Is there a way to only clone windows to an SSD with nothing else?

[KyberKylo77]

I want to just clone windows and keep my hard drive for junk and files that I dont really touch.

[Electronics Wizardy]

If you only want clean windows, just do a reinstall on your new ssd.

[KyberKylo77]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

If you only want clean windows, just do a reinstall on your new ssd.

oh ok and if I do that how do I completely get rid of windows on the HDD and keep only the files, games and some apps?

[Fasauceome]

Uninstall every app that takes up space, until the data on the hard drive would fit on the SSD. Clone as normal, with whatever software you'd use, such as EaseUS. Then just reinstall everything on the hard drive.

[Boomwebsearch]

13 minutes ago, KyberKylo77 said:

I want to just clone windows and keep my hard drive for junk and files that I dont really touch.

 

Remove the hard drive from the system and install a fresh install of Windows on the SSD and set to boot from the SSD in your BIOS/UEFI, then you can later reconnect the HDD and unallocate the partition for Windows and keep your data and programs (program files may not be moved over so make sure to back those up beforehand).

[KyberKylo77]

4 minutes ago, Boomwebsearch said:

 

Remove the hard drive from the system and install a fresh install of Windows on the SSD and set to boot from the SSD in your BIOS/UEFI, then you can later reconnect the HDD and unallocate the partition for Windows and keep your data and programs (program files may not be moved over so make sure to back those up beforehand).

how do i unallocate the partition for windows? sorry, i'm a big noob when it comes to this i've never had to install another drive in a system.

[DailyProcrastinator]

15 minutes ago, KyberKylo77 said:

oh ok and if I do that how do I completely get rid of windows on the HDD and keep only the files, games and some apps?

Use a USB drive and create a new WIndows boot media (found on their site), unplug the old HDD, install your new SSD, using your USB installation media create the OS file on your new SSD. After that is done, just plug in your old HDD again, on boot-up go into bios and check your boot priority, make sure the SSD comes first and then save and exit, then you can access your old HDD within windows and all the files just like you would beforehand. 

[KyberKylo77]

2 minutes ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

Use a USB drive and create a new WIndows boot media (found on their site), unplug the old HDD, install your new SSD, using your USB installation media create the OS file on your new SSD. After that is done, just plug in your old HDD again, on boot-up go into bios and check your boot priority, make sure the SSD comes first and then save and exit, then you can access your old HDD within windows and all the files just like you would beforehand. 

Thanks, that was a good detailed explanation. But does that mean after doing what you mentioned, windows won't be taking up unnecessary space on the HDD anymore?

[nick name]

How large is the SSD?  And how much data is on the HDD?  If everything on the HDD fits onto the SSD then I would clone everything onto the SSD and then format the HDD and last step is move all the junk files from the SSD back to the HDD.  

[DailyProcrastinator]

1 minute ago, KyberKylo77 said:

Thanks, that was a good detailed explanation. But does that mean after doing what you mentioned, windows won't be taking up unnecessary space on the HDD anymore?

Windows OS is still written to that HDD, if you removed the SSD and booted up with just the HDD plugged in you would booting into Windows. That said this is the easy way as you do not need to play around with the partitions, and the actual Windows 10 OS really only uses 10-15GB so at that point who cares, at least that's my opinion lol.

Especially if it is just being used as a:

39 minutes ago, KyberKylo77 said:

hard drive for junk and files that I dont really touch.

 

When you download the Windows 10 installation media make sure you actually run the file, it will give you the option to create a USB media creation tool, I think you need a 16GB USB (could be just 8GB).

[SecretX]

23 minutes ago, KyberKylo77 said:

Thanks, that was a good detailed explanation. But does that mean after doing what you mentioned, windows won't be taking up unnecessary space on the HDD anymore?

Yes it will, but you can always delete Windows folders from HDD later (file explorer options > view > Show hidden files).

 

Take my C:\ as example

 

You can literally just select everything with Ctrl + A and hit Shift + Delete, except the Users folder, that's where your Downloads, Documents, Desktop, Music, Pictures and Videos folders are usually located (unless you changed it by any chance), oh, and if you want to keep your games copy them out of Program Files and/or Program Files (x86). Regarding your game saves, they are usually located either in Documents or in Local or Roaming folder (Win key + R > type %appdata% and hit enter, for Local type %localappdata%), both these last two folder are located inside your user folder so you can delete from your HDD safely (kinda).

 

[KyberKylo77]

12 hours ago, nick name said:

How large is the SSD?  And how much data is on the HDD?  If everything on the HDD fits onto the SSD then I would clone everything onto the SSD and then format the HDD and last step is move all the junk files from the SSD back to the HDD.  

Initially I was going to do this but then i'd have to track down all the files that I want to move so that'd be a pain in the ass. 

[KyberKylo77]

15 hours ago, nick name said:

How large is the SSD?  And how much data is on the HDD?  If everything on the HDD fits onto the SSD then I would clone everything onto the SSD and then format the HDD and last step is move all the junk files from the SSD back to the HDD.  

I tried this but then this keeps happening. Now I can't boot from either drives. 

[KyberKylo77]

16 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

Uninstall every app that takes up space, until the data on the hard drive would fit on the SSD. Clone as normal, with whatever software you'd use, such as EaseUS. Then just reinstall everything on the hard drive.

I did that but now I can't boot into either one of the drives so I deleted everything in the SSD so I can boot with the HDD but still no luck. I entered the BIOS and the HDD is detected but it doesn't show up in the boot order section. It's only showing the windows boot manager version which takes me to to he repair page. What did I do wrong?

[DragDownJack]

Try re installing the operating system onto the SSD now.

[KyberKylo77]

3 minutes ago, DragDownJack said:

Try re installing the operating system onto the SSD now.

that's exactly what I'm doing rn lol. I'll see how it goes thanks!

[KyberKylo77]

1 hour ago, DragDownJack said:

Try re installing the operating system onto the SSD now.

ok so I unplugged the HDD and installed windows on the SSD but now when I boot into Windows it's like a fresh install without drivers and I can only go up to 64hz which Im guessing is due to the gpu drivers. Also my PC doesn't recognize my pcie wifi card. Why is this 10x more complicated than it should be?

[KyberKylo77]

22 hours ago, SecretX said:

Yes it will, but you can always delete Windows folders from HDD later (file explorer options > view > Show hidden files).

 

Take my C:\ as example

 

You can literally just select everything with Ctrl + A and hit Shift + Delete, except the Users folder, that's where your Downloads, Documents, Desktop, Music, Pictures and Videos folders are usually located (unless you changed it by any chance), oh, and if you want to keep your games copy them out of Program Files and/or Program Files (x86). Regarding your game saves, they are usually located either in Documents or in Local or Roaming folder (Win key + R > type %appdata% and hit enter, for Local type %localappdata%), both these last two folder are located inside your user folder so you can delete from your HDD safely (kinda).

 

Hey, I installed windows again on my ssd and it fucking messed up everything. I can't access the Internet and my PC doesn't detect the pcie wifi adapter. Can't access my games either and steam needed a repair to start. What did I do wrong?

[KyberKylo77]

7 hours ago, Benji said:

You probably can't access the internet because Windows doesn't contain the driver for the network card by default. Try installing that, connect to the WiFi (which is basically a shame on every stationary system to be NOT connected via LAN) and let Steam repair. Also, the tip to basically delete everything off C:\ and just copying the programs from the folders is basically stupid. Most applications register DLLs and other files, besides sometimes adding things to the registry, so you are rather lucky if they work after doing such stuff. Also you won't be unable to uninstall most of them properly, so you will need to install everything anew anyway because Windows doesn't even know that they are installed if you just copy some programs instead of regularly installing them.

yea... about that, I tried to download the drivers but i forgot the exact model so until i figure that out i wont be able to download. Is there any way to find out the model without looking at the box? 

[KyberKylo77]

7 hours ago, Benji said:

Go to the Device Manager and see if it appears. If you have a device with a yellow triangle it might be the network card.

found it but it doesnt show the model. And when i try the automatic search update thingy it says windows could not find it or something.

[KyberKylo77]

7 hours ago, Benji said:

You did notice that I said someting else?

Also, if you can let Windows Update search you actually do have an internet connection, otherwise it would complain.

Check out the hardware ID. Also, does it actually list your wireless adapter under Network Adapters?

Oh sorry didn't notice at first. And yea currently I'm running off a cheap usb wifi adapter which is why I'm able to connect. And no it doesn't list it under network adapter, its under Other Devices.

[KyberKylo77]

7 hours ago, Benji said:

You did notice that I said someting else?

Also, if you can let Windows Update search you actually do have an internet connection, otherwise it would complain.

Check out the hardware ID. Also, does it actually list your wireless adapter under Network Adapters?

Hey but why is everything messed up after I boot off of my SSD? like why doesn't my PC recognize the drivers and stuff on my HDD that was previously installed? I had to manually install my GPU drivers and chipset drivers again. Btw sorry if i sound like a noob, I'm not familiar with these things.

[KyberKylo77]

7 hours ago, KyberKylo77 said:

Hey but why is everything messed up after I boot off of my SSD? like why doesn't my PC recognize the drivers and stuff on my HDD that was previously installed? I had to manually install my GPU drivers and chipset drivers again. Btw sorry if i sound like a noob, I'm not familiar with these things.

 

7 hours ago, Benji said:

Because re-installing Windows means that it doesn't have the drivers and applications anymore. Also, copying over some applications from the Programs folder(s) like it was suggested doesn't work because they have to be installed, not just copied over. That's why it doesn't detect the stuff on your hard drive and it couldn't care less about some drivers and files that are on any other disk as they are not system-relevant. You need to re-install everything when you re-install Windows.

Ahh I see.. Btw, thanks man i was able to find my adapter model! Also from this point do i delete everything off of my HDD since its useless? except for the important files of course.

[DragDownJack]

Okay I want to understand the situation better. from what I've read, most of the necessary drivers haven't been automatically installed.

Try downloading the driver files for your motherboard from a different computer and transfer them through a USB drive.

If you don't know your motherboard details you could do that by running dxdiag.exe by opening the Run dialog box or typing it in Start. If that still doesn't display you your hardware information, transfer a CPUZ setup file onto your system, install, run and find out the details that way.

Then just search for and download the drivers from your motherboard maker's official site (on a different system), and transfer them onto your affected system and run them.

Generally the latest Windows 10 build installers install essential drivers and then update the rest properly during Windows Update, but I've seen them make setting things up weirder on older hardware.

[DragDownJack]

Oh, didn't see those last messages, seems like your issue is resolved, hopefully.