Windows install from HDD to SSD - Delete on HDD

[ValanceAu]

I installed windows on my hard drive by accident, I then cloned it onto my SSD but now I can't delete the data on my HDD and can't get my computer to boot on the SSD.

 

How do I boot from SSD

How do I delete program and windows files from HDD

 

Thanks.

[Milinko01]

Unplug the SSD and any other drives you don't want to mess up load up the windows installer, go to custom install and when the list pops up to select the drive delete all the partitions till the HDD is just unallocated space, cancel out of the install and shut down reconnect the SSD and boot into the BIOS and make sure everything is showing up and set the SSD to the boot device (usually shows up as "windows boot manager") once your in windows hit start and scroll down to "Windows administrative tools" and open "computer management" on the left side you'll see "storage" and in there will be "disk management" click on that and youll find a list of your connected drive and one should have a black bar stating its size and that its unallocated right click on it and select "New simple volume" follow the wizard and bam good as new.

[Jon-Slow]

I assume there was some time between the installation and when you realized you've installed on the wrong drive. Otherwise you could've just redone the installation instead of cloning which would be my prefered option.

 

You can try overriding the boot option from your BIOS. There is always an option in every BIOS that wil launch you into whichever boot drive you want directly without setting the priority if you can't get that right.

 

After that you need to delete the boot partition that you don't want through Disk Management and merge it with the rest of your HDD. After that you'll be good.

[ValanceAu]

10 minutes ago, Milinko01 said:

Unplug the SSD and any other drives you don't want to mess up load up the windows installer, go to custom install and when the list pops up to select the drive delete all the partitions till the HDD is just unallocated space, cancel out of the install and shut down reconnect the SSD and boot into the BIOS and make sure everything is showing up and set the SSD to the boot device (usually shows up as "windows boot manager") once your in windows hit start and scroll down to "Windows administrative tools" and open "computer management" on the left side you'll see "storage" and in there will be "disk management" click on that and youll find a list of your connected drive and one should have a black bar stating its size and that its unallocated right click on it and select "New simple volume" follow the wizard and bam good as new.

How do I get to Windows installer

 

[Milinko01]

from the same media you installed it from, presumably a USB drive.

[ValanceAu]

1 minute ago, Milinko01 said:

from the same media you installed it from, presumably a USB drive.

25 minutes ago, Jon-Slow said:

I assume there was some time between the installation and when you realized you've installed on the wrong drive. Otherwise you could've just redone the installation instead of cloning which would be my prefered option.

 

You can try overriding the boot option from your BIOS. There is always an option in every BIOS that wil launch you into whichever boot drive you want directly without setting the priority if you can't get that right.

 

After that you need to delete the boot partition that you don't want through Disk Management and merge it with the rest of your HDD. After that you'll be good.

How do I delete the boot partition, when I try to delete it says it cannot delete because it contains system files

 

 

[ValanceAu]

32 minutes ago, Jon-Slow said:

I assume there was some time between the installation and when you realized you've installed on the wrong drive. Otherwise you could've just redone the installation instead of cloning which would be my prefered option.

 

You can try overriding the boot option from your BIOS. There is always an option in every BIOS that wil launch you into whichever boot drive you want directly without setting the priority if you can't get that right.

 

After that you need to delete the boot partition that you don't want through Disk Management and merge it with the rest of your HDD. After that you'll be good.

It won't allow me to delete it, it says it's because it holds system files.

 

[Milinko01]

that should just be a warning that you can "ok" or "continue" past make sure your looking at the HDD and not the USB installer, it does in fact contain system files just ones you don't want anymore you generally get 3 partitions with a windows install one is called "RECOVERY' and that where windows stores all its self help recovery tools another ends up being the boot loader stuff (EFI System partition) and is normally ~100mb and the big one is the C drive you see in windows which has the bulk of the storage.

[Jon-Slow]

59 minutes ago, ValanceAu said:

It won't allow me to delete it, it says it's because it holds system files.

 

That's why you need to boot from the SSD windows first.