I need help

[GDpoint]

So I reacently bought an nvme m.2 (samsung 970 evo) and i am wondering if I could fresh install windows on my m.2. The catch is that I already have an 860 evo sata ssd that I have windows and games on and a toshiba 2tb hdd for my vids. Btw I want my sata ssd for games and my m.2 for os. I was wondering if I could just unplug all storage devices except the m.2 and install windows but I'm afraid that it will cause data loss. Can anyone help

[NinJake]

You'll likely need to reformat your 860 and reinstall games/software. If you are fine with this, keep the 860 plugged in as well as your 970 evo, during the windows install you can reformat your 860. Ensure to select your 970 as the drive to install windows on.

 

Then you'll have a 970 for windows/software and maybe some games. Then you can use your 860 evo as a dedicated game ssd. (Or whatever floats your boat)

 

Make sure you unplug your 2tb drive so you don't accidentally reformat that.

[Husky]

You don't have to unplug anything but when erasing disks in the Windows installer you need to be super careful. If you want to be 100% careful then yes you can unplug the other drives.

 

You might want to erase your current SATA SSD so that you don't have an unnecessary Windows installation. If you don't want to re-download all of your games then you can copy them off of the SATA SSD before erasing it.

[Fasauceome]

27 minutes ago, GDpoint said:

I was wondering if I could just unplug all storage devices except the m.2 and install windows

this is the optimal way to install a fresh copy of windows.

[TomvanWijnen]

31 minutes ago, GDpoint said:

I was wondering if I could just unplug all storage devices except the m.2 and install windows

I would do that as well. After fully installing Windows on your M.2, plug the rest back in and ensure the boot order is set properly in the BIOS. If you end up (eventually) not having enough space on your SSD you can either reformat it, or just carefully remove all useless folders until you only have left what you still want. Remember that if you don't remove the Windows files on your old SSD, you can still boot into that Windows installation, should you wish to do so.

[GDpoint]

So if I unplug my hdd (main concern) during the fresh install i should be able to access all my old data, maps, vids?

[Pickles von Brine]

Unplug your hard drive before you do anything to prevent any mishaps. Then boot from your installer, do what you got to do and get windows setup. Shut down your machine. Plug back in the drive and reboot. Drive will show up like it did before on your new install.