot SSD, which will arrive tomorrow. I'm beginning to backup files and prepare to transfer everything over. I currently have my main HDD in two partitions, one of which has Windows on it, and the other which is just for general storage. I have some programs installed on each partition, kind of at random depending on when I installed them. I'm using up more than the amount of space on my new SSD on the boot partition, so for this reason I can't really just transfer everything over. And I have a lot of random garbage I don't need on here, so I'd like to do a fresh Windows install on the new drive anyways. 

 

So here's my question: If I only format the partition of my HDD with Windows on it, will the programs installed on the other partition still work with the new Windows install booting from the SSD? My internet is trash so I'm trying to minimize how much I need to redownload/reinstall. 

[Lurick]

What kind of installs?

If you're talking about game installs via steam and the likes, you should be good to go.

[Spork829]

Just now, Lurick said:

What kind of installs?

If you're talking about game installs via steam and the likes, you should be good to go.

Bit of everything. Some steam games, a couple Origin, Bnet and Uplay games and other programs as well.

[Lurick]

Just now, Spork829 said:

Bit of everything. Some steam games, a couple Origin, Bnet and Uplay games and other programs as well.

Most of the games should be good. Just install the client on the new drive point it to the game location and you'll most likely be alright. Not 100% on the Uplay or Origin games but the Bnet and Steam games I know for sure will be fine.

 

Depending on the other programs, it's a 50/50 chance depending on what their function is. If they are system type programs (anti-virus and the likes), things that would make registry changes, then you'll need to reinstall.

[Spork829]

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Most of the games should be good. Just install the client on the new drive point it to the game location and you'll most likely be alright. Not 100% on the Uplay or Origin games but the Bnet and Steam games I know for sure will be fine.

 

Depending on the other programs, it's a 50/50 chance depending on what their function is. If they are system type programs (anti-virus and the likes), things that would make registry changes, then you'll need to reinstall.

Okay, thanks. I don't think I have anything on that partition that would be making registry changes or otherwise be tied to the original install.

[Changis]

31 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

I finally saved up some money and ordered a boot SSD, which will arrive tomorrow. I'm beginning to backup files and prepare to transfer everything over. I currently have my main HDD in two partitions, one of which has Windows on it, and the other which is just for general storage. I have some programs installed on each partition, kind of at random depending on when I installed them. I'm using up more than the amount of space on my new SSD on the boot partition, so for this reason I can't really just transfer everything over. And I have a lot of random garbage I don't need on here, so I'd like to do a fresh Windows install on the new drive anyways. 

 

So here's my question: If I only format the partition of my HDD with Windows on it, will the programs installed on the other partition still work with the new Windows install booting from the SSD? My internet is trash so I'm trying to minimize how much I need to redownload/reinstall. 

they probably won't work directly, but if you install a new steam installation directly over your old, it shuold detect all the installed games and just appear as it was on your old computer. i have my games library and clients installed on a seperate drive, and reinstalling over them usually works just like steam does, some have to detect games one by one, but it's still way faster than downloading.

also, remove all other drives when you install windows on your new ssd, that way the boot partition is put on the ssd, and won't just modify or add it to the old one. after you can install the harddrive, remove all other partitions except the storage one and resize it to one large disk ( I don't reccomend partitioning drives unless you have some special need for it. I remember before it was normal to split a hdd into a smaller windows partition and a larger storage partition, but it has no practical use today and only serves to slow down access times somewhat and give a false sense of security that you have another drive should the harddrive crash

[Spork829]

5 minutes ago, Changis said:

they probably won't work directly, but if you install a new steam installation directly over your old, it shuold detect all the installed games and just appear as it was on your old computer. i have my games library and clients installed on a seperate drive, and reinstalling over them usually works just like steam does, some have to detect games one by one, but it's still way faster than downloading.

also, remove all other drives when you install windows on your new ssd, that way the boot partition is put on the ssd, and won't just modify or add it to the old one. after you can install the harddrive, remove all other partitions except the storage one and resize it to one large disk ( I don't reccomend partitioning drives unless you have some special need for it. I remember before it was normal to split a hdd into a smaller windows partition and a larger storage partition, but it has no practical use today and only serves to slow down access times somewhat and give a false sense of security that you have another drive should the harddrive crash

Thanks, good to know I can reinstall over without having to redownload files. Do you know how I would go about combining the two partitions when one is formatted and the other still has data on it? The prebuilt the drive originally came in just had it partitioned this way, and I've never bother to figure out how to change that.

[Changis]

Just now, Spork829 said:

Thanks, good to know I can reinstall over without having to redownload files. Do you know how I would go about combining the two partitions when one is formatted and the other still has data on it? The prebuilt the drive originally came in just had in partiioned this way, and I've never bother to figure out how to change that.

windows disk manager should be able to to all that.. it will list your partitions visually and you can usually just delete partitions easily and resize partitions you want to keep using.

there are lots of step by steps on google about this and troubleshooting if some things are greyed out 

in my picture, extend is greyed out because there is no more space to extend to (also notice the partitions made by windows) if you install windows on the ssd with the other drive connected, and you after deleted the recovery and efi partitions used by windows, you might not be able to boot into windows without rebuilding the boot partition (it's probably easier to just reinstall at that point)

[Spork829]

7 minutes ago, Changis said:

windows disk manager should be able to to all that.. it will list your partitions visually and you can usually just delete partitions easily and resize partitions you want to keep using.

there are lots of step by steps on google about this and troubleshooting if some things are greyed out 

in my picture, extend is greyed out because there is no more space to extend to (also notice the partitions made by windows) if you install windows on the ssd with the other drive connected, and you after deleted the recovery and efi partitions used by windows, you might not be able to boot into windows without rebuilding the boot partition (it's probably easier to just reinstall at that point)

Okay, I'll try that out. I plan to unplug my other drives while installing Windows on the SSD and booting for the first time.